Grading in Competence-Based Qualifications--Is It Desirable and How Might It Affect Validity?

The UK educational assessment landscape is changing, characterised by attempts to create more flexible pathways through learning. This has led to attempts to formalise the comparative relationships between different general and vocational qualifications. The National Qualifications Framework (NQF), the Framework for Achievement and the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland all seek to explore the potential for comparing the value of different qualifications. These initiatives mirror other international trends, such as the implementation of the Australian Qualifications Framework. Grading is a potential enabling tool for comparing different qualifications. This is visible in the way that the NQF uses General Certificate of Secondary Education grades C and D to discriminate between Levels 2 and 3 of the framework. This article focuses on the challenges posed for competency-based qualifications in the light of such national and international moves towards developing unified qualifications frameworks. This is important given the strong traditional relationship between competency-based qualifications and binary (pass/fail or competent/not yet competent) reporting and its historically ambivalent relationship with grading techniques. The article also discusses some of the particular issues that are relevant when competency-based assessments are graded.