Getting Rid of Exams and Tests in Schools

[Bryan]

That's just another personal attack, so clearly you have nothing of value to add.

.

It's not. It's an accurate examination of your current ability to converse honestly on this subject. You made up something I didn't say, and argued against that.

[jacee]

It's not. It's an accurate examination of your current ability to converse honestly on this subject. You made up something I didn't say, and argued against that.

You didn't actually oppose getting rid of exams?

Bryan said:

If you can't pass the test, all of the time you put in was wasted. Giving people credit for just showing up tells you nothing about how well they know the material, how well they can express the concepts, how well they can solve the problems.

If you want to raise a generation of losers who cannot cope with the real world, taking away tests would be the best way to accomplish that.

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Edited April 7, 2015 by jacee

[Bryan]

You didn't actually oppose getting rid of exams?

Sure I did. I still do. That has not changed.

[Mighty AC]

Jacee is right that, if we are to keep grades, high stakes written examinations, making up a large portion of a final mark, make little sense. Determining a final grade through many smaller, lower weight tests, quizzes, projects, assignments, presentations and portfolios, spread across the term is a far better way to gauge actual student learning. BUT...teaching concepts at an individual student's pace to the point of mastery is far better still.

[August1991]

For better or worse, a "Western Educator" has two roles: teaching and measuring.

May God give the "Western Educator" the wisdom to know the difference.

Edited April 11, 2015 by August1991

[Big Guy]

One of the major reasons for formal exams in the post primary school sector is that it greatly assists in verifying that the curriculum is followed and it forces interaction between teachers of the same subject.

It has been many years since I have been in front of the classroom so I am speaking from that perspective.

At least a month before exams, the subject department head or one of the teachers will create and distribute a draft copy of the exam to all the teachers of that subject (eg. all grade 10 math advanced level teachers). They are given a chance to read and criticize it and then it is discussed at a department meeting where changes are proposed. This gives every teacher an opportunity to comment if the exam reflects the subject matter to be taught and the marks per question reflect the time to cover the material. The final copy is then submitted to the head who checks it again (does it follow the suggested format of an exam as to variety of questioning techniques, length, coverage etc). The head then signs off on the final copy and send it to duplicating for reproducing an appropriate number.

Meanwhile, the author of the exam also creates an answer paper with a suggested marking scheme within each question to maintain consistency in evaluation across the school.

This process helps maintain a consistency in classroom presentation of materials. After the department draft exam meeting, the teacher has enough classroom time to cover those materials which may not have been given enough coverage during the semester.

That is why the brighter students continue to attend classes up to and including the last day. The really smart ones call a meeting with representatives from each class of the same subject and compare which "review" materials have been presented in the last week.

I have been in a situation where I had to force a change in a school exam procedure. The school was producing results that were far above expected averages. I found that they were recycling the same exams on a three year rotation. Their excuse was that they could account for every extra copy of every exam so a copy could not be circulated. It had not taken the students very long to figure out their process and track down students from three years back who had kept their already marked exams.

Exams are as important to schools as they are for the students.

Edited April 11, 2015 by Big Guy

[jacee]

"verifying that the curriculum is followed and it forces interaction between teachers of the same subject."

I agree that these are valuable goals. However they can be addressed in better ways than a final exam. Standard assignments and tests can be administered throughout courses for the same purpose, rather than a one time all or nothing exam.

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[Big Guy]

Standard assignments may be effective depending on how much time in the curriculum you give for class preparation. I believe that the difficulty with "standard" assignments is the copying (sharing) of work by students, the amount of time it takes to properly evaluate the assignment and the maintaining the same standard of evaluation through the school. I'll use the example of a grade 10 General level Geography course. An average sized secondary school might have 8 of those classes spread throughout the day over 6 periods.

At least 4 teachers would be teaching that course in the same semester. They would have to agree to some kind of marking scheme for the assignments or take turns evaluating the assignments from all classes. The application of any standard tests during the school day would mean that the first class would receive the test in period one and the last class during the last period, 4 to 5 hours later.

By the noon of that day, most students in the afternoon would know the questions and answers by the time they sat down to write that test.

As to standardized assignments, I know when I attended University many years ago, I was a member of a fraternity. The frat had a collection of hundreds of already evaluated assignments of previous years from previous frat brothers. It became a joke that you were given a choice if you wanted an A, A- or a B+ assignment. I understand that with the Internet, the practice has now moved into the Secondary School level.

As to final exams, my experience as a student was departmental exams on the grade 13 level which counted for 100% of the final mark in the late 1950's and early 1960's. These were created by the Ministry of Education and given to all students in Ontario. These were "blind marked" off site by objective teachers specially paid for that work. After I was out of High School, there was provision for some term mark and eventually the whole concept lost favor and was eliminated.

I do not disagree with jacee. If there was one good answer, we would have applied it many, many years ago instead of rediscovering "new and better" answers with every year and every new election of school trustees.

[Mighty AC]

I do not disagree with jacee. If there was one good answer, we would have applied it many, many years ago instead of rediscovering "new and better" answers with every year and every new election of school trustees.

High stakes testing makes little sense in terms of evaluation, but it is the easiest method to administer, hence the ongoing use. Over the past 20 years we have greatly advanced our understanding of the human brain and how we learn, remember and access information. It just makes sense that the way we teach should change along with that knowledge.

We tend to teach the way we were taught thus change is slow. Most teachers still place too much emphasis on fact regurgitation during evaluation and still simply move on to the next topic after testing, regardless of the outcome. The feed and regurgitate model should be replaced with something like access, evaluate, analyse and apply. Testing should be frequent, varied in form and focused on understanding not simple recall. It should also revisit some of the same content giving students a chance to learn from their mistakes. The resulting evaluation would provide a clearer picture of a student's actual performance.

The logical next step from a proper remediation model would be to then teach each required concept to the point of mastery before allowing students to move on, thus making grades meaningless and testing only useful for diagnosis.

[August1991]

One of the major reasons for formal exams in the post primary school sector is that it greatly assists in verifying that the curriculum is followed and it forces interaction between teachers of the same subject.

Exams verify. But do they teach?

We, in the West, have alot of knowledge to pass on to each future generation (a mixed bag of children, often with medieval parents.) We are surrounded by many poor kids; and we have to teach them calculus.

So, if exams encourage better learning, I'm all in favour.

Edited April 16, 2015 by August1991

[Big Guy]

The other problem is just what do examinations reveal? An experienced teacher can set an examination which will generate a 10 or 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 or 70 percent failure rate.

I believe that teachers tend to work backwards. For example - Let us assume that the expected failure rate for a grade 10, general math exam is expected to be in the 40% range and class average of 57%. If the failure rate is 70% or 10% and the class average 40% or 70% then the exam raises red flags and the department head better be prepared to account for it. It is not unheard of that a department head sits down with a particular teacher and they agree to boost all class marks by 10%.

While the bell curve is not a directive it is always there in the background.