Recently, the Minister of Education in Alberta announced that Diploma Exams for students written in November would be optional due to COVID-19. In the Red Deer Advocate on October 20th, editor Dave Marsden wrote, “Rather than having less testing, if anything, the school system needs more.” His premise, because there may be gaps in the learning of students due to the pandemic, is more testing should be instituted “to identify areas for improvement and provide resources”.
I’ll begin by applauding the Ministry for the decision to make diploma exams optional for the November writing. It would be my humble opinion that the decision should extend to at least January as well, given the ongoing impact of the pandemic on teaching, learning and overall school operations. Depending on where we are in 2021, it might be beneficial to keep these exams optional for the remainder of this school year. But I’m not in favour of eliminating these exams forever! I still believe they are a necessary component of our education system beyond the pandemic.
One of the most contentious issues with either diploma exams or provincial achievement tests is that their intended use is far from their actual use. While these exams should be for the purpose of maintaining standards, improving teacher practice and student learning, they have become an ultimate ranking system of divisions, schools and sometimes individual teachers. While the data provided by these exams should be used and reviewed by systems, schools and teachers, the data alone is insufficient to drive deep learning. Instead the “stress to perform” and “outrank your neighbouring school” always lays just beneath the surface and ready to erupt which typically causes harm, especially to students.
Currently diploma exams make up 30% of a student’s final grade. The previous government made the change from 50% to 30% and for the most part, the benefits have been evident. There was a time however, when a student’s final grade was determined entirely by a government exam…100%. When I graduated from high school in 1979, that pendulum had swung completely to the opposite and the teacher awarded mark was the determining factor for a student’s final grade. I was a good compliant student who graduated from an excellent school in the day. I was taught by some outstanding teachers. But, I’ll guarantee that had I been required to write a diploma exam in a couple of my subjects, I would not have ended up with honours standing. This is not to slight any of my teachers then but rather to point out that a lack of consistent assessment practices or common assessments led to some significant variations in grading. Throughout my education career, I witnessed varied assessment results from strong teachers within individual schools and across systems. There were no checks and balances around assessment and without them teachers tried to meet an imaginary or a constantly changing standard with varied success. That system was unfair to the student, but also highly unfair to the teacher.
High stakes standardized tests in themselves are not the answer, but common assessments are a critical part of the solution. We need to find ways for teachers to work together to create common assessments that maintain standards and demonstrate curriculum competence. And then, they need to be able to come together after the assessment to review and compare the results with a focus on teacher practice and student learning. Professionals should always be seeking to continually improve and this has the greatest potential for teachers to do just that. This is not judgment day from the government or the school division or even the school administration. This is an opportunity for teachers to within a trusting environment be vulnerable about their own practice asking questions like, “Your students did well on this concept. What are some of the strategies you are using to impact that learning?”
Mr. Marsden wants more testing to ensure gaps are identified and supports are then mobilized. I don’t disagree with the concept other than using the term testing. In the education world we call his desire, formative assessment. This analysis of student learning should be ongoing and given the world we live in right now, it is probably even more critical to be highly engaged in this practice. We don’t simply need more tests where some government officials and members of general public can point fingers and publicly criticize. That is not the answer!
Diploma exams need to remain in my opinion and I’d be supportive of dropping their relevance to 25%. And provincial achievement tests, in their current form, do little to improve teacher practice or student learning. The stress we place on students to perform well on tests that really don’t matter is appalling. Common assessments need to be locally developed and perhaps monitored provincially and teachers have to be provided the time to dig deeply into the data and engage in rich conversations on their own practice. This is not the entire answer, but we need to ensure this is the way we are moving forward.
1 Comment
I agree with what you say. And the exams also help school districts teach the curriculum and have accurate teacher assessments happening. With Provincial exams teachers can’t elevate a students mark to gat a higher class average for the teacher or school and this has happened in the past. As well, it helps Alberta students get accepted in universities across the country because they know how accurate the marks are at predicting student success at university. This is shown in Ontario with how universities rank students for acceptance.