Exams tested by Covid-19: An opportunity to rethink standardized senior secondary examinations

Abstract

The global Covid-19 pandemic is testing the responsiveness of school systems. Extensive discourse about disruptions to the standardized examinations students take in their final year of secondary school is symbolic of their high-stakes status worldwide. The interruptions provide an opportune moment to question the efficacy of exams as a measurement of achievement. To explore these issues, this article shares some on-the-ground illustrations from Australian teachers about how high-stakes exams shape their enactment of senior secondary history curriculum. The presence of a discourse of exam alignment , which places a disproportionate emphasis on preparing students for exams, has implications for teachers’ curricular practices and wider equity issues. These issues resonate in other international settings, especially during the pandemic. The severity of the Covid-19 economic downturn means it is more important than ever to investigate the relationship between curricular practices and socio-economic structures, to ensure examinations do not compound educational disadvantage.

Challenges and developments in technology-based assessment: possibilities in science education

“…In this period of time, large-scale international assessments (e.g. OECD PISA 1 and IEA TIMSS 2 ) have become regularly administered by the world's leading test centres, resulting in a huge improvement of data transfer technology and data analysis methods. Two decades ago, paper-based assessments were the most widespread and accepted means of assessment, but due to rapid development, the tools for paper-based assessments represented serious constraints on further improvements.…”

“…They do not provide actionable feedback for learners to aid in improving their learning process. The COVID-19-related interruptions or modifications in high-stakes national assessment provide an opportune moment to re-think the essence of assessment (Cairns, 2020) and the elimination of summative tests 4 .…”

Debates About EdTech in a Time of Pandemics Should Include Youth’s Voices

“…The result I see, and perhaps one profound evidence for the long-term future of learning webs, blended learning, and flipped model classrooms, is that youth are gradually taking charge of their own learning. They are beginning to pursue more of the knowledge, skills, and abilities (Darling-Hammond et al 2019) that matter most to their interests and life goals, as a way of making up for the deficiencies of the current exams-focused approach to traditional curricula (Cairns 2020). Perhaps, this might also explain the growing popularity of EdTech platforms like Coursera, Udemy, and Khan Academy.…”

Do examinations prepare students for higher education? A lesson from the Covid-19 lockdown

“…Following significant protest regarding the detrimental impact of this approach on the outcomes for large numbers of candidates, allocation of grades was ultimately based on Centre Assessed Grades (CAGs). The outcomes of this approach led to a significant elevation in the mean Alevel grades compared with previous years (Robinson and Bunting 2020), which were then used to determine university acceptances. The curricula for A-level (and equivalent) Biological Science courses (Department for Education 2014) include considerable content and subject-specific vocabulary.…”

“…Following final school/college examinations in the summer, students fail to retain much of the absorbed information by the time they arrive at university several months later (Jones et al 2015(Jones et al , 2019. However, students in 2020 did not go through the examination process, prompting questions about the appropriateness, efficacy and value of these methods (Cairns 2020). Students of 2020 had studied their A-level subjects for approximately 18 months before directly entering university.…”