There are a lot of criticism towards High-Stakes Testing (HST) (and I am usually the one criticizing it). Luckily I did not have a lot of experience in HST. It is quite a widely used assessment in America and South Korea and talking to a lot of friends from these places, I can see how it can negatively effect students, teachers and schools. So, in this blog I will look more closely to HST and how it was/ are used in the 2 countries I had the pleasure of staying in: South Africa (my home) and South Korea (my current home-away-from-home).
What is High Stakes Testing (HST)?
A high-stakes test is any test used to make important decisions about students, educators, schools, or districts, most commonly for the purpose of accountability—i.e., the attempt by federal, state, or local government agencies and school administrators to ensure that students are enrolled in effective schools and being taught by effective teachers. In general, “high stakes” means that test scores are used to determine punishments (such as sanctions, penalties, funding reductions, negative publicity), accolades (awards, public celebration, positive publicity), advancement (grade promotion or graduation for students), or compensation (salary increases or bonuses for administrators and teachers). (High-stakes Test 2014).
HST in South Korea
I have been working as a teacher (ESL at a hagwon and Preschool at an International Kindergarten) for almost 4 years in Geoje, South Korea, and my first thought of the education system in Korea was empathy. I worked at a hagwon (private English academy) and had kids come for extra English lessons from 2:30-7:30pm. When I asked them what they will do after class, everyone's answers were related to more academies (most of them don't return home until 11pm and then they still have to do homework). So, it is not surprising that the suicide rate among teenagers (ages 10-19) are growing each year. To get a better understanding of the normal (education day) for Korean kids, watch the following video:
Academic expectations from teachers, schools and parents are extremely high in South Korea. In the OECD (2014:22) report parents' expectations are divided into 2 aspects: 1) Parents expect the child to work as managers or professionals at age 30 and 2) Parents expects child to complete a university degree. The latter is very high compared to other countries while the first is quite leveled with other countries.
From a young age, students are working towards getting into the 3 top, prestigious universities in South Korea, a.k.a SKY: Seoul National, Korea and Yonsei. Acceptance to one of the SKY universities will determine social status for most of their lives and will secure a highly-paid job in one of the chaebols (family-owned business conglomerates) (Calonge, David S, 2015). To get into these universities, you have to get a certain score on the 8 hour CSAT (College Scholastic Ability Test). Due to this idea and pressure on students to achieve this status from all 3 entities (teachers, schools and parents) and also the competitiveness between students, it is not surprising that Korean education is a stressful one.
Students begin preparing for the CSAT in elementary school; they take several extra classes after school to learn subjects like Hanja (chinese characters), math, English etc. Lee Myung-bak’s administration (the former president of South Korea) implemented a policy in which 70% of the questions on this test are from lectures on EBS, an educational channel. As a result, high-school curriculum has been replaced with EBS lectures and EBS textbooks. The teachers have minimized their instruction of the regular curriculum, and are instead “teaching to the test” (The Korea Herald 2014).
HST in South Africa
To understand the reasons and implications of HST on students and teachers in South Africa, you need to know a bit more about the educational context and history thereof. For a previous Module for the Teach-Now Program, I made a video showing just this. Have a look:
According to a study made by Sarah Howie (2012), South Africa is quite new to HST. It can be traced back to the arrival of a new leader in 1994, Nelson Mandela, and with this new focus against apartheid, came a new educational system; one with equal rights to education. Systemic assessments (a.k.a National Assessments) were developed for Grades 3, 6 and 9 in language, mathematics and science. These tests aimed to measure the effectiveness of the education system and "provides and implements a national framework for the evaluation of the education system as well as to develop benchmarks from which performance can be interpreted".
I made contact with my teacher mentor in South Africa, through email (as I will go to South Africa in 1 month!) and asked her about HST at her school. They previously did the ANA (Annual National Assessment) which was implemented since 2011 and focused on "providing system-wide information on learner performance for both formative and summative purposes" (Graven & Venkat 2014). They stopped these tests due to a lack of reflection on students' real performance. Teachers were too focused on teaching to the test that it took the importance of student learning away. Teachers were also caught giving students the answers just so they can have high scores (especially in poorer areas).
According to a study by Graven & Venkat (2014), the biggest concern regarding the poor performance of standardized tests or HST's (like the ANA's and even the National Senior Certificate Exam at the end of Grade 12) are the language in which they are assessed. South Africa has 11 official languages and since the end of Apartheid in 1994, the new education law states that everyone has the right to education in their home language. Although an excellent idea, it was a huge project that would take a lot of years and effort to implement. Internationally, a lot of organizations helped with projects like to provide literature in indigenous languages (isiXhosa, isiZulu etc.). Nevertheless, projects like these have not changed the education problem in South Africa yet. Standardized tests are given in English or Afrikaans (in very few cases, isiXhosa). For most students, this would be their second or third language. Upon reflection, teachers stressed this concern in that reading was a big part of the tests (especially in math for problem solving) and the language used in the tests were too difficult and new to the students.
Also regarding the ANA's the time it took for younger students to take the test affected their scores. One teacher explained that the 3rd graders got so agitated and could not sit still for that long period of time. The anxiety connected to taking these tests were also a contributing factor to poor performance. Here are a few comments from teachers:
Anxiety was a big factor. Children were nervous. Learners’ behavior was different as when writing internal tests/exams. I did not like the fact that we did not facilitate our own classes. Children were confused.
Especially foundation phase learners. Foundation phase learners need their own educators,. I neglected my own assessment for third term…Learners had ‘exam fear’! Poor learners!
We were placed in classes we did not teach. (For example I went to Grade 4). A problem with this is some learners become nervous with a new teacher in their class. (Gravin & Venkat 2014).
Currently at my mentor's school, they only use the systemic tests for Grades 3, 6 and 9. These tests are written during school time and assessors (outside the school) are appointed by the WCED (Western Cape Education Department). At their school the results are used to determine problem areas and to see where dysfunctions might be. The school's approach to these tests are much more student centered and focused on learning than just getting a good score. However, not all schools have this approach. At some schools, teachers are still only focused on teaching only to the test and seems to move away from a student centered approach.
Another HST students take is the National Senior Certificate Exam in Grade 12 (that big test at the end of school that gives you university clearance or not). Unfortunately I was in a year group reporters called the proefkonyne (guinea pigs). Our curriculum was renewed and molded so many times. I especially remember grade 9 where we wrote standardized tests but did not even cover most of that work in class. I can't even tell you what I did that year...it's all a blur. In 2010 it was renewed again...
In 2008, 554 664 Grade 12 students wrote the first National Senior Certificate examination based on the new curriculum that had been introduced in Grade 10 in 2006 and therefore the class of 2010 is the third cohort that have written this examination with the results due in January 2011 with an increase of 10.4% enrolled for examinations (642 154 pupils) compared to 2009 (DoE, 2010). When the pass rate of 62% was announced for the 2008 examinations there was widespread criticism (Reyneke, Meyer and Nel, 2010, p.277). In 2009, the pass rate was 60.7%, the lowest in 10 years but based on a different and new curriculum and the examinations that were intended to uphold standards and require increased cognitive demands. (Howie 2012).The reasons given for the poor performance was the following:
lack of resources, lack of student discipline, lack of student commitment, lack of educator discipline, commitment and morale, ineffective policies at school level: weak organisational structures and undeveloped managerial skills, teacher union disturbances and problems in implementing collective agreements, problems in implementing government policies, poor organisational structures and inadequate parental involvement. (Howie 2012).
HST: good or bad?
Personally, I am not a big fan of high-stakes testing due to it having such a negative effect on students and schools, especially in South Africa. However, I can see that it can be beneficial in the following sense:
- It can help teachers create a specific learning plan for each student.
- Test results are almost always publicly available.
- High stakes testing improves a child’s test-taking abilities.
- It emphasizes specific subjects that are universally needed.
In regards to the effect tests can have on students, for me, it really depends on how HST is implemented. If a school/district can take a student centered approach and its main focus is still to provide the student with the best learning possible, while assessing with HST, I say: go ahead. If it is going to be about the scores and how high schools can get them (no matter the method used to do this) and taking the learning experience away from the student...just walk away.
References
Calonge, David S. (March, 2015). South Korean
education ranks high, but it’s the kids who pay. In The Conversation.
Retrieved on November 10, 2016, from http://theconversation.com/south-korean-education-ranks-high-but-its-the-kids-who-pay-34430
Graven, Mellony & Venkat, Hamsa. (2014). Primary
Teachers' Experiences Relating to the Administration Processes of High-stakes
Testing: The Case of Mathematics Annual National Assessments, African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science
and Technology Education. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10288457.2014.965406
OECD. (Feb, 2014). PISA 2012 Results: What Students
Know and Can Do: Student Performance In Mathematics, Reading and Science Volume
1. Retrieved on November 9, 2016, from https://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results-volume-I.pdf
The Korea Herald
(2014). College Entrance Exam at Crossroads. Retrieved from http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20141204000749
High-stakes Test (2014,
August 26). In S. Abbott (Ed.), The glossary of education reform. Retrieved
from http://edglossary.org/hidden-curriculum
Howie, Sarah J. (2012). High Stakes Testing in South
Africa: friend or foe? Pretoria: Centre for Evaluation and Assessment.
Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0969594X.2011.613369?journalCode=caie20
