Secondary School Examinations

Assessment for Learning around the World What Would it Mean to Be Internationally Competitive?

“…15 Regional education officials and schools provide time for teachers to calibrate their grading practices to minimize variation across the schools and across the region. 16 Toward the end of their upper secondary schooling, Swedish students receive a final grade or "learning certificate" in each area that acts as a compilation of all of these sources of evidence, including projects completed by the student as well as grades awarded for courses.…”

Elastic numbers: national examinations data as a technology of government

“…This trend is linked to the rise and spread of international and regional assessment of learning outcomes, which similarly rely on standardized test items to benchmark education systems against each other in the name of identifying best practices, building policy evidence and enhancing progress (Kamens and McNeely 2010). Wherein centralized examination systems previously served the sole purpose of selecting students for further education, they are now being applied for a considerably wider range of political tasks, including holding educators, schools and administrations accountable for the outcomes of educational processes (Eckstein and Noah 1993 as quoted in Kamens and McNeely 2010, 8-9;Wiliam 2010). Accountability testing (Wiliam 2010) is perceived as an efficient means to combat ineffectiveness and encourage development by means of comparison and collective shaming.…”

Large-scale assessment systems: Design principles drawn from international comparisons1

“…Eckstein and Noah (1993) reviewed the experiences of students in the final year of upper secondary education in China, England and Wales, France, Germany, Japan, Sweden, the Soviet Union, and the United States, looking at the details of the assessments used, and the wider policy issues such as success rates and the degree of centralization. Britton and Raizen (1996) looked in greater detail at the assessments used in science and mathematics, and in particular at the coverage of different topics.…”