[etni] Fwd: log versus exam
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- Date: Tue, 21 May 2013 10:11:20 +0300
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From: Sharon Tzur <sharontzu5@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: log versus exam
I have a lot to say on the Log versus exam issue.
First, one thing I hate about the Israeli educational system is the
way that the entire system, particularly high school, dances to the
tune of the universities' selection process. High school becomes a
three year race to satisfy their demands. It seems to me that high
school has functions other than helping universities select students.
In this very list, we read of a teacher who wonders if she shouldn't
take students who barely have a chance of passing Module A to a four
point bagrut with a failing grade in order to give them a better
chance of going to university. And what about building a student's
self-esteem? Giving a student who works hard a feeling of success?
Teaching in a way that is relevant to a student's life, etc.
Secondly, I don't know why Israeli teachers are so frightened at the
idea of assessing students. The irgun opposes almost any move to
reduce the number of bagrut exam. In its most recent periodical, one
teacher wrote how terrible it would be if teacher gave the grades
instead of a national test. Teachers would be under pressure to give
high grades. Well, that certainly makes us sound like a bunch of
spineless wimps. No wonder people don't respect us. Why is it that in
the United States, teachers give grades, and school transcripts are a
major factor in acceptance to college, but that thought frightens us
so much in Israel? People claim that acceptance in terms of school
grades would be unfair to students in the periphery, since
universities would not relate to the grades of schools there the same
way they would relate to the grades of more prestigious schools in the
center. To this I would say, first, that as it is, students in the
periphery do more poorly on the bagrut, on the average. Secondly,
there are other ways to see to it that students in the periphery get a
shot at higher education. (quota systems, for example).
Now, back to the log versus exam. One would think that our exams are
truly an objective measure of a student's knowledge. Let's begin with
the fact that the school grade is half of the grade, and we are
encouraged to give some weight to effort as well as to achievement.
Then, we all know that some schools are more honest in giving this
grade than others. Now, the exam itself; despite ministry claims to
the contrary, I think we all know that there is massive cheating in
Bagrut exams. Certainly not all students cheat, and most schools try
to prevent cheating, but I think we all know that many students cheat.
The exams are proctored by people who are not professionals.
Experienced classroom teachers find it difficult to prevent cheating -
just how successfully are the proctors able to do so? Kids are allowed
to go to the bathroom during the exam - no one is checking if there
are books there, or cell phones. Furthermore, in all my years as a
teacher, I have never seen a proctor report a student for copying. How
many times have you glanced into a room (like to see if the radio
broadcast began successfully) and saw the proctor sitting and reading
a newspaper/iphone/the exam itself? True, we catch a lot of cheating
during the marking, but only a small percentage. In a recent article I
read that many bagrut examiners don't report on cheating because
filling out the forms is a lot of work for which the examiner isn't
paid. Also, most of the cheating on exams is based on identical WRONG
answers - you can't really do much about identical correct answers
(unless the wording is unusual). As a bagrut examiner, I can assure
you that we sometimes see manot where we feel there was massive
cheating, but we have no way to prove it. For example, in an exam
where everyone in the room answered all the multiple choice questions
correctly but none of the open-ended questions correctly, we cannot
report on cheating.
Even when students do an honest exam, a one-shot exam is not an
accurate measure of knowledge. The literature exam is a good example.
A student might know All My Sons quite well, but not be able to
identify the one or two quotes given in the exam. Students also
misunderstand questions. Many students lost points because they didn't
know how to answer the bridging task, or because they had
misunderstood the text of the bridging task - not because they didn't
know the literature.
So, let's compare with the log. First of all, in the log, the students
do an exam ON EVERY PIECE. And the local inspector does not just look
at quantity, but quality - the local inspector reads through the exams
to determine that they meet the standards. (I will copy paste the
checklist at the end of this mail). In the exam, students are tested
on only 3 pieces. This also means that teachers could teach only the
long piece and the stories and then wait for the mikud to see which
poems the students have to learn (if any). In other words, they don't
have to teach the whole program.
Of course, teachers doing the exam are SUPPOSED to be doing a log, but
since no one is sampling their logs, I'd venture to say that 90% of
the teachers doing the exam do not do a log as required.
Assuming that a teacher does give an exam and an additional piece of
work to be assessed for each piece, than the log is a good assessment
tool. Assuming that teachers give 3-4 questions on each piece, a
student doing the log will answer 24-32 questions and will do 8
bridging tasks (though not all of the latter will be done as part of
an exam), and will do 8 additional pieces for assessment as opposed to
8 questions and one bridging task of the exam. In fact, the biggest
legitimate complaint of teachers doing the log is that it is so much
work.
My log grades this year ranged from 35 to 97, a far greater range, by
the way, than for G. Even in our native speaker's class, there were
students with grades in the 80s. My headmaster was not happy that a
student got a 35, but unlike a school grade, where you can just add in
21 points to "help" an individual student and give a 56, I couldn't
add even one point. The student had simply not shown up for many
exams, had not done the additional task, and so there was no way for
me to give her a higher grade. Naturally, if a teacher is submitting
grades where an entire class gets 95 and up, than the local inspector
should be suspicious.
The log is a lot of work, but it gives us some freedom to choose
pieces we like and which we think are appropriate for our class.
(Fellow teachers... please do NOT try to curtail our freedom by
requesting that everyone in the country learn the same pieces!!).
Here is the checklist: I've put a few important elements in bold
There is the correct number of texts and genres.
Each unit includes the seven Key Components.
The Checklist for the Evaluation of a Unit is included for each unit.
Each unit has at least one graded Key Component and a Summative Assessment.
There is evidence of applying the HOTS in each unit.
Literary terms are integrated throughout the Log.
The grades for the graded Key Components are appropriate, according to
the rubrics.
Rubrics for the graded component e.g. Post-reading Activity, Bridging
Text and Context and Summative Assessment are included, where
appropriate, to evaluate the tasks.
There are Reflections that include teachers’ comments.
The Summative Assessments are according to the Table of Specifications.
The grade for each unit is calculated according to the guidelines:
Calculation of the Grade of a Unit for the Log.
The form for Calculation of the Final Grade of the literature program
for the Log is included.
The calculation of the final grade of the literature program for
students doing the Log is comprised of the elements indicated in the
Calculation of the Final Grade of the Literature Program for the Log.
The grade for the Log reflects the students' work.
Yours,
Sharon Tzur
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