[etni] Re: the NBA

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Correct me if I'm wrong, Ruth, but I don't think the Native Speakers "are 
doing so badly."  They DID badly on one test, i.e. Moed Aleph Summer 2004, 
and most of those who retook the test in Moed Bet improved their grades 
substantially.     The explanation given by  the Ministry for the improved 
scores was  that pupils did better on Moed Bet because Moed Aleph had 
provided them with the needed practice in doing this type of exam .    Give 
me a break!!   As if teachers hadn't been preparing their pupils way before 
that!     The pupils did better on Moed Bet because Moed Bet was a valid, 
fair test - not easy, but fair, with straightforward questions - and Moed 
Aleph was a bad test.   Bad tests can happen, but to do elaborate 
somersaults around the truth instead of admitting this simple fact is 
dishonest and even unethical, because there are teachers out there whose 
schools  had to pay the price of having the weight of their Magen grades 
minimized.   As a teacher of English Speakers I must say that the grades my 
pupils have been getting this year on the various modular exams are in 
general not erratic,  nothing like the huge discrepancies of 25, 30 points 
reported between last year's Moed Aleph and Moed Bet.   I firmly believe 
that our native speakers should be the yardstick here as to whether a test 
is valid or not; if the best learners of English in the country  are not 
capable of achieving high grades on the Bagrut, there is something wrong 
with the Bagrut  and we are not testing what we are supposed to be testing: 
English language proficiency.    I prefer to wait and see how the pupils do 
on this year's crop of exams before I decide what I think about the new 
Bagrut format.   If again, our English speakers do not do well, then last 
year's Moed Aleph was NOT a fluke and there is definitely something wrong 
about the way we are testing.

Chag Sameach, Maxine Tsvaigrach


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ruth Sheffer" <ruti044@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2005 1:10 PM
Subject: [etni] the NBA


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>
> In reference to Maxine Bennet's posting, Nina and Rivka were not talking
> about alternative assessment but the problems with the unevenness of
> the reading comprehension exam. None of those very valid points was
> addressed in Maxine's letter, and we still have had no satisfactory
> response as to why the Native Speakers are doing so badly or as to why
> veteran teachers suddenly need an answer key in order to know what the
> right answers are. Nobody is saying that everything about the NBA is bad
> ,just that there seem to be a lot of discrepancies , not to mention the
> extra workload that we are saddled with ,if we implement everything as
> we are supposed to.
> Ruth
>
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