Time for review of ASTI's policy on State-certified assessment?

political analyst

Does the cancellation of the 2020 Junior and Leaving Cert exams mean that the ASTI should review its policy of opposition to State-certified assessment of pupils by their teachers?

I believe it does because, although there have been problems with the calculation of grades this year, the proverbial sky didn't fall. Perhaps Ruairí Quinn had a point but didn't go about it in the right way.

History Queen

I'm TUI rather than ASTI but I'm vehemently opposed to certifying students. I hated the process this year and hope to never have to repeat it. It goes against everything I believe is my role as a teacher. The ranking of students was the worst part for me.

All of what I said above aside, a good enough reason not to enter in to that type of crap again is the fact that the department cannot be trusted. We were told students wouldn't see their rankings- they did. As well as not being trustworthy they are incompetent and treat teachers, snas and school staff with utter contempt so any attempt by them now to bring in a process teachers are wary of (to say the least) will, I imagine, be met by stiff opposition.

Also, Ruairi Quinn... don't get me started

Edit: short answer: no

RealJohn

This year’s debacle just underlines why we shouldn’t be marking our own students for certification. The “sky didn’t fall” because it’s really hard to tell who’s lost out and who’s been massively overestimated, as it all evens out overall and most people will still get offered something like the course they want, but you can be guaranteed that thousands of students have got the wrong grades. If that’s okay, then there’s no point in giving them marks at all.

dory

The atmosphere has completely changed in my 6th year class. Every small test is a possible LC exam (could count for a predicted grade), students are getting upset, freaking about xmas test. People are arguing that one class is having a harder test than another. Students are questioning every grade they're given. A lot are staying home on days of class tests, knowing we allow them take a test at home , and get 100% at home.

In short.....no.

solerina

In my opinion it strengthens the ASTI position and now that I have done it once I hope to never have to do it again !!

gaiscioch

While I'd be in favour of spreading the LC assessment over two years rather than deciding kids' futures in a single big exam at the end of 6th year - it's staggering this has never been done - there's absolutely nothing to be gained from teachers correcting those assessments of their own students.

So much obvious potential for unfairness and bias. Too much at stake at LC. Keep them separate. Even the teacher-haters should see that external assessment can also help "expose" teachers whose students recurrently fail to match the results of their peers.

mirrorwall14

gaiscioch wrote: »

While I'd be in favour of spreading the LC assessment over two years rather than deciding kids' futures in a single big exam at the end of 6th year - it's staggering this has never been done

It hasn’t been done because it would cost them more. They push the ‘continuous assessment’ because it’s cost efficient. I hate it

Treppen

dory wrote: »

The atmosphere has completely changed in my 6th year class. Every small test is a possible LC exam (could count for a predicted grade), students are getting upset, freaking about xmas test. People are arguing that one class is having a harder test than another. Students are questioning every grade they're given. A lot are staying home on days of class tests, knowing we allow them take a test at home , and get 100% at home.

In short.....no.

Ha I could have wrote the same post.

Students absolutely know how to game the system. Do test at home and bring up the average grade.
Question every single grade awarded by teacher, then get parent to query it after again and demand the student moves to a better class.

Treppen

mirrorwall14 wrote: »

It hasn’t been done because it would cost them more. They push the ‘continuous assessment’ because it’s cost efficient. I hate it

Because most of the school events this year are gone it's masking the time sinkhole that the CBA s are.
During CBA weeks you really have to box clever and incorporate as much regular curriculum as possible as it can turn in to a waste of a week for exam prep.

political analyst

In the early days of the pandemic, anyone who suggested the cancellation of Junior and Leaving Cert exams would have been laughed at. However, it has been done - and it's much more dramatic than what education ministers have considered in the past 3 decades. Significant changes might have taken place if Gemma Hussey's plan to reform exams hadn't been shot down by the ASTI, which is perceived as being a proverbial dinosaur.