A hundred Catalan schools and institutes were able to download the statements of the basic skills tests to assess the levels of mathematics, science and languages before the day of the exam. These exams, which all 6th grade and 4th grade ESO students pass, do not count towards the grade. They serve to diagnose the educational system and the level of the school, although families receive their child's result for information purposes.
These schools, 95 in total, took the exams this week, on a later date than the one ordered by the Superior Evaluation Council, on April 16 and 17. The request to delay the tests is common, as the days of the celebration may coincide with school trips, private events or local holidays. In this case, the managements justify the need to postpone them and the students of that center do them days later. The results do not count in the overall calculation of the educational system.
The difference between what happened this year compared to previous courses is that the tests could be seen before this second round of exams, through photos on social networks and because they were uploaded to the website of one of the territorial services of Education, as reported by El País on Friday.
The teachers took the hanging exam model to train the students in the mechanics of the tests. Specifically, they found in the repository exams for various subjects, such as mathematics, English and French. That's why it was a huge surprise for them to discover, when they opened the final envelopes, that they were the same.
The circumstance is that the group of affected schools is larger this year than in previous years, because the council changed the date of the 4th year of ESO at the beginning of this same year. They were supposed to be held in February and were moved to April. Then, it was justified, we wanted to avoid too many external evaluations matching, since in addition to the basic skills, the centers have been examined from the diagnostic tests of the Education law (Lomloe), which have started in apply this year.
Education sources explained to this newspaper yesterday that late tests do not count in the overall data for Catalonia. They pass them so that the center can monitor the students. "It is not new, it happens every year, the important thing is that it has no impact on the statistical value", they insisted.
In this year's assessments, the open-ended questions in mathematics and science in 6th grade have also been deleted. This type of question requires the student to provide a justification for the answer, which usually determines their level. Educación explains that the closed answers "allow for faster correction with very little loss of value or information", unlike written expression tests, in which they remain. Education has prioritized speed. "The centers need and ask us for the reports in time to be able to make decisions for the following year".
4th grade and 2nd grade ESO students have also been examined in compliance with Lomloe regulations. These are tests prepared by the Government that do not count towards a grade. This year he was surprised by a statement: "Why can't we see the stars during the day?". A child corrected the question: "Why can we only see one star when it's daytime?", and answered: "The sun makes us unable to see more stars." The Council sent a note to the school. “Congratulate this child on his punctuality! He is absolutely right. We take note of it".
This institution has been in the spotlight these months, after in December it attributed the fall in the PISA report to a biased sample. The Government rectified it immediately, dismissed the president of the council weeks later and announced the creation of the Assessment and Prospecting Agency. The latter has been paralyzed due to lack of budget.
