It really is that bad: educational standards in UK
It really is that bad
After marking GCSE exam papers for the past two weeks, Tom Smith says standards are not only dropping, but they are unbelievably low
"It's that time of year again when British newspapers will be reporting on the now annual increase in the number of school pupils getting higher grades for their GCSE and A-level exams. Yet again, education pundits, employers and parents will be asking themselves whether or not this means students are getting better at exams or standards are dropping.
"... after marking GSCE exam scripts for a major UK examining board for the past two weeks, I can honestly say that not only are standards dropping, but also they are unbelievably low ...
"The handwriting, most of the time, resembled that of a five-year-old toddler or a drunk (grotesquely simple or an illegible scrawl). A lack of basic punctuation, such as full stops, commas, capital letters etc, was commonplace. There were countless inarticulate, immature sentences, which did not make any sense to the reader ...
"Inarticulate or just inappropriate answers (eg 'I don't no [sic], I don't no, I don't know', 'only the smarties no the answer to that' ... if you didn't laugh it would have been far too depressing. Every now and again we'd get a decently written, reasonably intelligent answer, which felt like a welcome breath of fresh air amongst the dross. Still, there was a spoken about fear among the exam markers that these responses might be subconsciously marked higher than they should, only because, in comparison with the majority of exam scripts, they appeared much better than they in fact were.
"However, it was not just the very poor knowledge and written skills of the students that were at fault. After all, one would think that such poor responses would be marked accordingly low. Yet, the guidance given in the marking scheme meant that people with very poor knowledge and written skills were able to get reasonable, if not good, marks ..."
Education Guardian with thanx to Nora from extra!extra
After marking GCSE exam papers for the past two weeks, Tom Smith says standards are not only dropping, but they are unbelievably low
"It's that time of year again when British newspapers will be reporting on the now annual increase in the number of school pupils getting higher grades for their GCSE and A-level exams. Yet again, education pundits, employers and parents will be asking themselves whether or not this means students are getting better at exams or standards are dropping.
"... after marking GSCE exam scripts for a major UK examining board for the past two weeks, I can honestly say that not only are standards dropping, but also they are unbelievably low ...
"The handwriting, most of the time, resembled that of a five-year-old toddler or a drunk (grotesquely simple or an illegible scrawl). A lack of basic punctuation, such as full stops, commas, capital letters etc, was commonplace. There were countless inarticulate, immature sentences, which did not make any sense to the reader ...
"Inarticulate or just inappropriate answers (eg 'I don't no [sic], I don't no, I don't know', 'only the smarties no the answer to that' ... if you didn't laugh it would have been far too depressing. Every now and again we'd get a decently written, reasonably intelligent answer, which felt like a welcome breath of fresh air amongst the dross. Still, there was a spoken about fear among the exam markers that these responses might be subconsciously marked higher than they should, only because, in comparison with the majority of exam scripts, they appeared much better than they in fact were.
"However, it was not just the very poor knowledge and written skills of the students that were at fault. After all, one would think that such poor responses would be marked accordingly low. Yet, the guidance given in the marking scheme meant that people with very poor knowledge and written skills were able to get reasonable, if not good, marks ..."
Education Guardian with thanx to Nora from extra!extra
Pip Wilson posted item above at 10:25 PM | Permalink
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