Would ranking pupils against each other restore faith in exams?

Bring

test scores to rank students against each other may be the only way to improve public confidence and stop sniping at the rules, says

Mike Baker

Have you noticed that when it comes to most schools people outside the professional world of education that struck implacable belief that exams have become easier and standards have fallen ?

include several statistics that challenge this view, however, reinforced by the media and some politicians, is unwavering. And I fear they are no longer enough for experts too tired to shake your head and pull the misinformation of the public. This division between education and almost everyone is corrosive. Undermine trust and morale in schools

So what to do? An interesting suggestion comes in a new book written by Jerry Jarvis, who ran the largest council of Great Britain and examination authorized signature appears on a million and certificates of GCSE level. Despite the book's title - Tips and Tricks, Elections and stupidity - in it, Jarvis defends the strenuous efforts of the examination system to maintain standards over time

But despite all these efforts and regulatory controls, acknowledges that the public no longer believes that standards are maintained. He said the problem is that the public understands the "rules" in relative and not absolute. They see a "high level" as distinguishing the best from the rest. However, in the world of the review official "standards" are considered absolute, a quality level that remains constant, however, many do.

This is partly because in most other spheres of life which effectively defines "high standards" in relative terms - for example, to bring out the best restaurants, the most elegant hotels , football teams in the world, the fastest athletes. There are, of course, exceptions. We accept that any person who has passed a driving test has reached the "standard", although there are many drivers more on the road 40 or 50 years ago. There are similarities between the driving test and school exams - for example, more people have to drive today, as more people see higher education - but the public does not seem to see that the highest approval ratings could be due to increased motivation and participation of not more than I agree that could result from better teaching.

• The reason is historical: Oy-A standards were originally defined in relative terms, and that's what people are used. Students are assessed against each other, not against an absolute standard. They were classified and categorized accordingly: 10% received an A, next 15% a B, and so on
• Jarvis
• solution is to reintroduce order of importance with the current ratings. Therefore, a student may receive both an A and ranked in the 83% percentile points. It's an interesting idea, but I fear it may add more confusion. Instead, the logic of his argument suggests going test results all the way and purely relative order of importance.

accept it would be retrograde, in some respects. It could be demoralizing for students at the lower end of the scale of achievements under the current system, at least rewarded for what they have shown they know, regardless of their position relative to others.

could also argue that it would submit the school system of the joint review to a single objective, namely the university entrance competitive, despite popular opinion that "everyone" is going to Now the university, it remains a minority activity.

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