Examination Standards: How measures and meanings differ around the world - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 178277260X ISBN 13: 9781782772606

Publisher: UCL IOE Press, 2018

Synopsis

An international team of authorities in the field of standard setting discuss what standard setting is and should be. Their accounts of a representative selection of jurisdictions (Chile, England, France, Georgia, Ireland, Queensland, South Africa, Sweden, and the United States) are accompanied by lively critical commentaries from other experts in this domain. Together, the editors challenge the notion that there is a single superior way of thinking about national examinations, and instead encourage educators and policymakers to engage with the multiple perspectives offered here, and to consider carefully the complex issues raised.

About this title

About the Authors

Jo-Anne Baird is Director of the Department of Education at Oxford University and a member of the Oxford University Centre for Educational Assessment (OUCEA).

Tina Isaacs is an Honorary Associate Professor in Educational Assessment at the UCL Institute of Education.

Dennis Opposs is Standards Chair at the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual).

Lena Gray is Director of Research at the Centre for Education Research and Practice at AQA, England’s largest GCSE and A-level exam board.

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CONTENTS: Preface, by Alina von Davier; PART 1: RESEARCHING NATIONAL EXAMINATION STANDARDS: 1. The Standard Setting Project: Assessment paradigms, by Jo-Anne Baird and Dennis Opposs; 2. Researching national examination standards: Our methods, by Lena Gray; 3. Researching national examination standards as an insider, by Lena Gray; 4. What is standard setting? by Dennis Opposs and Kristine Gorgen; PART 2: CASE STUDIES: 5. Standard setting in Chile: The Prueba de Selección Universitaria, by Alejandra Osses and María Leonor Varas (Commentaries: The consequential dimension of validity in the Chilean university entry test, by María Teresa Flórez Petour; Setting standards in the Chilean university entry test, by Francisco Javier Gil Llambías); 6. Standard setting in England: A levels, by Rachel Taylor and Dennis Opposs (Commentaries: Explaining educational standards: The challenge of uncertainty, by Mary Richardson; Ensuring standards in English A levels, by Peter Tymms); 7. Standard setting in France: The baccalauréat, by Roger-François Gauthier; Commentaries (The baccalauréat: From elite selection to mass certification, by Jean-Pierre Jeantheau; Grade comparability and the French baccalauréat, by Sandra Johnson); 8. Standard setting in Georgia: The Unified National Examinations, by Natia Andguladze and Iwa Mindadze; Commentaries (Are low standards the same as no standards? by Steven Bakker; Social needs and standard setting, by Gordon Stobart); 9. Standard setting in Ireland: The Leaving Certificate, by Hugh McManus; Commentaries (Does the Leaving Certificate reward LOT (lower order thinking) rather than HOT (higher order thinking)? by Áine Hyland; The delicate task of standard setting, by Michael O’Leary); 10. Standard setting in Queensland: The Queensland Certificate of Education, by Matthew Campbell; Commentaries (Managing the tension between performance standards and aggregate ranking, by Graham S. Maxwell; The curious case of Queensland and a middle way for senior schooling assessment, by Joshua McGrane); 11. Standard setting in South Africa: The National Senior Certificate, by Emmanuel Sibanda; Commentaries (Ambitious objectives and persistent challenges: National examinations in post-apartheid South Africa, by Sarah Howie; Improving standards or establishing (or developing) performativity regimes? by Anil Kanjee); 12. Standard setting in Sweden: School grades and national tests, by Christina Wikström and Anna Lind Pantzare; Commentaries (Standardization and variability, by Gudrun Erickson; From norm- to criterion-referenced grades in Sweden, by Jan-Eric Gustafsson); 13. Setting standards in the United States: The Advanced Placement programme, by Deanna L. Morgan; Commentaries (Context and change in standards setting, by Eva L. Baker; Filling the aligned instructional system void: AP courses and exams in US high schools, by Betsy Brown Ruzzi); PART 3: DIFFERING MEASURES AND MEANINGS: 14. The meaning of national examination standards, by Jo-Anne Baird; 15. Culture, context and controversy in setting national examination standards, by Tina Isaacs and Kristine Gorgen; 16. Setting standards in national examinations: What we have learnt, by Tina Isaacs; Appendix A. Attendees at the Brasenose College Symposium, 28 to 30 March 2017, Oxford University; Appendix B. Guidelines for the exam board insider researcher, by Lena Gray; Index

Edition details

• Publisher: UCL IOE Press
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 178277260X
• ISBN 13: 9781782772606
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 390
• Editor: Baird Jo-Anne, Isaacs Tina, Opposs Dennis, Gray Lena