The following article appeared in the June 23rd Edmonton Journal.
'I completely froze' during the final
Changes urged to eliminate stress during high school diploma exams
By Sarah O'Donnell, The Edmonton Journal; Sodonnell@thejournal.canwest.comJune 23, 2009
Photine Karayiannis did everything she was supposed to do to prepare for her Grade 12 math exam.
The M. E. LaZerte High School student diligently worked to master the concepts during the semester and studied hard for the final.
She walked into the January exam with a mark of 76 per cent. But when she sat down in LaZerte's gym to write the Math 30 diploma exam, something went awry.
"I completely froze," Karayiannis said. "I knew how to do everything. My brain wouldn't function properly."
Now in the midst of another round of diploma exams that run from June 12 to June 27, Karayiannis is one of many students who would love to see the province change the value it places on the mandatory diploma exams.
The final evaluations cover nine subjects that range from chemistry to English, and count for half of a student's final mark. Assignments, projects and tests marked by classroom teachers throughout the term make up the other half.
A group of 200 students invited to a recent conference with Education Minister Dave Hancock identified testing and evaluations as a top concern, urging the province to make no test worth more than 30 per cent of a student's final grade.
Sandy Xu, a Grade 9 student at Vernon Barford Junior High School and newly appointed member of Hancock's student advisory council, said she was shocked to learn that her Grade 12 marks could hinge so heavily on one final. Students made it clear at the conference that needs to change, the 15-year-old said.
"I don't think it's great for the curriculum because students should be able to show what they've done throughout the year, not just on one day," said Xu, who plans to attend Old Scona High School in September.
Grade 12 diploma exams have not always been worth half a student's final grade.
For most of Alberta's history, the diploma exam counted for 100 per cent of a Grade 12 student's mark -- a nightmarish thought for any modern student with test anxiety.
Then in 1970, the pendulum swung entirely the other way and the province eliminated a standard final altogether, allowing teacher assessments to determine 100 per cent of the grade, said Alberta Education spokesman Greg Kuzniuk. But in 1983, after a three-year ministerial review that identified the need for a more balanced approach to grading, diploma exams returned.
"With 50 per cent of the teacher's mark and 50 per cent of a common standard to balance the teacher's mark, it made it a very level playing field for students trying to get into post-secondary education," Kuzniuk said.
Grade 12 students still work under that system 26 years later.
Nicole Carlin, who is graduating this from LaZerte this year, said the heavy weight of finals is stressful.
The 18-year-old is writing five diploma exams this month on top of the 18 International Baccalaureate exams she had to take in May.
"There are some people who do test well, but for most people the stress of it doesn't work," Carlin said.
"You could just be having a bad day or you're sick or you have extreme test anxiety," said Karayiannis, who ended up with a Pure Math 30 grade of 65 per cent after barely passing the final.
While many students would prefer to write finals worth 30 per cent of their grade or less, M. E. LaZerte English teacher and International Baccalaureate co-ordinator Tennille Stadnick, said some of her students don't object to the current system.
"Some of them realize it's OK to have an exam worth 50 per cent because that's what it is like in university," Stadnick said.
For now, students taking Grade 12 courses are stuck with the weighty finals. Kuzniuk said there are no immediate plans to revisit the issue.
That could change, however, as the ongoing review of grade-school education examines the comments from parents, students and educators about what school should look like in the future.
So what do you think? What emphasis should be placed on diploma examinations? What are the impacts on students, teachers and universities?
Leave your comments, or join the discussion board here.
written by Joe Bower, June 24, 2009
"A mark or grade is an inadequate report of an inaccurate judgement by a biased and variable judge of the extent to which a student has attained an indefinite amounts of material." "The best teachers are those who don't need to give tests because they already know what their kids do or don't understand." For a deeper more authentic understanding of grading, assessment, teaching, learning, and testing, please read any number of Alfie Kohn's books including The Schools Our Children Deserve, The Homework Myth, Punished by Rewards, and Unconditional Parenting. Also, visit his website for many other well written and well researched articles at www.alfiekohn.org
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For the most part, the responses to this article on the Edmonton Journal's website have been more than dissapointing. They reek of the "better get used to it", or "it was good enough for me, so it's good enough for you" archaic view on education. You know we've got serious problems when the students who were ,and still are, victims of an education system that has been built on accountability pillars that are more concerned with ranking and sorting children come out and defend the very system that failed to truly support their learning. The perpetual machine continues to.... perpetuate itself. :(
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