Blunder with final tests gives teachers bulk extra work
Teachers, in-house counselors and secondary schools had to go back to work yesterday after the Ministry of Education announced a mistake in the final tests. “I was off yesterday, but went straight to my school and I barely slept on it last night,” says Nicole Durlinger, group 7/8 teacher at the jenaplan school De Kring in Schijndel.
Image: Rijksoverheid.nl
In about 11 percent of the eighthgroup a wrong calculation made during the final tests, as a result of which school recommendations were wrong -often higher-. Minister Arie Slob (ChristenUnie) announced this yesterday. Schools that used Cito's Central Final Test were not affected by the error. It only concerns part of the alternative final tests, such as IEP, Route-8 and Slide-End test. The ministry said that because of this error, primary schools may have to reconsider the school advice, this time based on the correct assessment advice. The error can also lead to an adjustment of the school level in secondary education.
Persuasion
Teacher Durlinger was shocked when she read the news item on Teletext. "I was free, but became very restless and immediately contacted the school to see everything." Her school uses the Route 8 test. “I was convinced of my advice in February. There were, however, three pupils whose parents and pupil wanted higher school advice. With that I had agreed that we will work hard in the coming months. With these children I used the test as a confirmation to see if they might try it one level higher. Now it appears that those results turned out to be too high due to the calculation error. ”
For one student, the teacher now adjusts the advice in response to the error. "The other two students have shown enormous leaps in recent months." The mistake only increases Durlinger's resistance to final tests. “I think you should just start from the professionalism of the teachers. The workload is stinking high, partly because of all the tests and mistakes like that don't help. ”
I think you should just start from the professionalism of the teachers
High
In Friesland, Hilde de Boer of De Treffer primary school in Gorredijk also suffered from the error. Her class also took the Route-8 test. "I already thought that the results were high this year," she says on the phone. "The results were remarkably high for a number of students, but in principle our school advice is leading."
Yesterday, it turned out that the score was not correct for about a third of the 23 students in her class. De Boer has adjusted one advice and it took a lot of work. Her gym class was taken over by a colleague. “Together with the internal supervisor, I then printed and compared scores and printed out letters for students again. We wanted to give it to students the same day. ”
Pressure
Schools that took the Central Final Test had nothing to fear yesterday. “I am very happy that we chose that Cito test,” says school director Bert Schurink of De Meeuwenberg in Driel. “There was considerable pressure, also from parents to use a different test, but we have had good experiences with this one.” Schurink has sent a letter to all parents to reassure them. "This is very sad for all students and colleagues who now have to go back to work."
We tried to find out what we could have missed, but never thought for a moment that the fault lay with the ministry
Peaks
Several schools of the Voila board in Leusden have opted for an alternative test. “I estimate that about five schools will have to review everything,” says director Gerrit-Jan Weiler. “The other schools had the Central Final Test. It was very strange, but last week I had a meeting with internal supervisors and we were still talking about the high test results. We wondered how it was possible that children of whom we had really estimated a lower school advice suddenly peaked so much. We were very surprised about that. We tried to find out what we could have missed, but never thought for a moment that the fault was with the ministry.”
