Spreading final exams is 'monster job'
Name the month 'May' and every grad student will be stressed out. And that also applies to some teachers. The VO council advocates staggered exams. This has advantages, but there are also major objections.
Picture: Type tank
It may be one of the most exciting moments in a school career. That one sweaty gym moment, which starts this month for many students and started in April for VMBO students. In less than a few weeks they have to do everything they can to score the best possible result for the central exam (CE).
“It's actually the upside-down world,” says Paul Rosenmöller, chair of the VO council. “If we now look at how the examination works, we have to conclude that the examination guides the education. While education should actually guide the examination. It shouldn't just be about that one 'end moment', the road to it is just as important. ”
Boiler pressure
The VO council advocates staggered exams. That is to say: make a central exam moment possible earlier in the year, at the same time throughout the country. For example in February, March. “If you can do some of the CEs earlier, then the peak time will not be in May and you will avoid it teaching to the test”, Says Rosenmöller. “And an important point is that you take the pressure off the kettle. There is so much to be done in May, for both students and teachers. It would be quieter if we could spread that out a bit. ”
'If you can do some of the CEs earlier, then the peak moment is not so close to May and you can avoid it teaching to the test'
The idea that you have to do a whole year if you drop to one tenth is also a bit 'outdated', says Rosenmöller. “We would like to see passed courses be retained. And for subjects that students have not passed, if there are more exam moments, they do not have to wait a whole year before they can take them again. That is so demotivating. ”
Flexibility
Pieter Hendrikse is chairman of the Board for Tests and Exams (CvTE), which is responsible for conducting the central exams. Hendrikse also sees several advantages in the 'flexibility' of final exams. Especially because there is then more room for the so-called test correction.
The CvTE has been experimenting with this since 2017, in order to increase the involvement of teachers and to improve the quality of the correction instructions that the first and second corrector use to mark the final exams. In the trial that the CvTE started, a group of teachers in a number of subjects such as Dutch, chemistry and mathematics was allowed to contribute ideas about the correction prescription based on the central exams taken by their students. With success: various adjustments were made to make the final correction prescription better and more practical for all teachers in the Netherlands. “Such a test correction works, but takes time,” says Hendrikse. Time that, according to him, is not now in May.
Rust
Moreover, if you spread the final exams, the workload will decrease, Hendrikse agrees. “All those students have to come in in May no time take all their central exams and then the teachers have to check everything very quickly. There must be correction rounds and consultation about standards. It would give schools peace of mind if all of those subjects were not required in two weeks and teachers would have more time to mark them. ”
Hendrikse argues for school exams to be given a more prominent place in the conclusion of the school career, a conclusion that fits in with the pedagogical and didactic vision. That was originally the aim of the school exams.
Experiment
About six years ago, the Ministry of Education already experimented with early exams, especially at excellent schools. Rob Heijmans, vice principal at the Frits Philips Lyceum in Eindhoven, worked there as a music teacher when his school took part in the experiment. "It was a mixed success."
The school wanted excellent students to take their exams a year earlier, so in May, but then in 5 VWO. In the last year of secondary school, they could focus on, for example, an extra language, or on a further education.
Hassles
But Heijmans mainly remembers the 'hassle' and how hard the students had to work. Because: taking a central exam earlier also meant finishing the school exams earlier. “We had four regular test weeks per school year, these students got eight. It was impossible. ”
The biggest criticism of the idea of spreading final exams is that the school exams would come after the final exam.
Heijmans: “For subjects such as mathematics, economics and physics, the central exam tests almost all knowledge that has been dealt with during school exams. You simply need the school exams as preparation and that is why you cannot turn it around. ” According to Hendrikse of the CvTE, languages are especially suitable for highlighting, because the CE and the school exam test other skills in those subjects.
Languages are particularly suitable for highlighting, because the CE and the school exam test other skills in those subjects
Response
Rosenmöller indicates that the plans to stagger final exams are not yet concrete. "Not at all, even," he says. "We launched the idea, but so far there has been little response from The Hague."
Implementing the change leads to organizational challenges. Testing and closing programs need to be redesigned, and the organization of school exams, curricula and the distribution of exam material may need to be reconsidered. Rosenmöller: “We should determine whether it will indeed only be the language subjects that we can highlight, or other subjects such as mathematics and physics as well. In the latter case, it must be examined whether the school exams and the central examinations can complement each other more instead of following each other in terms of content. Perhaps we should consider whether we examine a certain core of a subject and test the rest through the school exams. ”
Practically too, all kinds of things have to happen in the school if there are indeed several exam moments. You must have the space and the manpower to take the exams at different times of the year.
Crime
Former teacher and vice principal Rob Heijmans states that the elaboration could become 'a crime' for schools. "It seems like an organizational monster job to me." Pieter Hendrikse of the CvTE also indicates this. “You have to want it all together. Moreover, the exam production must be set up differently. ” Should it be the choice of politicians, the CvTE will implement it. “We have to look at how we are going to do that from an organizational point of view,” says Hendrikse. “But first, education and politics have to come along,” Rosenmöller concludes. "In this area, the blades of the mills of education rotate very slowly."
It seems to me like an organizational monstrosity
Freshmen
Ingrid Zuijdam, program director at the Stedelijk College Eindhoven has good experiences with early exams. By law, students are allowed to take their final exams a year or two years earlier, but at the Stedelijk College they are sometimes even allowed to take first-year exams.
The school has been given this opportunity by the ministry after it has been labeled an 'excellent school' for several years in a row and were able to participate in the 'low-regulation schools' pilot.
“In this way we meet our strong students,” says Zuijdam. “We have children who grew up in France, for example. They are then allowed to take their French exams in first class, which gives them more room for other subjects, such as philosophy, Chinese or Russian, for the rest of their school career. ”
Reducing the workload is not the aim of this flexibilisation. Zuijdam: “It is purely to challenge our excellent students more and to offer them more opportunities. That has been going very well for two years now. It is a reward for their effort. They see it that way themselves, so it is very motivating. Our failed exam students are also allowed to take partial exams in this pilot and can thus pass their final exams at their own school and sometimes already start on a further education. "
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