Lyudmila's reflections on SLW assessment

It is true that oftentimes lay people critique assessment practices as too demanding, unreal and unjust. Just take a unified state exam (or a standardized state matriculation exam) that has recently (from about 2009) been introduced to graduating High School students throughout the country in order to avoid cheating and corruption. It may have good intentions, but it also brought a lot of criticism from parents and High School students themselves. In addition, the general admission requirements to Russian community colleges include the submission of the results of this unified state exam. ‘Since 2009, EGE is the only form of graduation examinations in schools and the main form of preliminary examinations in universities’ (Wikipedia). A lot of students, parents, and school teachers believe that “the EGE is a poor measure of academic aptitude, and is already having a detrimental effect on learning at schools” (article) There were antiEGE (the name of this exam) movements throughout the country. The main argument is that changing the tests before changing the curriculum is putting the cart before the horse. There is no curriculum for that exam, and teachers really struggle with providing a good preparation for this exam. Also, the questions are believed to be written poorly, and the way the test is composed, which is mainly multiple-choice questions, “discounts imagination, creativity, and other qualities of well- rounded students” (article). Also, “the old Soviet screening system for high-school graduates which was comprised as a mix of school grades, written university entry exams, and oral exams prized as a particularly effective way of identifying talented students” (article). To cut a long story short, an exam on Russian language is also introduced as a multiple-choice test and, according to Hyland, is an indirect assessment. The second and third parts of the exam includes elaborate answers on questions and an essay. The shortcoming of this test is that it is more concerned with accuracy, but not communication. In the past, “every Russian graduate wrote an essay on a literary topic. [In addition], when applying to universities, every applicant wrote additional preliminary exams as set by the institutes of higher education they applied to” (article 2). I can’t say that I know much about this exam but after reading feedback on .org sites , which makes me think the info is credible, I got an impression that the test on Russian language is not quite valid and reliable. As there have been complains that the test does not actually assess what has been taught (validity), and a writing task does not measure consistently the same student on different occasions and the same task across different raters (reliability). Moreover, who are the raters (members of a special exam commission) and why they have the right to decide a student’s life is kept behind the iron door of the officials’ department. Finally, this exam resembles SAT, and I wanted to ask what are the practices of this exam and if you consider this exam as valid and reliable? References: http://www.rferl.org/content/Russias_New_Standardized_Exams_Fail_The_Public_Test/1761799.html http://chalkboard.tol.org/russia-will-the-use-be-useful