Post COVID High School Assessment Crisis?

A first draft… putting this into the world for some feedback…

In the past few weeks, I have had teachers from several junior and senior high schools reach out to me as an Instructional Coach with a plea that sounds like this:

My colleagues and I are just crying together about these students and their lack of test-taking strategies.  We are very frustrated with the grade 12 class.  They do NOT prepare themselves for exams and then they have ZERO test-taking strategies.  

Acutually, this is untrue – as teachers we talk about this a LOT in class but we obviously need a new angle.  Any suggestions? 

A High School Teacher

This is not a new or particularly unusual discussion, so my first reaction was to send some resources, and screencasts demonstrating some strategies to increase engagement when reviewing tests and test-taking. However, the frequency and urgency with which I have been getting similar messages from teachers across my district recently has caused me, a former high school English and Social Studies teacher, to really pause and consider what factors might be at play.

Here are some things that might have shifted recently, and thus, as high school teachers, we need to realize that ‘the way we’ve always done review and test preparation might also need to shift.

1. Previously, by the time a student was in grade 12, they would have had a full high school career of various teachers in various subjects teaching them test-taking skills and strategies.
2. Previously, tests in high school in my district might be worth up to 30 or 40 % for a final exam; pre-COVID our provincial grade 12 final “diploma exams” were worth 30% of a student’s overall mark. (If we go back to 2017, those same diploma exams were worth 50% of the final grade.)
3. Consider that during COVID, those provincial diploma exams were cancelled for several semesters, and districts generally followed suit with similar policies for ALL grade 7-11 final exams as well. When those grade 12 diploma exams were finally reinstated, they were worth 10% of the final grade, and now this semester they are worth 20% of the final grade. There is a significantly different level of concern when an exam is worth 10 or 20 % than if it is worth 30 or 50 %. In some cases, districts and schools are still mandating that a single or final exam cannot be worth more than 20 % of a student’s final mark. (Do we assume that this is because they are still fragile test-takers as a result of COVID?)
4. And then consider that those 20 % diploma exams often have two parts: a multiple choice portion and an essay portion, written on two separate days. So now that multiple-choice final exam is only worth 10% of a student’s overall mark. If I am a student, to what extent can I be convinced that I should invest copious time and energy to learn skills and strategies for a test worth 10 % of my final mark.
5. If you are a student in about grade 9-12 right now, you have missed out on two or more years of previous teachers helping you navigate “test-taking”. So even if you thought that it was important to study for an exam worth 20% of your mark, you probably really do not know how to go about it.
6. Even the youngest, newest teachers wrote high school diploma exams that were worth at least 30%. They likely had in-school final exams worth at least that much or more. Their sense of the “importance” of being able to write a test will still be in line with that of the more seasoned teachers who have worked most of their careers with the constant pressure of diploma exam student performance.

In the end, do we mostly have a disconnect in what is deemed valuable or worthwhile as a time and energy investment? Are today’s high school students apathetic about exams and studying because a) it is extra difficult because they have not had repeated practice and exposure due to COVID exam policies and/or b) the exams are worth such a small percentage of their overall grade that they just decide to save their energy and take their chances?

These are some of the factors that have helped me frame the nature of the challenge. The landscape is different than it was five years ago when high school teachers lamented about students who couldn’t be bothered to study.

But alas, although I’m understanding some elements of the problem, I am no closer to solutions! Nevertheless, here are some thoughts and strategies that I would use to chip away at the issue. (Based on the assumption that although the exams do not carry as much weight as they used to, parental and district performance expectations will remain the same.)

Can we approach post-test review and answer analysis as an activity based on data? I think it is important to be able to produce data to show students the answer statistics on each question, or especially those questions with low success rates. Why were student answers split into the choices that students made? The following ideas are to replace the procedure where the teacher goes through the entire “marked and returned” test or quiz question by question – this is a painful waste of time for most students and there is almost NO learning about the test or testing process achieved as the process is entirely passive.

1. Have students complete multiple choice tests individually at first. (If it is a quiz or practice test with fewer than 15 questions, I like to have students fold their papers in half and number each half with the same numbers. Their individual answers go on one side, then the group answers from the steps below go on the other side. This becomes useful data for the student and/or the teacher) Then with the tests still unmarked, have students work in groups of 2 to 4 to discuss answers.

• Option 1: After discussing a question with groupmates, students do not need to come to consensus and can choose to stick with their original answer or switch. This type of rich debate furthers the learning and the thinking about a question or topic, which is really more important for increasing understanding than simply completing a multiple-choice test. Answers could then be submitted to be scored.
• Option 2: Set a class timer (eg. 3 minutes) to have groupmates come to a consensus about the correct answer. At the end of the timer, the teacher uses a quick digital collection method (like Plickers or a single-question generic Form accessed by a QR code) to gather class answers and display the resulting bar graph. At this point, it is important to have a quick class conversation if there is a “2nd” answer that many groups chose. Continue to the next question with the same group or use a random name/group generator to quickly flip the groups. With this method, you might choose to NOT record student scores but instead use this as a formative process.

2. Have students complete the test together in pairs with a single answer sheet. As each group is done, they bring the test to the teacher to have it marked. The teacher circles any incorrect answers and the pair gets a chance (or two?) to change answers. At this point, you might choose to have them “explain” why the new answer is correct/better before you award replacement marks.

to be continued…