10.5.3 What we have learned

10.5.3 What we have learned

Teachers’ experience of junior cycle assessment processes supported the operation of the estimation and alignment processes in the calculated grades and accredited grades systems

While the estimation of marks by teachers and their participation in alignment meetings for the purposes of Leaving Certificate were unprecedented, they built on processes in which teachers had engaged during the implementation of junior cycle reform. Teachers’ oversight and assessment of classroom-based assessments (CBAs) and their participation in the moderation process that takes place at subject learning and assessment review meetings (SLARs) during Junior Cycle have already been referred to in Chapter 5. These processes were not dissimilar to the generation of estimated marks based on schools’ overall judgement of students’ learning, and the alignment (moderation) process at school level for calculated grades and accredited grades. It could be argued that, without that junior cycle experience to draw upon and the professional development that had been provided to teachers through the Junior Cycle for Teachers (JCT) support service since 2013, the implementation of calculated grades and accredited grades would have been even more challenging. The operation of estimation and alignment processes at school level was not perfect, but its successful completion may be one further indication that the assessment practices at Junior Cycle have begun to become embedded.

Calculated grades and accredited grades exposed vulnerabilities in our existing approaches to assessment at Senior Cycle

It has to be observed that the pandemic exposed the degree to which assessment at Senior Cycle in Ireland was extremely vulnerable to external disruption, because of its high degree of reliance on an end-of-cycle examination. In the technical language of assessment, Ireland’s Leaving Certificate examinations are not highly distributed.160 While the Leaving Certificate shares this reliance on end-of-cycle examinations with other systems that also had their origins in 19th century British examination systems (such as the current examinations systems in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England), many other European systems were able to rely entirely on already well-developed systems of continuous, school-based teacher assessments when the running of conventional examinations in summer 2020 proved impossible.

In Ireland, the calculated grades and accredited grades systems achieved their purpose. However, the experience highlighted the emphasis placed on the final examinations in Ireland and illustrated that further use of non-examination forms of assessment, in addition to examinations, might allow for a broader-based judgement of student learning across a wider range of competences. In addition, the experience brought into sharp relief the stress for students that arises as a result of reliance on terminal examinations.

It must also be noted that while teachers participated willingly and professionally in the estimation and alignment processes, the national standardisation process also demonstrated the challenge that arises when the system endeavours to use school-based assessment on an extensive scale for a high-stakes qualification, such as the Leaving Certificate. It was clear that, in many cases, schools’ estimates for calculated grades and accredited grades were much higher than they ought to have been, and that a national standardisation process was required to adjust over-estimation (and sometimes under-estimation) so as to ensure equity for candidates. No doubt this phenomenon was contributed to, at least in part, by very limited opportunities to provide teachers with the scaffolding to support this exercise, given the extremely tight time constraints involved and the circumstances of the pandemic. Because of the importance that the system accorded to teachers’ estimates, it also proved challenging to implement the standardisation process in a way that maintained the confidence of stakeholders. However, this was achieved to a very large extent.

160 Ireland’s Leaving Certificate examinations rely to a great extent (though not entirely) on a final examination rather than a series of multiple assessment events.

This illustrates that, if school-based assessment were to be used in any future assessment system, there would be a need for extensive professional development for teachers and school leaders concerning standards and assessment methodologies. Building on the work already done at Junior Cycle, this professional development would need to make teachers very familiar with detailed examples of student work that would merit the awarding of different grade levels, so that they could make assessment judgements with confidence. It is likely, too, that the introduction of school-based assessment would require greater levels of detail to be provided in subject specifications/curriculums so that there would be clarity for teachers and students regarding expected outcomes. It is also clear that a rigorous moderation process would be required to maintain equity of treatment for students and trust in the Leaving Certificate qualification.

The needs of students will be best met through a combination of existing assessment practices and evolving approaches based on broader modes of assessment

The calculated grades and accredited grades experience demonstrated many of the strengths of our examination processes and the high degree of public trust in the State Examinations Commission. State examinations may not be capable of measuring all the competences that we want young people to develop and, if not designed carefully and renewed regularly, they may encourage a style of teaching that places undue emphasis on an uncritical repetition of factual knowledge. Their outcomes, like other assessment approaches, may also reflect not only the achievement of students, but also a range of socio-economic factors in students’ lives. Nevertheless, examinations enable us to assess a considerable range of student learning in a manageable way that is trusted by students, teachers, parents and the general public. They also challenge students to complete programmes of study, deepen their learning and be persistent in their efforts.

Perhaps what the COVID experience has shown most of all is that we need to consider the possibilities that could be realised through a combination of the best of modern and evolving examination practice, complemented by other modes of assessment that enable students to demonstrate important skills that cannot be tested through conventional examinations. We have learned that there would be considerable challenges and risks in achieving such a goal; at the same time, we have evidence that, by working with a common purpose and with imagination, new trusted solutions can be developed and implemented. Working collaboratively in a student-focused way, and with sufficient investment in curriculum and assessment capacity at the level of the student, teacher, school and national agencies, there is every reason to be confident that we can advance the second-level learning and assessment experience to address the current and long-term needs of young people.

Figure from page 304