[etni] Haaretz article - Teachers: English exam was too tough
- From: ask@xxxxxxxx
- To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2004 20:37:20 -0700
**** ETNI on the web http://www.etni.org.il http://www.etni.org ****
The following article appeared in the Haaretz newspaper this morning:
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/452968.html
Teachers: English exam was too tough
Haaretz - July 19, 2004
By Yulie Khromchenko
The recent high-school matriculation exam in English was unreasonably
difficult and the grades given out should be reassessed, a group of
English teachers charged in a petition that was made public yesterday.
The English Teachers Network (ETNI) published the petition on its Web
site (www.etni.org.il), addressing it to Education Ministry
director-general Ronit Tirosh and other education officials.
The teachers claim that several questions on the test have more than one
answer and that some questions test general knowledge rather than
knowledge of the English language. In addition, a survey conducted by
ETNI teachers in 25 schools across the country indicates wide gaps
between students' grades on the exam and the final grades they received
in their English classes in school.
The fact that those who took the exam this year were mostly top students
and native English speakers - and that many of them received relatively
low scores on the matriculation exam - indicates, according to the
teachers, that the test is problematic.
"Even my friend, a retired English teacher who took the matriculation
exam herself, received an embarrassing score," said Lauren Ornstein, an
English teacher at the High School for Environmental Studies in Sde
Boker and one of the ETNI teachers involved in writing the petition.
The Education Ministry defended its examination, saying: "As in previous
years, only a few isolated complaints reached us regarding the
matriculation exam in English ... In light of all this, no reason has
been found to reassess the grades."
Meanwhile, the teachers cite difficulties with the modular testing
method introduced this year, according to which the material on the
test is split into several types of questions, or modules, and students
are required to be tested on several modules corresponding to the level
they choose. The most problematic questions, according to the teachers,
are found in Module E, geared for the highest level of students, who
take the five-point matriculation exam.
The ETNI survey found that whereas 88 percent of the students who
answered Module E questions received a grade of 90 or above on their
final exams in school, only a quarter of those students scored 90 or
above on the matriculation exam.
"The students who took the five-point test this year are students at a
very high level, and those who prepare them [for the test] are
experienced teachers who are on a high level," said David Lloyd, who
teaches English at the Computer Communications Center in Sde Boker and
compiled the survey data.
"For the most part, the difference between the final exam grades that we
give and the matriculation exam grades doesn't come to more than 5
points, but this year there was a 20-point spread and higher in most
schools that gave us statistics," he said.
Module E also features multiple-choice questions on a reading
comprehension passage. One question asks whether the tone of the text
was sentimental, pessimistic, fearful or humorous. The ETNI teachers
discussed the passage and said they found at least two acceptable
answers, but the Education Ministry allowed only one response. The
wrong answer lost the test-taker 12 points.
"When we left the exam, every teacher gave a different answer - they
didn't know the right answer," said Assaf Mor, who will be entering
12th grade at Tel Aviv's Tichon Hadash (New High School). "We had some
students with a gap of 30 and even 40 points between the final exam
grade and the matriculation exam grade."
The ETNI teachers are also angered by one of the requisite composition
topics, which asked the students to write an essay that counted 40
points on whether voting is a right or an obligation.
"These are 11th-grade students who haven't learned about citizenship
yet, and it's not certain that they've thought deeply about this
question," said Ornstein. "The test questions must be focused on
knowledge of English, not on checking intelligence and general
knowledge."
##### To send a message to the ETNI list email: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx #####
##### Send queries and questions to: ask@xxxxxxxx #####
Other related posts:
- » [etni] Haaretz article - Teachers: English exam was too tough