Diploma exams to be worth 30% next school year

Post date: 16-Mar-2015 19:07:25

http://education.alberta.ca/admin/testing/diplomaexams.aspx

Effective for November 2015 diplom exams.

In Alberta Education's Q&A leaflet regarding this change, they stress that the rigor and integrity of the diploma exam will continue to be unchanged, only the weighting is changed from 50% to 30%..  The reason for this change, they state, it is to reflect more accurately they performance of a student over a long period of time at school, on a daily basis, through their teachers' assessments rather than a single exam.  This can be seen as a shift towards an emphasis on teaching for content understanding rather than teaching for testing.  But also can be seen as lowering that bar to increase graduation rates and lowering drop out rates.

While Alberta Learning allows students who are currently enrolled in diploma courses to defer their exam until after November 2015 to receive the new weightings, it is encouraged that they write their exam as soon as possible for various benefits.  It is also stated that despite there will be the new 70/30 weighting, it is still up to the discretion of the post secondary institutions to determine their admission standards - where it is entirely possible for a post secondary school to only look at diploma exam marks to consider admission.

While this change may bring good news to students - less stress, less last-minute crunching - it brings a cloud of doubt whether Alberta student may slip in comparison to other countries or provinces in terms of their average performance due to less focus on standardized testing.  For now, it is seen as a manuever to improve their statistics on paper only.

What is your opinon on this change?