What effect has the COVID-19 pandemic had on assessments and results?
As the most tumultuous of school years draws to a close, it’s time to assess the pandemic’s impact on student learning and well-being. Although the 2020–21 academic year finished on a bright note, with increased immunization rates, outdoor in-person graduations, and 98 per cent of children having access to at least some in-person learning, it was one of the most trying in our country’s history for educators and students.
Research conducted by top boarding schools in India demonstrates that the pandemic had a considerable impact on student learning, with pupils falling five months behind in math and four months behind in reading by the conclusion of the school year.
The epidemic expanded already-existing achievement and opportunity inequalities, disproportionately affecting historically poor kids. In calculation, kids in mainly private schools had six months of incomplete work at the end of the year, while students in low-income schools had seven.
Because schools were closed during the first week of the pandemic, did students receive additional support in preparation for the next major assessment, i.e. a makeup day conducted another week later in the school year? Did students exhibit benefits from this additional support?
What was the impact of media coverage of the epidemic on student performance and/or motivation to succeed on assessments?
Did students work harder because they were inspired by stories of survival and/or references to past epidemics such as those with Black Plague or Spanish Influenza or fictional ones like in The Stand, World War Z or Season 4 of True Blood (if you’ve seen it)?
Did kids become distracted from their studies because they were scared to death by news reports or because they wanted to get out there and spread disease?
From an educational standpoint, the COVID-19 pandemic has had an effect on assessments and results in a plethora of ways. Some of the effects that we’ve already seen are better attendance, a decline in dropout rates of high school pupils, a 25% increase in college enrollment, and a 15% increase in GDP (gross domestic product) growth.
With that being said, there is still much work ahead of us to decrease the overall world illiteracy rate from 43.9% to under 20%.
Another research conducted by top boarding girls schools in India showcases that the COVID-19 pandemic has had quite a dramatic effect on the way assessments and results are handled. The main points that have changed or been brought up due to the pandemic are as follows:
Assessments are now recorded on the database in order of date taken. This is due to the fact that if an assessment is taken at the end of a course, but then a student does not complete and submit it for several weeks, it may be impossible to tell whether the assessment was completed because it was hard or because the student did not attempt it at all.
The “Results” section is now called “Actions” in order to more accurately reflect what happens there. When marks are entered into the database, they automatically appear in “Results”. However, they can be deleted if they were submitted by a teacher who has since left SL and therefore no longer exists in our records.
If this has happened and someone wants to check their own mark, they should use their personal page in order to view their record, because marks cannot be deleted from there.
Actions are things done with assessments within Results, such as marking them as submitted, setting them as final, or giving them an R-value of 0 (which means they have not been submitted).
There are multiple ways the COVID-19 pandemic affected education methods in this country. The biggest change is the way that classes are taught. With most of the population being unable to attend class, teachers were required to teach via video conference or at-home assignments that could be completed on time.
To put it simply, education has become more challenging as more assignments need to be done within a shorter period of time. Another change is the level of difficulty in homework assignments, which has increased greatly since students can not go back to class for clarification on questions.
Overall, students have lost out great because they are unable to attend school and work at the same time, making their academic lives very difficult.
There are two ways of looking at the new results. Some say that the new assessment process is more difficult, with fewer students achieving a grade 4 or above and a greater number getting grades 1–3. Others take the view that standards have risen overall and more students are not just reaching the expected level, but exceeding it.
There is some truth in both of these views.
The new assessment arrangements mean that pupils need to demonstrate a deeper understanding of knowledge and skills than before and that their work will be assessed against a wider set of criteria. Consequently, fewer pupils get grades 4 and above than under the old system.
However, there are now many more pupils who achieve grade 3 or above than was previously the case.
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