A lack of government guidance over this year’s A-level and GCSE awards in England risks creating a “wild west” of inconsistent decisions and rampant grade inflation, MPs have warned. Read more in: The Guardian
College Board and ACT move to grow and diversify as the pandemic fuels test-optional admissions trend. Test-optional and test-blind admissions policies accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic would appear to imperil College Board’s SAT college-entrance exam, the rival ACT, and their respective parent organizations. This state of affairs follows years of complaints that the exams favor the affluent. Read more at: Education Next
[Updated] IAEA invites members and non members to share information about how they are handling their school-leaving or university entrance exams as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
New York State announced Monday it is canceling the August 2021 administration of Regents exams for high school students, as part of efforts to allow exemptions of its graduation requirements amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The state Board of Regents acted on a series of emergency regulations to allow exemptions to diploma requirements for high school students associated with the June and August Regents exam administrations. More on: slive.com
Assessments of pupils in England due to sit GCSE and A-level examinations in summer 2022 are likely to be adapted to take into account the disruption to their studies caused by the pandemic, MPs have been told. The measures would be similar to those prepared for exams this summer, before they were cancelled for the second year running, and show the government acknowledging the long-term consequences of Covid on later cohorts of pupils. The acting chief regulator of Ofqual, Simon Lebus, told MPs on the Commons education committee the process of recovering learning lost as a result of the the…
The final tests in general education are not cancelled. They are still planned to be held with students arriving in person, as reported by Latvian State Education Content Centre representative Liene Bērziņa. Similarly to last year, students will pass three compulsory exams. Optional exams are not required. This applies to students of vocational education institutions that are expected to undergo exams related to their respective profession this year. more at: Baltic News Network
The first part of the research will be a national six week consultation to get views from students, parents and the sector on how the assessment system can be “fit for the 21st century”. The Covid-19 pandemic and cancellation of exams in 2020 and 2021 have led to a growing debate over the future of assessment, with calls for GCSEs to be scrapped. Teacher assessments are to replace exams this year, with further details of the system due to be set out next week. More at: Schoolsweek
Children studying for exams and those from disadvantaged families are the most likely to have suffered severe disruption to their learning and motivation during the pandemic, according to the largest published study of its impact on pupils in England. More in: The Guardian
The disruption of school-leaving exams which determine entry to university is now entering its second year as countries suffer second and third waves of COVID-19 infections. It has an effect well beyond the individual country’s exams as universities around the world try to assess the varied impact for international student admissions and attempts to be fair to students Read more at: University World News
