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[englishgibson]

In China, some exams in some educational institutions are moderated, adjusted by accademic superviors or directors later and after the exams have been administered by the teachers which has been my recent issue.

I am aware of moderations and adjustments of scores that are common in British educational system as some've told me.

In Canadian and American education to my knowledge it is only common in cases where the student files a complaint regarding his/her score, or just as a random check to insure the consistancy. But I would like to hear from others that may know more about it than I do.

Cheers and beers

[YankeeDoodleDandy]

In Anhui, I taught at a local university in Hefei for two and a half years. When school started again in the fall of 2005, I was greeted by a class of sophmore English majors who seemed depressed and down and out. Several of the students complained about their final marks the previous semester. I atold them that I would bring my grade book in the next day and I requested that they go online and tell me what there marks were. Out of approximately 25 students , 7 grades were not changed, 10 grades were lowered and 8 marks were raised. After lunch I climbed 5 flights of stairs to the Foreign Languages Department and spoke to the Dean , how an error like this could possibly happen. She didn't have a clue. To make a long story short, I told her that I felt I would have no integrity with my students and that I would resign if the grades were not changed. They were changed within a week. It seems that the person intering the grades with a family name of Chen was incompetent and his father was a professor/leader.

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

How can grades be bumped up.

Money talks.

Someone offers a dean or teacher money to bump a grade, it is done. Student's father is some "lingdao" with "guanxi"? Frequent. Same with favours, from female students.

Dark secret, not often talked about. But not uncommon.

We as foreigners, are mostly out of the loop on these.

[englishgibson]

out of the loop for sure

[malu]

External moderation - or moderation by independent examiners - is a regular part of international school exam systems such as IB. The system is needed in China and it shows: I've never yet seen internal assessment grades given by a Chinese teacher raised by the moderators, though FTs' grades are sometimes moderated either way. Internal 'moderation' always makes me very suspicious, though.

At a slight tangent, it never ceases to amaze me how school 'leaders' will cheerfully sacrifice the the chances of whole cohorts of students in the pursuit of vanity or face.

I have a class of students doing Cambridge IGCSE exams. Many of them started the course late and quite a few simply don't have the English skills to get good grades. I told admin to enter about a quarter of the class for the extended paper and the rest for the core paper, where they might have a chance of getting a pass grade. Lo and behold if some pot-bellied Party slug of a unit principal didn't overturn my decision and enter virtually the whole class for the extended paper just to make the entry figures look good. As a result half a class of students will fail. Gee, thanks Mr Principal.

[arioch36]

I don't believe in the seven years here I have ever had grades changed. But I have always worked at a uni. I always give a copy of my grades to my students. They can check with what is posted. i have had some mistakes, but I believe this is due to entering numbers wrongly. Where I teach, at the international college (I now refuse to work there) they had students entering many grades, certainly not a policy approved in the states.

Chinese teachers can enter their grades directly. You can also insist on doing this. If you enter the grades directly, it becomes extremely difficult for anyone to change the grades, and would be a huge violation, even in Chinese standards.

In America I almost never heard of a grade being changed. You would have to have evidence of a definite professor mistake. The only exception ... I took a semester of Chinese. Supposd to be for students with NO knowledge of Chinese. Of the 120 students only 20 were Americans. Most were Chinese sundergrads trying to boost their GPA. It wasa 5 credit course. There was a MA from Taiwan teaching the lecture portion, she was the head teacher. I was in the East Asian Office talking to the history prof (american) Chinese students, especially girls, were going to the Taiwan lady's office crying, how if they didn't get a higher grade in this class, they might not be able to stay at the college. The Taiwan lady prof would lecture them ... and agree to give them a higher grade. I was not amused (nor was the prof I was talking to)

ENG GIBBY

[malu]

[englishgibson]

glad i've found others on forums that've had the same thoughts and experiences

coincidentally there's some ms chen in shanghai that helps with ACT moderations and she insists that the australian head office supervises her...that ms chen could be a wife of this mr above, but there're plenty of chens around

[Brian Caulfield]

The problem is also in the exam system here. The three universities that I have worked in in China only require a final exam. I test my students three times. I do an assessment at the start a mid term and a final. I always inform the students of their grade before I hand the grades in. I think many of the problems are a result of people trying to do many things at the same time ( Chinese tradition going back 5,ooo years) as a result errors are made in entering the grades. I too have run into the sour faces of students disgrunted over the last foreing teachers marks. This is because in China an average mark is 80% plus and in the west 60 is an average mark. So foreigners mark low and cause problems. To reiterate my previous stance DON'T FAIL YOUR STUDENTS. They are only studying English. 60% is a pass in China and an embarassment. If you know who they are pass them.

[lf_aristotle69]

[Brian Caulfield]

My reasoning in giving my students high marks is that I need my students to take chances. Chance taking is a characteristic of a good language learner. If my students are only concerned about doing well on their grades they don't perform for me in the class. They clam up and don't say anything or don't write anything of their own. So I find after I give them a mid term and am generous with my marking I get more from them during class time. If my students don't make mistakes how can I teach them. What difference does it make if I give the top student 99 or 70? You tell me about these ever important exams to get into Ivy League schools, but I have yet to see any exam system in English that is equal. Some TOEFl exams are easy some are hard. The IELT test is the same . I refuse to look at the Chinese exams now when a Chinese teacher presents me with one. There are usually too many mistakes in them.
There will never be an exam to measure English fairly because it is an art.

[lf_aristotle69]

[malu]

[Brian Caulfield]

All great universities work the same way. I met a person who was a regent at Harvard . He told me that the bright get scholarships and the rich pay. It is the formula. The rich will always be accepted, but it doesn't mean that they graduate. McGill my old alma worked the same . If your parents were rich benevolent alumni , you were given special treatment. And it is not that they get to one of these schools and they are dropped on the pavement to die. Most schools offer ESL classes to students who are coming from foreign countries. I was very fortunate starting out as an English teacher to know many of these teachers teaching at these programs. They let me come into their classrooms and watch them work.
What I learned from them was not to cover the students writing with red ink but to be supportive and encourage them by focusing on the positive aspects of their work.

[11:59]