Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wylies99]

Test result forgery suspected nationwide

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/02/23/200902230010.asp

The government will conduct a sweeping inquiry of all local education offices starting today amid growing suspicion that some schools have inflated their students' scores in recent state examinations.

Schools and education authorities of Imshil (North Jeolla Province), Gongju (South Chungcheong Province) and Daegu have so far been found to have falsely reported the test results.

Schools in Busan and Seoul are also suspected of doctoring scores.

The scandal put the Education Ministry in a quandary. It has pushed the standardized tests despite warnings of the possibility of manipulation and criticism that they will aggravate already excessive competition among students to excel in examinations.

A total of 1.96 million sixth graders, middle school seniors and high school freshmen took standardized exams in Korean, English, math, science and social studies in October last year.

The Education Ministry publicized last Monday the percentages of students under each local education administration who scored below basic standards, or achieved "basic" or "proficient" levels.

Metropolitan and provincial education authorities with disappointing figures rushed to announce countermeasures such as rewarding or punishing principals and teachers based on the test results.

The national rankings are likely to be revised, however, once the Education Ministry completes its inquiry into local education offices by March 20.

The inspection will look into possible errors in the grading program, data input, computation and reporting processes. Test papers will be graded again if necessary.

The ministry also said inspectors will raid schools and education offices for a separate audit on their administrative systems.

The score forgery scandal hurt the credibility of the assessment system, where test papers were graded by individual schools.

Some blame the Education Ministry for negligence. Apparently, some schools didn't take the tests seriously because the ministry initially said it would make public only the scores of sample students. The ministry suddenly changed its mind in December, however, and ordered schools to file the figures for all students.

Some schools did not have optical mark readers, thus requiring them to grade papers by hand, leaving open the possibility of mistakes. Critics also note that irregularities may have occurred in grading free response questions, which took up a fifth of all questions for sixth graders.

The Korean Teachers and Education Workers' Union and several parents' groups have boycotted the standardized tests, which they believe bring about excessive competition among schools and regions to climb up in national rankings.

They took students on field trips instead of having them sit for the tests last year.

The Seoul branch of KTU and parents' groups said yesterday they will do it again on March 10, when 2.7 million fourth graders through middle school seniors are scheduled for another round of standardized tests.

Seven unionized teachers were fired late last year for giving students a choice not to take the test.

The KTU claims that the pressure on schools to excel in the standardized tests would result in unfair treatment of teachers and irregularities such as score rigging. Their call on the government to scrap the tests is expected to gain momentum in the wake of the score forgery scandal.

The government spent some 5.7 billion won ($3.8 billion) to administer the standardized tests last year.

By Kim So-hyun


([email protected])





2009.02.23

[sobriquet]

here's an original idea.


Why not do away with multiguess and actually get the teachers to mark exams.

[Ice Tea]

you can't have teachers mark the exams, because the incentives are all messed up.

Koreans are no more irrational than Canadians, but our system provides the right incentives to keep Canadian teachers from acting maliciously.

In Canada, a single test does not determine your entrance to University. Furthermore, the Uni you study at and admittance only are no guarantee of success. You must continually prove yourself throughout Uni and then in the workforce. From the student's perspective bribing a teacher for a grade on a single high school exam seems silly. To maintain to the charade that you are a good student, you'd have to bribe all your teachers for every test from high school through Uni. The odds of every teacher agreeing are low. You will caught eventually and then you'll really be screwed. Faced with this situation Canadian don't bribe.

On the teacher's side of it, taking a bribe will mean the end of their career and students are unlikely to put up enough cash to make a teacher take that risk. It's all math.

However in Korea the incentives are all different. One test essentially determines your whole life. Because the result of that test is so valuable students are willing to put up big bribes, big enough to entice a teacher to put their career on the line. Add to this the way incompetence and corruption gets brushed under the rug here and it's easy to see why bribery prospers.

That's why the teachers can't mark the test here.

[sobriquet]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Systemic misreporting of testing data by Korean public schools? I can't possibly believe it.

[Ice Tea]

[NoExplode]

What are the schools doing grading standardized tests anyway? They should be collected and sealed, then sent to the Education office to grade.

[Ya-ta Boy]

Teachers are also 'graded' depending on how many of their students get high scores.

[Scotticus]

[MattAwesome]

I think American standardized tests are graded by a special committee. The schools then get their mark and it is out of the hands of the individual schools. Of course scan-tron tests are finished before essay style.

It may be too hard for a dense population to do it that way, but trusting schools to do it is asking to be cheated.

[sobriquet]

UK schools papers are sent to external exam markers who mark the papers.

A mix of multiple choice, short answer and multiple choice questions.


Why Korea can't follow this approach is beyond me. Works for the rest of the civilized world.