[Maths-Education] Fw: Exit exams need warnings for disabled students

[Peter Gill]

A health warning is not such a silly idea. If the public and politicians
had any idea at all of the concepts of reliability and validity as applied
to examinations we might be able to get away from the exam driven schooling.

The original TGAT concept for all its faults has to be a more reliable and
valid measure of progress than what we have now. The reliability of even
the "best" exams is so low that if any other measuring instrument was
produced with such a low figure it would immediately be thrown in the bin.

The concept of validity is easy enough to explain but how do we explain
reliability?

Let me finish by quoting Paul Black commenting after the TGAT structure had
been dismantled

"It is seriously believed . . . that a three hour written test will serve
to establish the level of a pupil=8AIt is further believed that this three
hour episode will give a more trustworthy result than can be produced by
the teachers who have been teaching that pupil for three years. No one with
expert knowledge about the reliability and validity of written tests could
take such a proposition seriously." (in" Education, Putting the record
straight" various authors, Network Educational Press 1992)

Peter Gill


Peter Gill
Gill in Gascony
Education and Tax Consultants
Berdoulet
Quartier de Balembitz
32400 Riscle
=46rance
tel +33 (0)5 62 69 98 36
fax +33 (0)5 62 69 75 42
alt email: peter7gill@aol.com