INTRODUCTION

1. Standards Based Educational Reform and its Implications on School Based Assessment: Lessons from SchoolsBy: Francis Chirumefrancochirume@yahoo.co.ukZimbabwe School Examinations Council; Zimbabwe

2. INTRODUCTION • Issue of assessment standards • Test driven reform-tests have powerful effects on teaching in classrooms • Current assessment trends;-school based assessment, problem based assessment • Standards based reform means revamping assessment strategies. • Purpose of the study • Presentation outline

3. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES • Assess the applicability of the standards based education model in school based assessment • Establish the experiences of secondary school teachers in school based assessment • Establish the views and perceptions of teachers on the importance of standards based education in school based assessment • Recommend the way forward for standards based education model in school based assessment

4. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK • The standards based educational reform has 3 general types of educational standards; i.e.; content,performance and opportunity to learn standards. (Husen & Tuijnman 1994) • Changing to a standards based system provides an opportunity to re-examine the organisational elements of a school system: purpose, principles, policies, processes, practices, programmes and procedures. (Cordell and Waters, 1993) • Standards based education focuses on sustained student achievement for all students.

5. CONTENT STANDARDS • Content standards describe the range of desirable knowledge and skills within a subject area • They specify the general domains of knowledge that students should learn. • They are statements that describe what students should know or be able to do within the content of a specific discipline or at the intersection of two or more disciplines, (Mueller, 2004).

6. PERFORMANCE STANDARDS • Linn, Baker and Dunbar (1991) define performance standards as specifications of how much students should know and be able to do. • While content standards shape what goes into a curriculum, performance standards set benchmarks, that is, specified levels of achievement that shape expectations for educational outcomes. • Performance standards provide a basis for measuring learning outcomes • They describe skills students should develop to enhance the process of learning.

7. OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN (OTL) STANDARDS • OTL standards specify the nature of educational inputs and resources that are needed to realise expectations for students and school performance. • Examples may include: teaching time,facilities,textbooks, and other resources. • OTL standards are needed to respond to concerns over the potential inequity of raising expectations for all students without ensuring that all had an equal opportunity to meet higher expectations. • OTL standards should be similar across school types

8. SCHOOL BASED ASSESSMENT (SBA) • SBA is a formative evaluation procedure concerned with the finding out, in a systematic manner, the overall gains that a student has made in terms of knowledge, attitudes and skills after a given set of learning experiences, Ogunniyi (1984). • SBA should evaluate all the domains of learning • SBA evaluates the total human being

9. Characteristics of SBA • Comprehensiveness • Cumulative nature • Systematic procedures • Guidance oriented

10. METHODOLOGY • Population- 9 regions • Sample- 2 regions selected and 60 teachers took part • Structured interviews were held • Focus group discussions with teachers • Qualitative analysis of data

11. FINDINGS • Discussed in 3 sections: • Content standards and school based assessment • Opportunity to learn standards and school based assessment • Performance standards and school based assessment

12. 80% of the teachers trained in assessment used national syllabuses to plan and align content standards to their schemes of work School syllabuses were aligned to national syllabuses Depth and breadth of content covered is determined by the national syllabus 75% of the teachers who had not been trained in assessment planned on the basis of reference textbooks National syllabuses were simply used to check topics to be included in the schemes of work Depth and breadth of content covered is determined from textbooks Content Standards and SBA

13. Content standards & SBA: Conclusions • Teachers who use textbooks to prepare schemes of work or to draw school syllabuses may fail to align school content standards to national standards. • A mismatch between school content standards and national content standards has a negative effect on SBA since classroom tests would be constructed on the basis of content taught • Schools that use national syllabuses to draw schemes of work would mean a positive impact on SBA

14. OTL Standards and SBA • Teachers viewed the following OTL standards as critical in SBA: • Teaching periods per subject • Educational resources • Learning facilities • Qualified teachers • Teaching/Learning methodologies

15. OTL Standards and SBA Continued • Time standards were adhered to in the sampled schools • Variations were noted in the distribution of educational resources such as textbooks, equipment and qualified teachers • Urban secondary schools enjoyed better facilities than rural secondary schools • 82% of the teachers who had been trained and 20% of those not trained varied their teaching methodologies ( multidimensional teaching approaches)

16. OTL Standards and SBA: Conclusions • OTL standards were not uniform across sampled schools • There was minimum use of multi-dimensional teaching approaches in schools were teachers had not been trained. • Variations in OTL result in ad-hoc school based assessments • OTL standards must be uniform across all schools if school based assessments are to be valid, usable and contribute to national examinations.

17. Performance Standards and SBA • An analysis of syllabuses revealed that they lack detail of performance standards • Syllabuses captured scheme of assessment, assessment objectives and test blue-prints • Performance standards should incorporate grade descriptors as indicators of performance • Grade descriptors indicate the generic skills that candidates should display at each grade level • Trained teachers were able to set assessment standards for their institutions; an issue that would impact positively on school based assessments

18. RECOMMENDATIONS • Schools should implement the standards based educational model in teaching/learning and assessment. This would enable schools to be accountable and be in a position to align standards • National syllabuses should be the official teaching documents where teachers derive content standards • National syllabuses should capture opportunity to learn standards and performance standards (eg grade descriptors) so that teachers can align their school based assessments. • Teachers should be in-serviced in ethno-based methodologies and school based assessment • Capacity building programmes should be extended to Teacher Education Institutions.