{"id":53233,"date":"2020-07-15T13:14:31","date_gmt":"2020-07-15T20:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=53233"},"modified":"2020-07-15T13:14:31","modified_gmt":"2020-07-15T20:14:31","slug":"post-covid-exam-success-results-too-good-to-be-true","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/post-covid-exam-success-results-too-good-to-be-true\/","title":{"rendered":"Post-Covid exam success : results too good to be true?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nAt the end of a school year turned upside down by the Covid-19, one can only be struck by the importance of the progression of success in exams.\u00a0The phenomenon affects both secondary and higher education.\u00a0At the end of the first year of university, the\u00a0success<\/a>\u00a0rates\u00a0in the baccalaureate<\/a>\u00a0are “exceptional”.\u00a0There is an increase of 10 to 12% compared to 2019.<\/p>\n

For the\u00a0baccalaureate<\/a>\u00a0, “the results have never been higher”.\u00a0Success increased by almost 8%, to 95.7%.\u00a0For this\u00a0“Covid option bin”<\/a>\u00a0, there was indeed a “bonus effect”.\u00a0What reading can we do of this amazing progression: should we rejoice, or be saddened?\u00a0Wouldn’t the exams have been sold out?<\/p>\n

We can attempt an answer through three questions.\u00a0First of all, don’t such pass rates mean that the 2020 exams are unreliable?\u00a0But how do you assess the\u00a0reliability of an exam<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0?\u00a0We can “trust” it, essentially, if its validity is important, that is to say if it “measures” what it is supposed to measure.<\/p>\n

Lack of reliability?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The first condition for exams to be valid is that they focus well on the knowledge or skills targeted by the courses.\u00a0From this point of view, there is no reason why the post-Covid evaluators unfortunately, and significantly, proposed, both in the daily evaluation (continuous assessment for the bac), that on occasion ” specific tests (partial university), tests which would not have been centered on the adequate targets.<\/p>\n

But validity could also be assessed by surface criteria.\u00a0The height of the success rate could be one.\u00a0What is an exam worth that admits (practically) all candidates?\u00a0Isn’t the diploma then devalued?<\/p>\n

However, one may wonder how a low rate would be the indisputable sign of greater validity.\u00a0What guarantees that the bac of 1967, with 61% of success, was more valid than that of 2017, with its 87.9%?\u00a0In absolute terms, nothing.\u00a0We can then say that the bac 2020 was not severe enough.\u00a0Either it only records the fact that the level goes up!\u00a0For an examination, the concept of “severity” has only social, not scientific, relevance.<\/p>\n

Excess of benevolence?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Another question then arises: would the very particular teaching and evaluation conditions of the year 2020 have pushed the examiners to be excessively benevolent?\u00a0Tamed by regret at not having been able to teach satisfactorily during the confinement period, and anxious, in a laudable concern for equity, not to harm the candidates, some may assume that the examiners, more or less consciously, would have shows a benevolence which is ultimately to be condemned.<\/p>\n

It is clear that, for the bac, the use of\u00a0continuous\u00a0evaluation<\/a>\u00a0, which is moreover limited to two terms, could prove favorable to a double bias.\u00a0A general attitude of benevolence (subjects not too difficult, declining requirements) would naturally have accompanied the temptation to give a helping hand to students whom we knew (too) well.\u00a0So much so that the diploma was granted too generously.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, in several cases, generous benevolence was able to turn into unfortunate indulgence, leading to condemnable “arrangements”.\u00a0But, on the one hand, harmonization procedures, or even adjustment, of the notes, fortunately contributed to correcting the effects of this drift.\u00a0And above all, on the other hand, should the majority of teacher-examiners be suspected of deplorable laxity?\u00a0The assumption of widespread complacency would need to be supported by a solid investigation.\u00a0Especially since it is difficult to see a rather rebellious faculty carrying out massively, and without flinching, very hypothetical ministerial instructions.<\/p>\n

Risk of submersive wave?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Can we not then judge these results too good from a third point of view, that of the absorption capacity of the following educational structures?\u00a0The risk of being overwhelmed by the wave of newcomers is already perceived, at the university.\u00a0In STAPS, for example, in Caen, there is a fear of being “completely overwhelmed” by the unprecedented increase (33%!) In the number of students in their second year of license,\u00a0testifies a teacher<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0Le Monde<\/em>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

The risk is even more obvious for new graduates.\u00a0Will there be room for everyone in the superior?\u00a0In both cases, too generous a success could mean that a large number of individuals who are less likely to succeed the following year are allowed to enter the \u201cmarket\u201d for further studies.\u00a0We would only postpone the failure of a year.<\/p>\n

However, there is then only one problem, certainly important, but by no means insoluble, of means.\u00a0And a strong success can in no way be considered as excessive.\u00a0In the same way that there is no level of success, in itself, optimal, except to consider that such a percentage of individuals is doomed to failure.\u00a0Likewise, it is not unreasonable to trust those to whom a diploma is awarded, by betting on their future success.<\/p>\n

Finally, wouldn’t it be more surprising, in this case, that we were surprised by a high success rate?\u00a0After all, shouldn’t we always aim for, and hope for, 100% success?<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong> Charles Hadji is Honorary Professor (Educational Sciences) at the Universit\u00e9 Grenoble Alpes<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the end of a school year turned upside down by the Covid-19, one can only be struck by the importance of the progression of success in exams.\u00a0The phenomenon affects both secondary and higher education.\u00a0At the end of the first year of university, the\u00a0success\u00a0rates\u00a0in the baccalaureate\u00a0are “exceptional”.\u00a0There is an increase of 10 to 12% compared […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":53234,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[357266],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-53233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-higher-education","tag-success-in-exams"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPost-Covid exam success : results too good to be true? - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/post-covid-exam-success-results-too-good-to-be-true\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Post-Covid exam success : results too good to be true? 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