All's fair ... or not

[DimeBar]

Posted in Education, but only two responses, so thought I'd try here, giving a bit more info/clarity.

Students in college were doing GCSE Maths assessments this week, designed by the co-ordinator.

If the 16+ students doing the assessments don't get a score that reflects they could get a C grade, the students could be moved out of their groups and onto lower qualifications.

The group taught by the co-ordinator is a mature group; none of the students are likely to be moved from the Maths group, even if they show they are not capable of getting a C.

In the hour before their assessment the mature group were given a pre-assessment, also designed by the co-ordinator. The assessment contained similar questions to the assessment, with three of the questions being exactly the same. The pre-assessment questions were gone over, with answers given and clarification given where required.

The 16+ groups were given warm up exercises, but the questions were not similar to those in the assessment, nor were they given the pre-assessment test.

I feel uncomfortable about this for a number of reasons, but would be interested in the opinion of others.

Ta

If, as you say, the mature group are going to do maths regardless, does it really matter if they got an advantage? The other group's test was clearly much more of a test. You might view it as unfair that the two groups are being treated so differently as to whether they are allow to carry on with maths or not, but the group where the result matters did seem to get a chance to show what they can do without prompting.

I agree that the younger groups results will be a more accurate reflection of ability.

What also bothers me though are the wider implications; the adult group will be the benchmark against which the younger students and their tutor will be judged.

The tutor for the younger students hasn't been allowed to move struggling/non-attending students from their groups previously.

The younger students tutor has already been informed they will be 'hung out to dry' if their end of year results aren't up to scratch.

It feels as though so much game playing is going on, but I'm not sure to what end.

Oh, okay... I didn't realise it was an issue about the tutor rather than the students. That does seem unfair if the pre-test strategy wasn't agreed by the tutors in advance.

It hadn't been agreed in advance. The first my colleague knew about/saw the pre-assessment was when I gave her a copy on Friday afternoon.