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High-schoolers look to new tests

Reforms aim to motivate students, but universities skeptical of standard exams

By Markéta Hulpachová
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
February 20th, 2008 issue

KURT VINION/THE PRAGUE POST
When these eighth-graders at Štěpánská Elementary School will be graduating, they'll have a new set of leaving exams.
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Leaving certification requirements

Existing exam format
State-required: Oral and written exam in Czech language
Elected by student: At least three other subjects, such as math, civics, history, science or foreign language, depending on what school offers
Grading: Scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is the highest. Student needs a minimum passing grade of 4 to receive certification

New exam format (as of 2010)
State-required (students choose level of difficulty in all subjects):
Didactic, oral and written exam in Czech
Didactic, oral and written exam in foreign language OR in math
State-required, elected by headmaster: Headmasters choose two to three subjects in humanities, technology or sciences, depending on school's concentration
Elected by student (students choose level of difficulty in some subjects): Up to three exams in math, physics, chemistry, biology, geography, civics, foreign language, art history
Grading: Same as current

"I see the new exams as a problem, because they will require a change in the curriculum. Nothing has been officially decided, so it's all pretty mental at this point." Viktor Pavel, 18
that [Education Minister] Liška wants to include math in the mandatory testing category. I'm glad I avoided it, because studying according to the curriculum for four years and then suddenly studying for a whole different exam seems unfair."
"We're not all that interested because it doesn't concern us. We'll be happy if we manage to pass this dumb exam as it is." Stanislav Zbyněk, 18
"The exams should all be the same. By offering all these different categories, they place people who went to worse schools at a disadvantage." Kateřina Šrámková, 16
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For centuries, local students have viewed passing the high-school leaving certificate exam, or maturita, as the make-or-break point of their academic careers.
As the Education Ministry finalizes plans to extensively standardize leaving exams on the national level, the very concept of these tests may alter dramatically. Reform plans moved forward Feb. 18, when the ministry submitted a final draft of a document to update the leaving certificate exams for evaluation by the parliamentary committee for education (VVKMT).
Traditionally, the principals of individual schools determine the format and subject matter of the leaving exam. While it is not a graduation requirement at all high schools, passing the exam and receiving the certificate is generally viewed as an entry requirement by universities and employers in most midlevel career fields.
However, as ongoing reforms continue to loosen state control of the curricula of individual schools, the disparity of the content and difficulty level of the exams between schools continues to grow. They are now thought to be too easy, and universities no longer consider scores a reliable indicator of students’ performance.
Declaring the “downfall of the entire motivational mechanism,” the reform document states, “There is no longer a reason to do the best you can — all that matters is passing.”
To address this, the ministry plans to create two levels of testing difficulty for students to select from. According to the reform document, the easier version would test the “minimal knowledge of the students, regardless of what type of high school they attend or which field they are studying.”
If a student initially chooses the more difficult option and fails, he or she will be allowed to attempt the easier version of the test when retaking it in the fall.
According to Education Ministry spokesman Ondřej Gabriel, the long-term plan is for the more difficult test version to act as a standardized university entrance exam, replacing the current system, which requires students to take different entrance exams at each individual institution and faculty they apply to.
“University representatives have responded fairly positively to this option,” Gabriel said. “Of course, it’s important for them to wait and see whether admissions standards will be upheld. … It is also possible that the exam will be one part of the admissions criteria.”
By streamlining the system, the Education Ministry hopes leaving certificates will help inform universities about students’ actual abilities, thus lowering the dropout rate. “We expect positive developments in the way students approach higher education,” the document states.
New format
The new leaving exam would consist of two state-required subject tests (Czech language and a choice between math or one of five foreign languages), two or three “profile” subjects also required by the state and determined by the principal, and up to three elective subject tests chosen by the student in math, science, civics, foreign languages or history.
Principals of individual schools will still have the power to determine the subject matter of one of the state-required parts. This will be the so-called profiling part, which will indicate a high school’s academic focus. Besides humanities-oriented gymnáziums, there are vocational and professional high schools in the Czech Republic, all of which currently have different requirements for leaving certificates.
In addition to these required portions, students will also have the option of choosing two to three exam subjects to enhance their academic portfolio when applying to universities.
Rough drafts
Although the new tests are not slated to come into effect for another two years, they have been in the making since 1997.
That year, the Education Ministry started working on a reform plan prompted by a 1992 recommendation of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The first reforms were slated to begin in 2002, but were returned to the drawing board after failing to receive parliamentary approval.
The ministry went on to try to improve the plan by launching a public debate among education professionals and testing the new leaving certification through pilot programs.
Originally, the ministry intended to implement the new exams during the current school year, but postponed its plans due to an “unrealistic time frame.”
“We were told in our first year that we were supposed to have the new exams, but they weren’t properly worked out,” said Michal Bereň, a fifth-year student at the Academic Gymnázium Štěpánská, a university preparatory school in Prague 1. As a participant in a national pilot program that tested exams of various difficulties, Bereň has had firsthand experience with one potential form of the new tests. “The difficulty was roughly equivalent to a ninth-grade level,” he said. “They were easier than the entrance exams to get into this school.”
Although the ministry maintains that offering a less difficult version of the leaving certification will not artificially inflate national passing rates, Marie Slámová, deputy headmistress at Štěpánská Elementary School in Prague 1, sees these reforms as an effort to bloat the nation’s self-assurance. “The changes will allow practically anyone — including those who barely scrape by in vocational schools — to get a leaving certificate,” she said. “By accommodating these pupils, the state is trying to make our society look more educated — but the real effect may be exactly the opposite.”

Markéta Hulpachová can be reached at mhulpachova@praguepost.com


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