In this case, the teachers are right: teachers cannot grade their
own students for certification
And we’ve landed smack in the middle of a very controversial row between the
teachers’ unions and the Minister for Education and Skills that has delayed a move
toward greater use of project work. In this case, the teachers are right: teachers
cannot grade their own students for certification. Only teachers know how subjective
grading can be, no matter how hard we try. Elsewhere in this issue, Social class in the
classroom demonstrates how our judgement can be affected by, in that case,
unconscious assumptions we may have forgotten and may not even agree with
anymore.
The solution is simple: teachers grade work from other teachers’ students.
Geographically distant schools can be paired anonymously, and teachers from each
can grade a portfolio of work from students of the other. The graders will know
nothing about the student or the school they go to apart from the work in front of
them. Their subjective opinions concerning class, gender, ethnicity, student
likeability, previous performance, and so on won’t come into play.
2. Subject to availability
If secondary education is to prepare students for college, the senior cycle has to
be expanded to include subjects not currently taught at second level but that
students may want to study at university—law, psychology, philosophy, or political
science, for instance.
By studying degree subjects before they commit to a three-year course,
students can choose a course for which they are suitable, and that’s suitable for
them. Under the current system, students who discover some way into their first
year that they’ve made the wrong choice have few options. If transferring between
courses is possible, it may cost them a full academic year while sticking with the bed
they’ve made may cost them grade points and a disappointing career. Familiarity
with the content of the course they are starting, however, will facilitate a smoother
transition to university from secondary school.
3. Points of order
Apart from the drawbacks of the exam itself, the points system can distort the
process of choosing a subject to study.
Students who achieve maximum points on the Leaving Cert are encouraged,
indeed pressured, to study courses that require maximum points—i.e. law or
medicine. In this way, a potentially really good teacher might become a mediocre
doctor. Among those who achieved fewer points, we might find a potentially really
good doctor becomes a mediocre teacher. Ideally, if we are to retain the points
system, points should be awarded not only for exam results but also for
coursework—particularly coursework in the subject the student intends to study at
third level. Even more ideally, we should move away from exams altogether. Either