Standardised tests

All head teachers, all inspectors, and most teachers support the use of standardised tests and attaching the results of the students’ scores to the final individual teacher’s evaluation reports as evidence to be used in the next step, as suggested by this researcher.

Participants thought that students’ scores could be used as evidence of a teacher’s effectiveness in aiding their students’ learning. For example, one head teacher, Loui, stated “standardised tests are very useful as the quality of learning can be aligned with the

performance“ but also evidence of students’ learning as obtained by standardised tests”. One teacher with 13 year’s experience thought that including results from standardised tests would ensure that “the quality of learning will be covered as well as the quality of

teaching. There is a relative relationship between them, which determines a teacher’s efforts”.

One head teacher, Noriah, thought that including these results would also motivate teachers to care about improving students’ learning:

The focus in teacher evaluation will be both on teaching and learning, more than on non-teaching duties, which means that teachers who have not improved students’ learning will be asked to leave teaching as they cannot handle the demands of the job.

Many teachers also thought standardised tests might serve as a shield for teachers, using them to make appeals if they felt their final evaluation report was unfair. For example, a teacher with 29 years’ experience stated:

Students’ results from standardised tests can be used to support my appeal if I do not accept the evaluators’ judgement. However, within the current system, if I appeal there is nothing that will be changed because the educational observer only reviews the observation checklists and the final evaluation report.

In contrast, one teacher with 13 years experience from Asimah district did not favour standardised tests being used, arguing that the standardised test does not distinguish between outstanding teachers and inadequate students or vice versa and does not account for the influence of family, curriculum and school environment on students’ level of achievement.

Even teachers who were supportive of standardised tests being used in evaluating teacher performance had a number of concerns. First, if teachers are on leave or move to another school in the middle of the school year, and another teacher takes his or her place, it would

out, some schools put students with weak academic records in one class and ask teachers with a long history of outstanding teaching to teach them. Third, students’ weakness in the Arabic language affects students’ results in other subjects, e.g. Islamic studies, social studies, and science, though, one teacher with 18 years’ experience suggested a solution to this in her own subject:

Arabic language is the main problem for many students in primary school. Therefore, the standardised test for my subject (science) should include images and questions such as making the link between the question and the answer, and true and false. I mean reducing questions that ask students to write and require them to read carefully, since the test is not a language test.

Concerns were also raised about how inspectors should consider students who have dyslexia and dyscalculia (special educational needs) as their schools are integrated (the MOE applies integration in some schools in different educational districts). One head teacher, Noriah, took a different perspective, expressing concern that high marks might not always accurately reflect student learning:

Inspectors should consider the risks of high marks as well as low marks. Some teachers with high marks may teach their students techniques to achieve these marks on the tests and thus teachers may not actually be good at contributing to their students’ learning.

With regard to who should conduct the standardised tests, this researcher suggested they be conducted by schools and the results sent to inspection departments in each district. However, there was concern that schools did not have the necessary expertise to conduct the tests. Ghadeer suggested that:

I think that standardised tests should be set by experts for accurate results. MOE’s centre for evaluation and measurement (National Centre for Educational Development, [NCED]) can conduct these tests, from design to marking and sending the results to inspection departments. As NCED has staff that are experts for standardised test.

Two head teachers felt that although school staff are not experts, the school should still be involved in the process, as Noriah suggested: “the centre can ask the school to help them

to administering the tests in order to make it easier to conduct (not analyse the results) as this centre does not have a large staff”. Waleed elaborated on this potential collaboration

between the NCED and individual teachers, suggesting that:

Schools can participate in administering and mark the tests, as every teacher can observe the test for a different subject and also ask physical education teachers and art teachers for their help. With regard to who marks the test, every department can mark their own test by covering the students’ names. Then, the results can be sent to NCED to be analysed and sent to the inspection department.

Teachers thought it should be the NCED in the MOE that designs and analyses the standardised tests as an expert party. For example, one teacher with 7 years experience stated “… centre staff have more expertise … they know how to design and mark

standardised tests”. The vast majority of teachers support being involved in administering

standardised tests in school and then sending them back to the centre for analysis. One teacher with 12 years experiences stated “this is a possible way to administering tests since

the NCED does not have a large staff to administer tests in schools”. Another teacher with

7 years experiences commented “we administer tests from this centre every school year, for

the fifth stage in primary school. Standardised tests are impossible to administer in all schools in Kuwait without our help”.

All the inspectors agreed with Ghadeer that since a centre already exists within the MOE (NCED) with the necessary expertise, the standardised tests should be designed and marked by this centre. Some of them, e.g. Mohammed and Nawaf, shared the same opinion with head teachers and teachers that inspectors are unable to create and analyse the standardised test as well as the experts in this centre can do. However, other inspectors expressed a preference for the tests to be designed and analysed by a neutral party. For example, Noor explained that the “inspection department should not be involved in teacher evaluation

to carry out standardised tests since in our department, [Arabic inspection department] standardised test are conducted every school year”.