Similar discussion posted to Juventud Rebelde as well:

http://www.juventudrebelde.co.cu/cuba/2008-03-25/i-pass-you-pass-is-everybody-learning/  =========================================================================

03/27/08 -  Cuba Headlines (Havana)  
New system of school evaluation in Cuba

Grade inflation, exams always being passed and family paternalism conspire  against the new evaluation system being implemented in Cuba at the high  school level. The new system consists of assessing students in a more  comprehensive and integral way

"Everybody passes, even those who haven't learned anything. They take exams over and over, and always get a six - the lowest passing grade. They can  barely make it."

High school students Anie Peña and Alejandro Bebert, from Cuba's Camagüey  Province, feel that something isn't going well in the classrooms when  speaking about the persistent inadequate grading of students, despite  changes in high school teaching that is aimed at a more comprehensive  education.

While some parents appreciate that their children don't have to take final  exams, others think that the daily questioning method being implemented is  simplistic.

The new system adopted in high school education has raised controversy  around educational quality. Some think that having two generalist teachers  in a classroom with thirty students -one per fifteen- is an advantage.  Others yearn for those times when each subject was taught by a specialized  teacher.

The new high school evaluation method appears in the Resolution 226, 2003 of  the Ministry of Education. It clearly states that the knowledge measuring  process has to have feedback. It is a system that works with the adolescent,  requires a proper diagnosis and an appropriate teaching strategy.

During a journalistic inquiry at schools of Havana, Camagüey and Cienfuegos,  high school students spoke about the assimilation of information.

"The truth is that not all of us understand the same or enough with this  formula; although at the end it doesn't really matter because all of us are  always going to pass," some students said.

The new methods must guarantee a systematic and comprehensive assessment of  the student from oral and written evaluations and assignments which foster  the search for information without the teacher's help.

A poll among a hundred parents of high school students from the  abovementioned provinces showed that even though most of parents have  weighed the benefits, some think it is risky that student assessment depends  mainly on the teacher's training and ethical and pedagogical vocation.

Teacher Benito S. Chávez, from Cienfuegos, who works in a university and has  a son in the ninth grade, defends the current pedagogical model adopted in  high schools because it "increases student's self-learning, their  independence and individual study."

"It is good," he said, "but it demands very good training of the  teaching staff, something that not always happens, nor do they always have the experience to fully implement it. It involves a change in the mentality of  both the students and the teachers.

"Likewise, it demands a level of high concentration on the part of students, something they're not used to. They're before an unprecedented learning  process, which will be effective to the degree that it is consolidated by  the teachers and students," said the instructor.

Benito said he was against repeating the same question over and over again  until the student knows the answer. "There are different learning levels.  Students must move from the reproductive to the productive and from there to  the creative one," he said.

"Teachers have to rephrase the question for the students to assimilate  assignment levels depending on their objective. It is not about repeating  the same thing, but about finding other ways for students to internalize  knowledge," he added.

The results of the poll carried out by this newspaper in the three provinces  showed that the new evaluation method has created expectations of always  passing exams, which is now adding to family paternalism and grade  inflation - a phenomenon that hindered Cuba's educational system in the  past.

Odalis Rodríguez, comprehensive-general teacher (PGI) with more than 20  years of experience, explained that "Resolution 226 brings about teachers  and students participation, both individually and collectively, in making  decisions about students' qualitative and quantitative evaluation criteria."

She said that the system has a permanent and systematic character. "Students are assessed within their educational component through the observation of  their performance inside the classroom, written evaluative questions,  reviews of their notebooks, assignments and other work."

-Then, the system does not have weakness?

-Resolution 226 was designed so that no student fails. If students go to  school and receive the lessons, they must learn and pass to the next grade.  These are three main elements of the resolution: attending, learning and  passing.

-Do these elements guarantee that students always learn?

-We have succeeded in having students busy inside the classroom being taught  a subject, acquiring habits and skills; we even take them out of the street,  but this doesn't really mean that they always learn.

"The resolution has been effective in achieving many objectives, but it has also given space again to certain expectations of always passing, family  paternalism and grade inflation, even with those students who have low IQs  and need special attention."

This opinion was shared by other teachers, including PGI Gladis Sarmiento,  from Camagüey, who said, "We have to pay attention to the variety of  students and this doesn't always works. We have students with serious  learning difficulties and a slower appropriation for knowledge than the  rest."

Our survey also showed that the implementation of partial and intra-semester  quizzes -which assess a period, give general results and prepare students to  face future exams- needs to be re-considered.

Magalys Chaviano, journalist and mother of seventh-grade student, from  Cienfuegos, thinks that repeating the same question to the child so that  they know the answers very well is not oversimplification. "On the contrary, it is a teaching method by repetition," she said.

PGI Ismaray Isaac, from Havana, agrees with her and said that by  periodically assessing his students, he makes them study everyday.

"It would be harder for them with a final test because they would have to  study the whole content. It is also better for us because we can soon  realize what student knows the content very well, if students have  difficulties to express themselves or whether what they know from other  grades is sufficient or not. We can base our daily work on that."

PGI Gladis Sarmiento, from Camagüey, said that it has been proved that this  new method is not enough, although she recognized its virtues.

"It is necessary to implement partial and intra-semester tests again. Both  the students' trajectory and their test results can go together to the final scale and show the children's real knowledge."

Random interviews with parents and students dealt with the thorny topic of  the training of the PGI. "They lack professionalism. Those with teaching  experience resist, but how many young teachers have quit their jobs because  they can stand it?" said Mario, father of two children who are studying in  high school.

Another mother, Migdalia Socarrás, said that "there are people who are very good at sciences but not at the arts, and that's one of their main problems. That's the reason why teachers who teach TV lessons are specialists on a  subject."

Pedagogue Aracelis Campanioni added an interesting element. "Sometimes,  primary school teachers do not do a correct pedagogic work. Then, children  arrive in high school with problems, which demand a special attention that  cannot be given by the PGI."

The majority of participants in the JR's poll said that the most worrying  element is that the new evaluation system relies essentially on the teacher's training.

Most of teachers at the José Luis Arruñada High School, in Havana, are very  young. According to its principal, Osvel Gómez, they still need more  training to teach several subjects, which slows down the students' learning  and influences the quality and extent of evaluation processes.

"PGIs are the taught methodology and they have the support of teachers with greater experience. But it is a slow process. When the work with them  becomes systematic, we will be able to achieve a little bit more than what  we have now."

-There are students who say that it is difficult to pay attention to TV  lessons.

-Each video lasts for 35 minutes. The rest of the lesson's time is for the  teacher to reinforce the knowledge students did not understand, or could not  finish copying while the video was being played. Teachers have to have  prepared themselves beforehand, to have watched the video-lesson; they  cannot improvise in the classroom.

-But some teachers say they don't have time to watch them before the  class...

-It is true, time is very short for teachers and they have many  responsibilities.

-Practical classes do not exist any more...

-Before, practical classes were live, now they are watched on TV or with  educational software. There may be some live experiments, according to the  resources of the school and the teacher.

"Years ago, we had one specialist for each subject. Currently, there is a  PGI for all of them and it could happen that, for instance, that teacher is  good at Spanish, but not at chemistry, and doesn't know how to carry out an  experiment. With this method, we have won some things and lost others."

Assignments are another way of measuring the students' learning. In the high schools we visited, students said that all subjects have this type homework,  but that many times they have to do all of them at the same time, and this  is when the problems begin.

"If is a team work, we help each other and no one fails. The teacher gives  us different marks according to each student's presentation. There are  students who get six or seven, but if you want to get ten points you have to  really defend your work. Each student does what they can: some give the  paper; others the cover... and the result is excellent.

"But it is a problem if it is individual. It's like a contest for the cutest work. There are even some parents who pay other people to print them.  Luckily, some are asked to be hand-written," added many who were polled.

Several students from Camagüey criticized that practice by some parents.  "The sad part is that there are teachers are who only look at the  presentation of the paper," they said angrily.

Generally, students think that assignments establish a substantial variation  from primary school, where the final exams system rules; that makes them  feel more mature and responsible.

However, there are some who do not agree with this formula, especially the  more intelligent ones, who would feel more secure before the challenge of a  final test; this would establish cognitive hierarchies and place them at the  top of the scale.

Students' main complaint about assignments is that they favor those students who do less work or are less intelligent - those who actually make no  contribution to those tasks.

Armando Sáez, a student from the Luis Pérez Lozano School, in the Pastorita  neighborhood of Cienfuegos, explains, "A 30-students class is divided in two groups of 15 for some assignments. But actually only one or two work on the  assignment."

"Then, when the assignment is presented, if it is, if it meets all the  requirements and gets the top mark, everybody gets the same mark - the one  who worked hard on the assignment and the one that just put their name on  the list."

An eighth grade student from the Juan Olaiz School, in La Juanita  neighborhood, also in Cienfuegos, voiced a concern that was present in the  research conducted by Juventud Rebelde newspaper: "Something really sad is  taking place. Some teachers give better marks to the students who bring them  a soft drink or a snack than to those who did it or presented it - even when  they know they did nothing on the assignment."

Magalys Chaviano, a mother from Cienfuegos, says: "Smart kids, those who  like to look for information and analyze it, assimilate more with this  method. They are more independent, and develop skills by themselves because  this evaluation method stimulates them to do research."

"The student does not have to work on spelling or writing skills. I think it should be demanded that the assignment must be handwritten. It has reached a  point in which teachers consider handwriting a lack of interest of the  child, and not as an added value that the kid, and no somebody else, did the  work."

Another growing phenomenon seen in the newspaper survey was family  paternalism.

For Miklay, "helping is not committing fraud. It depends on what the parent understands by 'helping,' which is not doing the assignment for their child, but giving them guidance. Family is this case suppresses the child's  learning."

But sometimes the help parents give their children can bring about  situations like the one described by Doraisy Cutiño, General Comprehensive  Teacher from the Noel Fernández School, in Camagüey: "A few months ago, a  mother 'helped' her son so much that the kid got six points in the  presentation of the assignment. She protested that mark, saying that she had  virtually done the assignment by herself. We had to show what her mistake  was and she left ashamed. But, do all those teachers act the same?"

Teacher Oslery Barrios, from Havana, says that his students can receive a  score of six to seven for doing their assignment. The rest is earned in the  presentation. "It makes them study, because a classmate can do the  assignment, but if they want the top mark, they know they have to be ready."

On this aspect, Natividad Ramos, a leading teacher at the Noel Fernández  School and with 32 years of experience, said: "The teacher plays the main  role, he or she is the one that should stop fraudulent situations from  taking place. Sometimes the family has mistaken their role, turning help  into fraud."

"I think," General Comprehensive Teacher Gladis Sarmiento said, "that although parents are more committed to their children because they must  study everyday; a door has been opened to fraud, false comradeship and a  race to see who makes the prettiest assignment."

Secondary school education has undergone the most radical and deep change in  education in the last few years. This is maintained by Berta Fernández,  deputy minister of Education, who says that in the middle of all these  transformations are the General Comprehensive Teachers (called PGI after its  abbreviation in Spanish). The success of this model largely depends on their  actions.

Concerning the evaluation system, Fernández said this is a complex element  in any methodology. Resolution 226/2003 was established to rule this system.  This resolution states that a teacher with 15 students can provide a more  personalized attention to them.

"Theoretically speaking, a PGI must go with their students from the seventh to the ninth grade. It not always happens that way. This is a process and we  are still in the fifth year of transformations."

"The evaluation must be comprehensive. We say we have to prepare the student for life and life does not come in pieces, it is a whole. If a question  mixes geography with history, I'm blending contents."

-What are the advantages and disadvantages of the new evaluation system?

-It is more systematic and comprehensive. It is permanent and, by concept,  students should be evaluated every day, but it does not mean that it has to  be on the same subject.

"A student can have as many evaluations as they need. Maybe in a month one  has 12 and 15 in another. Our aspiration is that the student passes the  objective of the course, but not all students make it at the same time."

"Do all secondary school students pass today? No. Do some of them have to  repeat the year? Yes. Has the number of students who repeat the year  decreased? Yes. The system will be efficient the day all the students learn  with quality, and therefore pass. It is a wish, but currently it's not like  that."

-Why is it still a wish today?

-In our visits to the schools, we have seen that not everything stated in  the Resolution is done. There are more than 35,000 PGIs in secondary schools  at the front of a class, and not all of them apply the resolution with the  efficiency it requires, because they do not interpret it the same way.

"First thing that has to be improved is the general diagnosis of the  student, which is key to designing the evaluation system. I have to know  what the student knows and what they don't, how they live, who they live  with, how their health is. Those elements have an influence on the learning  process."

"It must be a systematic valuation. When one looks into the teacher's  records and sees that their students have the same number of evaluations, it  is because there was no individualization, and because each student requires  a number of questions according to the objective they have not overcome."

"All the evaluation approaches are not developed either. There is a  predominance of oral and written questions, while the comprehensive seminar,  notebook checking and comprehensive homework are used less."

"Resolution 226 speaks of experimental work and there are people who ask: So where's the lab? But if I ask a student to wash the rice they way their  mother washes it before cooking it, they are observing the process of  separation of the materials known as decanting. That's experimental home  work. Life is full of phenomena where the laws of nature take action, but it  is underemployed."

"The teacher should evaluate also the educational aspect such as attendance, attitude towards study, discipline, correct use of the uniform, the  participation in patriotic activities, the care of social property and  environment."

"Written tests have not been fully eliminated. In fact, the principal of the school can determine to make them based on their judgment of the groups and  can determine their frequency."

-A large number of students and parents see assignments as a new way of  committing fraud.

-The teacher sometimes accommodates to collecting the assignments without  demanding the presentation, which is not compulsory. The assignment must be  handwritten to measure spelling, grammar and handwriting. That's how we are  demanding it now.

"If I have 15 students, I know the way they all act. If I have doubts that  one of them did not take part in the doing an assignment, I can give them  another pop quiz. I can even assign work to be done by various students or  individually."

-There are several opinions as to the classes on TV and video

-A PGI can teach all the subjects because they count on those devices, in  addition to the educational software. It has to be added that right now more  video-classes are being prepared (the ones used now are five years old), to  update them with new elements from science and technology and to relate them  to educational software.

"Not everything is being done well," said deputy minister Fernandez. There are ways for young teachers to improve their evaluation methods. "There is  a  new subject in their training in which they learn how to work with the  normative documents in Secondary School."

"This new initiative adds to the fact that in the second year of their  major, the PGI has a tutor that teaches them how to apply this in the  practice, besides the responsibility of the chief of grade and the school's  principal with them."

Concerning the idea that a number of people have that the new evaluation  system is designed so that all the students pass, Fernández explained. "If  it is done well, all the students should overcome the objectives. Maybe they  will not overcome them with the same level, because they all have different  aptitudes. The success of the teacher will be to take their 15 students to  the top of their potential."

"Resolution 226 has contents that must be evaluated in every subject. If a  student masters that grade it is because they have read the course  textbooks. One of the difficulties we see is that not all of the objectives  are being measured."

"There is a tendency to learn more, but we haven't reached the four times more we intended to. In Math, for example, it has grown 1.8 times more."

"To give a differentiate treatment for a student does not mean to repeat  them something too many times, but to have mastered the contents they don't  not know very well, and to be able, with alternate methods, make them grasp  those contents. How many questions do I need for that? It depends on the  student. It does not have to be questions; it can be other activities, too."

"Before, there were two control works and a final exam. But it was no  guarantee that there would be no fraud. There were teachers that days before  the text used to give a 'review' that included all the questions on the  test."

"The teacher is the key element. This system means more work for everybody. I've seen experienced teachers who applied the method well and others that  applied it poorly, because the old model is still present in the way they  apply it."

"The same happens with young teachers. Some 47 percent of our labor force is in training. We have to teach them. Usually, when you visit the class of one  who is in the fourth or the fifth year of the major, you can observe working  conditions that are different from those who are in the first or second  year, those who have more problems. That's real. There are some who do it  very well, but that is not a rule."