Assessment Cultures in Norway Post-COVID-19: Cancelled Exams Challenge Established Practices

• In Event: What Do We Mean When We Address the Concept of "Assessment Cultures"?

Abstract

Objectives:
This paper investigates how the national policy level influences final grading and high-stakes exams (assessment macro-cultures) in Norway, and what consequences decisions made on macro level have for teachers’ assessment practices and students’ learning progression (assessment micro-cultures).
COVID-19 with cancelled exams in upper secondary schools is likely to become a driver for national debate of final assessment in the education system. This practice has raised new questions, since the class of 2020 in upper secondary school got higher grades on their diploma than previous student cohorts (Directorate for Education and Training, 2020). Further, students claim that cancelled exams reduce stress and have a positive effect on motivation for learning (Author, 2021). Moreover, both teachers and students were critical to the reliability of assessment practices during the pandemic (Author, 2021).
Over 80% of the grades given in upper secondary schools in Norway are final grades given by the teachers without the involvement of external examiners. There are no systems or regulations about how to ensure validity or reliability in this final grading process. Recent policy developments, professional standards, and variable assessment cultures in schools have led to significant variability in teachers’ approaches to Assessment for Learning (Directorate for Education and Training, 2018; Prøitz, 2013; Author, 2019).

Perspective:
Classroom assessment dynamics are shaped by individual and local understandings of assessment, as well as common assessment beliefs and practices that stem from system-wide features, such as large-scale testing (Birenbaum, 2016). Teachers’ approaches to assessment reveal how they navigate between assessment micro and macro-cultures to support students’ learning and achievement (DeLuca et al., 2021).

Methods:
This paper analyses official policy documents explaining the cancellation of the final high-stakes exams, complimented by qualitative interviews with some of the main stakeholders from the government (1), university (3 deputy rectors), upper secondary school rectors (3) and teachers (3) teacher union (1) and students’ union (1). We coded the data from stakeholders using directed content analysis (Wenger et al., 2002). Then, we interrogated the coded data through theoretical categories suggested by the construct of assessment cultures (Birenbaum, 2016; DeLuca et al., 2021).

Results:
Findings suggest that securing justice for all was the main official reason from the government for cancelation of exams. Teachers, students and school leaders are worried about the assessment culture at school level and question the reliability of the final grading because the practices vary a lot between schools and between teachers in the same school.

Significance:
Cancelling large-scale examinations due to the pandemic, raise questions about the reliability of alternative measures and how macro assessment cultures influence classroom assessment. Cancelled exams have prompted calls for increased focus and reliance on teachers’ professional judgements, and greater attention to using classroom assessments to support, monitor, and promote students’ learning (DeLuca et al., 2021). Implications from this study will be of significance in forming the structure of high-stakes assessment in Norway post-COVID 19 and how teachers and schools navigate between the macro-culture and micro-culture to operationalize classroom assessment.

Authors

• Lise Vikan Sandvik, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

• Måseidvåg Gamlem, Volda University College

• Kari Smith, Norwegian University of Science and Technology