Test marking errors ‘unacceptably high’

Press, 2 July 1984, Page 21

Test marking errors ‘unacceptably high’

PA Palmerston North A Massey University survey has found that about 25 per cent of pupils’ answers in a test were marked incorrectly by teachers. The, survey covered 800 Form 2 pupils in five Manawatu schools last year and researchers used the Progress and Attainment Tests (P.A.T.) of vocabulary, reading comprehension and mathematics, the most widely adopted achievement tests in schools.

The senior lecturers in education, Dr James Chapman and Dr Ross St George, who did the research, have said that the marking errors were unacceptably high.

“Those who mark these tests have a crucial professional responsibility to be accurate,” the researchers said.

Most of the errors

resulted in pupils being given lower scores than they actually obtained they said. “Girls were affected more than boys. They tended to have more marking errors resulting in lower scores. “Pupils of lower ability or from lower socio-economic status backgrounds also had more marking errors.” The researchers felt most of the errors were caused by carelessness — teachers missing or overlooking a correct answer or incorrectly marking an answer. They said the errors might reflect shortcomings in the professional training of teachers in using educational tests. “Maybe the carelessness reflects time pressures on teachers in marking the

tests, or belief by teachers that the P.A.T.S are of little practical use.”

The Manawatu president of the New Zealand Educational Institute, Mr Bill Hamilton, agreed that teachers’ marking errors were unacceptably high, but he said it could result from the layout of the P.A.T. test papers. Teachers got into a stream of ticks with highability pupils and just carried on, but there could be more difficulty in reading the answers or interpreting the answers of children of lower ability, he said.

Teachers put some emphasis on the P.A.T. tests but for deciding a child’s future direction these tests were used in conjunction with others, he said. Mr Hamilton said he would draw the attention of teachers to the research results and said that perhaps some in-service training would be needed.