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Final certificate students will have the option to take advantage of a modified version of the calculated grades and sit for written exams in June, according to plans discussed today by cabinet ministers.
This would allow students to choose between calculated grades or written tests, or both, for individual subjects, and secure the highest grade.
Oral, practical and performance evaluations also appear ready to take place in the coming weeks, albeit in different formats and in a way that minimizes the need for visiting examiners.
Sources say written exams are likely to begin on Wednesday, June 9, with a formal schedule to be released shortly.
Junior Certificate exams for 60,000 students will also be canceled to make way for a greater focus on facilitating the Leaving Cert.
Alternate testing arrangements will be implemented for these students in a manner similar to last year.
Minister Norma Foley briefed ministers on the latest developments on the exam format at a meeting of the cabinet committee on education on Wednesday afternoon.
A formal announcement is expected Wednesday night after a disembodied general Cabinet meeting.
School reopening
Sixth-year students are likely to return to the classroom in the last week of February or the first week of March, depending on whether the Association of Secondary Teachers’ Ireland (ASTI) agrees with such a move.
The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) has said it will facilitate the return of Leaving Cert students from February 22.
The government and the unions are keen to encourage as many students as possible to take the written exams and continue to participate in classes until the end of the school year.
They believe that the failure of students to see the results of their calculated grades prior to the June exams will provide an incentive for most students to submit written assignments as an “insurance policy.”
Students will likely have the option of choosing which exams they want to take through an online portal and will be in a position to review these options if necessary.
If a student has earned a calculated grade and takes the exam in a particular subject, the candidate is likely to receive the higher grade of the two, according to one source.
A similar system was applied to the grades given to students last year who took advantage of the calculated grades and took the Leaving Cert exams.
Including oral, practical and performance in students’ calculated grades this year is another factor that seeks to engage students through the end of the school year, sources said.
These “second components” are worth between 20 and 50 percent of the marks in some subjects.
The provision of both calculated and written test scores is bound to pose a challenge for education authorities in standardizing the results across the two sets of results.
However, policy makers believe it is possible, although it is likely to lead to grade inflation once again this year.
Standardization
The calculated grades will likely be based on similar data sources compared to last year, such as estimated teacher grades and a standardization process.
It is unclear at this stage if the school’s “profiling” – that is, a school’s Leaving Cert results history – will be included in this standardization process.
The decision to withdraw this data last year when awarding grades to students is at the center of high-profile action by the Superior Court.
It is understood that the Department of Education is willing to use a different term than “calculated grades” this year for the evaluation process of student grades.
In addition to including the results of the oral and practical exams, the modified version of the calculated grades will provide a path for “out of school” students to earn grades.
Many of these students, such as those studying minority languages, were unable to take advantage of the grades calculated last year because they did not have a teacher or set of courses.
Legislation
The Irish Times also understands that the government plans to enact legislation ahead of exams for the State Examinations Commission to oversee the computed grade process.
Last year, this function was completed by the Department of Education on the basis that the commission only had legal authority to supervise traditional exams.
Last year’s arrangements were to give schools the freedom to conduct their own assessments, which were marked by the students’ teachers.
All students who completed the junior year received a certification of completion of the junior cycle program and a report to the school level.
It is also understood that public health authorities have reported that Leaving Cert exams are safe to take in modified schools, similar to the delayed Leaving Cert exams in November.
This saw socially estranged students taking tests in classrooms and test halls, usually supervised by school staff or outside proctors.
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