engleski

Standards for student achievement - challenges for education

There are new demands for schools around the world, and one of these, especially expressed in the neoliberal era and audit culture, is the standardization of students’ achievements that has been transferred from the world of economics. The opinions about standardization of student or academic achievements are not united. Standards are considered to be a good indicator that allows cross-national comparisons and provides guidance for innovation and/or reform, since education systems are traditionally based on implicit standards. Setting explicit standards makes work easier for teachers and students because they know what is expected from them. The basic foundation of this approach is the politicians’ conviction that they can clearly identify what students need to know and what they need to be capable of. The opponents believe that setting explicit standards is inherently damaging because it can reduce the quality of what is measured. Standards do not allow for full valorization of students or competences that are important for inclusion in the world of work. Student achievement has multiple goals that are not reflected in standardized tests, and it is also possible to redirect resources from one group of students to others, which is often not justified or transparent. Standardization of student achievement was created by analogy to industry, whereby students become "products", and their behavior is defined as "exit skills", "competences" and "outcomes". Setting standards rests on the implicit assumption that educational process is culturally neutral and does not take into account ethnicity and social class, but tries to homogenize students by placing them in quantified categories. The mere construct standard, is not clear. For this reason, standardization casts a shadow on the romantic presentation of the business sector as an example of good practice, and requires redefining the goal and purpose of education.

standards, achievement, audit culture, competences, outcomes

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