The general topic of diploma exams and the phenomenon of cheating deserve attention, of course. But I found the teacher comment offered on this topic almost completely oriented to the social control functions of grading. The parents have a right to know; universities have a right to know; discipline (up to firing the teacher) hinges on assessment processes. My question is: where is the student in all this? Where is the learning? If the focus of grading assessment is on the factors above, not much wonder cheating is getting to be a problem.

About 35 years ago, Sidney B Simon and James A. Bellanca, in their insightful book DEGRADING THE GRADING MYTHS, Washington, D.C., 1976: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development systematically analyzed the purposes of grading, and offered access to research evidence (since replicated many times over) how subjective, arbitrary and lacking in scientific rigour grading is. If readers have institutional access to research articles (or have $25) they can get access to a review of this book at http://jte.sagepub.com/cgi/pdf_extract/28/1/58.

The disadvantages of diploma exams are that kids may cheat, that if the marks count they are scared and may have anxiety issues lowering grade and if the marks don't count they may not take the tests seriously and undermine the use of the marks to show curriculum coverage. Further disadvantages are if the school uses the marks as indicators of teacher competence as is done in California and endorsed by the US sec of state for education. There is a further disadvantage beyond educational responsibility when certain media outlets report the one school average as if it is the only feedback parents should get about the school .Used out of context about progress of individual students, their other skills the test could not tap like oral presentations etc. the misuse of the numbers can be very harmful to school enrolments at any schools the public now thinks are less competent.

But let's look at the advantages of such tests. First, they give a snapshot of how the student has understood the course material compared to a very vast population so put into a useful perspective. Parents deserve that feedback. The mark is useful to universities and colleges that want an objective assessment not based on local or regional skills but on more broadly recognized ones. In the UK the departmentals let's remember are not just provincial but national. Right now in Canada universities are really perplexed at who to admit given the variety of departmental standards and exams across the country so there is even a case to be made for having an even broader exam, a national one. The departmental provides parents and students with feedback about where the student's skills really are and is therefore useful as a career guide. The exam marks when closely analyzed by some schools question by question also show areas where the class in question could have used more time on certain units or dealing with certain skills and is a very helpful way for teachers to help adjust their instruction each year to be more in tune with what students need. The departmental exam as one measure of written competence and reading-based assessment is a useful adjunct to the many other tests teachers give to also look at the oral, speaking, listening, presentation, group work skills of students, and their punctuality, cooperativeness and other social competencies which are vital to their success in the career world. In other words used as one of many feedbacks, the departmental test is very useful

We must also look at what parents have a right to know. A few parents do not want their child compared to others' marks possibly because they fear their child will score low and self-esteem will be hurt. But there are ways to put in context all the results a classroom teacher provides and to help ease such parents into facing realities of life and celebrating any progress. The majority of parents feel that as taxpayers they are paying for good education and they want to know how it is going and how their student did. For teachers to fear giving such feedback makes teachers look very bad in the public eye, as if we are scared to report on how it went. We owe parents lots of feedback and should not balk at providing it.

As for cheating, yes, kids will try it and we have to make sure that we have set in place ways to discourage even trying and then to catch and punish it when it happens. Simon Fraser University now is even instigating a failure grade that offiically says the student failed due to cheating. This is humiliating and part of the permanent record as I understand it - so this is a great disincentive. I also think that we as teachers look weak if we fear kids so much we let them talk us into withdrawing our power. In the real world cheaters are caught and punished and our obligation is actually to introduce youth to the real world. It would be wrong and even bad teaching to not enforce rules and it is our obligation to set standards just like any job in the paid working world has standards and reasons for firing.

I endorse and applaud having departmental exams. They should count so the kids do not slough them off. They should not count more than 50% of the year's grade however since the classroom teacher input should also be valued. They should NOT count as an evaluation of the teacher per se since low academic students with a phenomenal teacher may be able to score 60 not 50 while high academic students with an even medium competent teacher can still score 90. IF we can't get the Department of Education to stop releasing the average school marks to the public without putting them in context, we must also insist that we provide a context and we must tell all parents one at a time, how the student is doing on a larger canvas.