“Ek glass dudh to pi li jiye madam”, one of the teachers at the Government Higher Primary School in Mehdinagar, Ramanagar, insisted. There is not a government school visit in memory where I have not been offered tea, coffee, fruits, the midday meal, or a combination of all the above. I am sure that fellow associates working with schools across India will say the same. The warmth and welcome offered to any guest at an Indian home can be found in our schools, with the bonus of five or six smiling and eager faces wondering what you are up to.
A few weeks ago, when I was offered the glass of milk, our team was on the annual run to conduct what we call ‘baseline’ tests for students of grades 4, 5, 6 and 7. These MCQ-based tests in English, Math, and Science, will help us measure the grade appropriate abilities of students in classrooms where we will soon introduce methods of experiential teaching and learning. This series of tests – the ‘baseline’ test, and around four months later, an ‘endline’ test – offer us the chance to compare students’ abilities before and after teachers have been acquainted experiential learning pedagogies. This comparison is crucial to assess whether our initiatives in supporting teachers explore novel and relevant classroom practices work well. Moreover, the results, when presented to teachers and headteachers, exhibit the need for improvement in student learning outcomes. Another annual assessment for which Caring with Colour (CWC) aids the Tumukuru and Ramanagara District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) is the District Student Achievement Survey (DSAS), whose results are shared with the clusters and schools in each district.
Third party-assessments such as ours are not new in India – tests on a much larger scale such as the National Assessment Survey (NAS) or the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) are other assessments that try to evaluate student learning levels. Much like a thermometer, independent tests like these check the ‘temperature’ of teaching and learning so that educational planners and designers can view the spots where the said planning and designing needs revision.
Assessments such as these are arguably the first step to be taken before designing meaningful remedial action. Are students able to correctly answer questions pertaining to grade appropriate levels? In general, which grades seem to need more support? Which subjects have the greatest number of concepts that students struggle to get right? Which concepts are these? Is there a relationship between the gender or social identity of the student and their performance on the test? Are some districts or blocks in a state doing better than others? Ideally, a comprehensive student learning assessment ought to be able to answer these types of fundamental questions. The answers to these questions, in turn, provide us with starting points for analyses and informed decision-making by personnel at different levels – from the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to Cluster Resource Centres.
So far, the subject of third-party assessments seems straight-forward enough. However, there are some issues that researchers have identified, and a few that our team has experienced ourselves.
First, there are challenges on-field to ensure the reliability of the data collected. Several external variables may affect the performance of the students on these tests. For example, one concern is that of teachers or invigilators helping students answer the questions, which inflate test results. In our experience, we have observed that some teachers and HMs may be uncomfortable with the tests and unsure about the implications of their results. At times, the test may also be regarded as an attempt to judge the product of the teachers’ semester-long effort in completing learning objectives.
Second, many of these tests are not conducted ‘by surprise’. The recurrence of these assessments is often public knowledge, and there is a possibility that teachers, schools, and even departments begin cultivating a culture of ‘teaching to the test’. While awareness of the test and the pattern of its content helps expose teachers to new teaching perspectives, it is possible that the focus may move away from learning goals and instead towards students’ ability to perform well on these tests or assessments in general.
It is difficult to prescribe antidotes to these challenges. If we expect teachers to be the leaders of shifts in educational practice, we cannot afford to alienate them from initiatives taken to improve the quality of primary education. On the other hand, it is not possible to envision educational improvement without some standardized approach to assessing the current levels of learning in schools. As a community of education practitioners, we must encourage transparency and good faith between assessment developers and the teacher/school network.
One possible step could be to ensure continued engagement with teachers before the assessment. Meetings and discussions before tests can be used to clarify the aims and objectives of the assessment and share guidelines with teachers on how strict invigilation during the tests is crucial to extracting accurate results regarding the capabilities of the students. Consistent interaction with the teacher/head teacher community will also help foster a feeling of partnership and shared interests.
Second, and perhaps most importantly, there ought to be a formal and detailed transfer of test results and analysis to the teacher and the parent communities. Analyses of student performance for different grades and subjects can be a motivating factor to improve teacher practices as they directly show teachers the gaps or areas of improvement in student learning. Such discussions about the results and analysis become opportunities for professional self-reflection and re-evaluation, which in turn encourages teachers to explore new pedagogies and classroom practices.
Learning assessments are a crucial step in outlining educational objectives and reviewing where students are at a given point in time with respect to these objectives. However, conducting these large-scale tests comes with challenges, two of which have been discussed here. These are complex problems – they directly impact the assessment results and can also influence the larger aims of schooling and teaching itself. The key, as with most societal dilemmas, is collaboration. As organizations working in a society as diverse as India, we must work with schools, teachers, and departments as though we are all on the same team.
