}
E/1982/3/Add.16
English Page 36
Evaluation
16.
A school system cannot demonstrate its accountability to the society which it serves unless it has a coherent and soundly based means of assessment for the educational system as a whole, for schools, for teachers and for individual pupils.
17. In 1981, our Ministry of Education commissioned Educational Audit Associates of Virginia, U.S.A., to conduct a total external evaluation of the local educational system. The evaluation is not yet complete but aims at identifying strengths and weaknesses and of suggesting corrective measures to improve the system's effectiveness.
18.
The evaluation of individual schools and teachers is carried out on a regular basis by education officers. The ultimate objective of these inspections is improved student learning.
Measurement of pupil performance
19.
The strength of our system of assessment rests in the fact that we employ a variety of measurements instead of relying on only one standardized achievement test. We obtain information on student performance on the basis of the following tests: the Secondary School Entrance Examination which is a local teacher-made test taken by all students at the point of transfer from primary to secondary school; the California Achievement Test; the Differential Aptitude Test; the annual Bermuda Secondary School Certificate tests designed by our own teachers in conjunction with Educational Testing Service; the Royal Society of Arts examination, the General Certificate of Education, and in some schools, the Pitman Examinations.
20.
In 1974, the Ministry of Education began to use a standardized measurement to assess student performance in the three R's in all of Bermuda's schools, both public and private. The instrument used is called the California Achievement Test and it enables us to measure student learning from year to year. It also tells how an individual student's performance as measured on the achievement section of the test matches his ability, as measured on the aptitude section of the test. We are able, therefore, to compare a student's actual achievement with that which one would expect from a person of his potential.
21. There has been a steady and consistent improvement recorded in these scores since the testing began.
22. The over-all performance of students in the General Certificate of Education, both in terms of the percentage of our school leavers who sit these examinations and the percentage of them who pass, is quite good. It is probably as much a reflection of the local economy's pressing need for administrative, professional and technical personnel as it is a reflection of the quality of our school system.
The Bermuda Secondary School Certificate
23.
The local educational system developed historically from the British model and is characterized by a traditional selective secondary system and the eleven plus examination.
/...