CHALLENGES IN THE ACADEMIC ASSESSMENT IN MACEDONIA

Abstract

In the last few years many changes have occurred with policy and standards of evaluation and assessment in all stages of education but in this paper we will give emphasis to standardized assessment in primary and secondary schools. These changes and the challenges that they have created in our country and the USA, will be the main discussion of this paper. It aims to describe the process of student assessment as a means of getting feedback on what they have learned and at the same time, it is a means of finding out whether you have achieved the pre-determined teaching goals. Furthermore, assessment does not only provide information about the teaching and learning process, it also helps in improving education policy, teaching curricula, etc. As Pellegrino, Chudowsky and Glaser (2001) state “Educational assessment seeks to determine how well students are learning and is an integral part of the quest for improved education. It provides feedback to students, educators, parents, policy makers, and the public about the effectiveness of educational services” (p.1). Through a descriptive approach we will give an insight to the present state of assessment in Macedonia and USA and a comparison will be drawn in order to find the similarities and differences between these two systems of education. In recent years, there have been two types of standardized examinations in Macedonia: the state matura and external examination. Due to the brevity of the paper we will only focus on external examination. Although there was a lot of scepticism from the beginning of this examination, the government decided to proceed with that project. It was first carried out as pilot testing, however after a couple of years the results of external examination influenced students’ GPA and the teachers were fined if their grades did not correspond with the grades of the external examination. Although the discontentment continued, external examination was carried out pro forma. However, after last year’s governmental changes, the external examination of 2017 was carried out without any consequences on the teachers or the students. Further changes are expected, even a complete removal of this examination. Is that the best option? Or a reformation and reorganization of the examination should be considered? Based on the application of external examination until now, most teachers and students are against it, nonetheless having in mind the low level of education in recent years, some steps must be taken, be it external examination or any other kind of assessment. The research questions were: 1.Which are the differences and similarities of the assessment process in Macedonia and the USA? 2. Which are the implications that come out of the external examination? The description of the assessment process, implications and challenges will be further presented in the paper.