Secondary School External Examination Systems: Reliability, Robustness and Resilience
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There are several genres of external examinations at secondary school level. Some are curriculum-based; some target general ability or scholastic aptitude. Some constitute a routine school activity; some are ‘optional extras’, in which case they are likely to occur at the interface of secondary and tertiary education, rather than as an aspect of the secondary schooling experience. Some have specific end-uses, such as university entry; some give rise to general secondary school qualifications.

By ‘systems’, we are referring to more than simply tests. Our primary focus in this book is the qualification structures that those tests are associated with. This work is principally concerned with external examination systems which meet the following criteria:

  • They arise at the culmination of a programme of study at the lower or upper secondary level, constitute a routine activity for students enrolled in that programme, and are based on the curriculum for that programme. The steeply pyramidal school structures of yesteryear often included external examinations at the juncture of primary and lower secondary schooling that controlled the flow of pupils to post-primary education. Increasing transition rates to secondary schooling have almost universally relegated these to the status of anachronisms, although some systems have retained them for standards-monitoring or post-primary assortment purposes. Although strictly speaking outside the scope of this book, they have been described where they constitute an integral part of a series of external examinations.
  • Success in the examination results in, or contributes to, a recognised educational qualification in its own right. This criterion eliminates test procedures used for academic monitoring purposes by education authorities in numerous jurisdictions, whether anonymous or used to inform learners of their progress. Such examination structures have, however, been described where they occur in conjunction with examinations that satisfy our principal requirements.
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