The Unified State Examination Experiment: Halfway to the Finish Line

Autor/in	Solodnikov, Vladimir Vladimirovich
Titel	The Unified State Examination Experiment: Halfway to the Finish Line
Quelle	In: Russian Education and Society, 51 (2009) 3, S.9-24 (16 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1060-9393
DOI	10.2753/RES1060-9393510302
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Certification; Internet; High School Graduates; National Surveys; National Competency Tests; Educational Attitudes; Educational History; Public Opinion; Russia + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Abschlusszeugnis; Zertifizierung; High school; High schools; Graduate; Graduates; Oberschule; Absolvent; Absolventin; Educational attitude; Bildungsverhalten; Erziehungseinstellung; History of education; Bildungsgeschichte; Öffentliche Meinung; Russland
Abstract	The abbreviation USE, which stands for the unified state examination, is known to most Russians these days. Many people think that it is something new, but it has a certain amount of history. The first attempts to adopt the American system of education in Russia were made by A. Lunacharskii as far back as the 1920s and 1930s. One of the main unresolved issues relating to the USE, according to V. Bolotov, the chief of Rosobrnadzor, is whether to award a diploma certifying a secondary education to school graduates who have been given a grade of unsatisfactory in particular subjects. On June 12-21, 2006, an Internet poll was conducted at the Web site KM.RU on the question "Is the unified state examination needed in the schools of the Russian Federation?" The poll was participated in by 4,877 people. Of that number, 147, or 3 percent, say that Russia needs the USE, because checking what students have learned in school by means of a system of closed tests is an effective way to grade how well they have learned from their classes. The rest of the participants--97 percent--think that Russia does not need it. A representative nationwide survey was also conducted by the Public-Opinion Foundation on May 19-20, 2007. In the second wave (in April and May 2007) of the regular TGI-Russia survey, 2 respondents older than fifteen were asked to rate the assertion "The unified state examination (USE) in the schools is more objective than the conventional examinations." Results from the various representative surveys of Russians provide evidence that the most well-educated and socially successful portion of Russian society is not inclined to consider the procedure of the unified state examination more objective than the ordinary examination is. In that case, adopting it by imposition, making it more rigidly imperative, only serves to increase society's alienation from the state. Moving Russian educational institutions toward a more comparable system of measuring progress and performance of students has proven to be difficult and controversial. It is likely that having a unified system of evaluation will remain controversial for the foreseeable future. (Contains 13 figures and 7 notes.) (ERIC).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10