Villains and Heroes: Exam time again

We have reached the end of the 2nd of 3 semesters here, which means the winter break is a moment away. It is freezing for me but people are saying this has been warm compared to past winters, especially last winter.

Exam time again!

You can read a full explanation of the process for exams, marking and the input of results at my school at this post - Student Performance Review. It is very different to what I was accustomed to in Australia, but that is to be expected.

I have many issues with the method, purpose and rigour of the exams that I set currently, but I am new to the school and don't want to lose my contract within the first year due to my arrogance. With more experience and knowledge of the current system, I will then be able to implement what I consider to be an effective assessment instrument. To tell the truth, I can't stand assessment altogether but it is a necessary evil. Consider whether you would be where you are if it weren't for assessment.

Something different happened this time though, and I thought it would be an interesting read for you (my one or two readers - feel free to comment below anytime you would like too).

I chose not to administer a listening component to my 3rd grade (high school = Grade 12 in Australia) English Conversation students this time, instead giving them 3 pages of Q & A. No one really cares what I do at school except for me, as I am the only teacher of eikaiwa (Eng. Conv.). I was pretty much given free reign to do whatever I wanted. I guess it could be seen as a test of my philosophy for education... thinking too deeply again Stevo. Our school prefers to strictly give assessment of learning, focusing on the knowledge and understanding of content that was taught throughout the semester. There is no area in the assessment for application of the content, whether that is complex reasoning or justification etc.. This is one of the reasons why Japan is well known for having an education heavily influenced by ROTE learning, which I can verify at my school (disclaimer: I cannot speak for all of Japan, but I would not be surprised at all if does happen). As I mentioned in this article, The English language learning situation in Japanese high schools, the assessment has to be re-examined to improve its effectiveness and purpose, which hasn't happened at our school yet. It will, but we haven't reached that stage yet.

I prepared my students with two revision tests in the lead up to the exam week, which had some questions that were quite similar to the actual exam - hard for them to not be if you knew my situation. I provided clear explanations of the answers and even posted the questions and answers on the basic website I made for them (Howes English). I couldn't have prepared them any more comprehensively, other than give the actual test paper.

Test day. The concept of "fail" has a different meaning to what I experienced at my last school. Basically, at my previous school I was upset with my students if they scored below 50% in their Science exams or got a C in their Japanese exams. It wouldn't happen with that many of the students, but of course there were a few that really bombed out. That situation was different though. That school in Australia was famous for their academic achievements of, and support given to students. They were very high achievers. The school I am at now has a different marking scheme. They do not use an A-F scale, since... well, they do not use the alphabet. They use a point system that is almost always out of 100. That is then converted into a whole number grade out of 10, however that does not simply mean divide by ten. The whole number is determined by a range. So, a score of 10 is usually 96-100, 9 is 85-95, 8 is... etc.. There is no 0 in this scale, so 1 is the lowest number a student can get. A score of 1 or 2 is considered a fail and is called an "赤点, あかてん (aka-ten, "red mark/point")". The students I teach do not really strive towards achieving a high GPA, instead they just want to avoid an aka-ten. They know that if they get an aka-ten, their parents will be called into the school, called 呼び出し (よびだし, yobidashi) and would hear our Head of Curriculum blast his disappointment and encouragement. The students would then be required to sit a repeat exam one month later to prove that they learned from this lesson. Basically, the 3rd grade HS students must have an average score of above 30-40% for all subjects by the end of the 3rd Semester (they have 3 semesters, finishing in March - we just finished the 2nd Semester) or they are not permitted to graduate.

I am sure every school's situation is different, but ours is a little complex. There are many factors at play - population decreasing, school in a rural setting, a sports facilities debacle (started before I arrived), a new principal, and so on. To maintain the good reputation of the school, the principal has made it very clear that he "strongly hopes" no 3rd grader will be failed. Apparently he scolded the teachers in the year before I arrived for allowing 4-5 incredibly low academic students to receive an aka-ten and, according to one teacher, blamed the teachers for the students failing. The principal even called individual teachers into his office for a deeper investigation into why they failed. This obviously spooked the teachers, because the ranges for the final 1-10 scale are often "widened" to prevent students from failing. I cringed and slapped my face so many times when I watched the ranges "widen", as I watched pathetic efforts turn into barely acceptable performances.

However, of the 207 students I teach, the overall average was 57%. I failed 17. This drew gasps from teachers in the English department when we calculated the ranges, which naturally had me a little worried. Not much was said, except for a few "that's a lot" comments here and there. There were still two days left until the whole staff assessment debriefing meeting (成績会議, せいせきかいぎ seiseki-kaigi), which you may remember was the meeting where the heads of year explain the results, high achievers, averages, attendance/absences, and failed students to all staff, including the principal and head teacher. The anxiety about this meeting was obviously growing, but I really had nothing to feel bad about. I had done my bit. I had prepared them all the same and had plenty of students that did exactly the right thing and learned the material. Still, that's 17. Only 3 other students in the whole grade were failed by other teachers. So, 17 of the 20 parents that come in are from my class only.

I never had a chance to find out this information until the actual meeting for various unimportant reasons. So, when I received my copy of the year group's data and saw "ハウズ Howes" written down the page 17 times, it was clearly time to start coming up with a good explanation for these results for my inevitable chat with the principal. The Head of Year for the 3rd grade stood up and delivered his report on the outstanding students, the attendance and absences, and then finally the failures. My mind was a little preoccupied with excuses to hear his words clearly, but "Howes-sensei" and "English conversation class" and "English department" were a few of the words I definitely heard uttered. Something he said stimulated a little reaction from the teachers, so I lent forward to whisper a "ごめんなさい gomen nasai, sorry" to the 3rd grade home room teachers sitting in front of me. They quickly waved it down and said "no.. not at all", which kind of surprised me actually.

Straight after the meeting, a colleague said "You were the hero today. You definitely made a lot of people happy". Huh? I have a good relationship with the principal, which the staff would clearly know. He often comes up to my desk and asks me questions, has a laugh, shares a few stories, compares education in Aus to Japan etc.. He is a good man and tries his best in a difficult situation. Anyway, the scolding he gave the teachers at the end of last year must have left quite deep scars, such that these recent shenanigans by me helped distract them a little. After pressing my colleague a little further, I discovered that I was the gust of fresh air that had come into the staffroom and rejuvenated their spirits a little. That even a new and respected staff member (from the perspective of the headmaster) failed some students... nay, a lot of students means that they were not doing the wrong thing after all. So, what did the Head of Year say? According to my colleague, he said that many of these students have horrible proficiency at using their native Japanese, so he applauded Howes-sensei and the English department for having the courage to fail them and shock them to the core. I approached him and apologised for giving so many aka-tens to which he quickly refused the apology and said not to worry at all, you did the right thing.

Every school is different. My feelings toward this school have improved a lot over the past 6 months. I can say many fine points about it and right up the top of that list are the staff. There will always be times where I scratch my head at the logic or motives behind decisions, but that would not be any different to working at any other school or in another occupation. The most important thing for me is to fulfil my important and respected role of helping people learn. Day by day, my role and avenues for making a difference are becoming clearer and this is the path I am following.

Merry Christmas and have a safe and healthy new year.