The 2nd Foreign Languages Spring Forum was held in Thessaloniki and Athens late last April. The Grand Hotel Palace in Thessaloniki and the Hilton Hotel in Athens, with their excellent facilities, hosted the events.
The Forum, which was organised by ELT NEWS, attracted language teachers and school owners, who came not only from the greater Athens and Thessaloniki area but also from far and apart.
The Spring Forum’s central theme was:
• Certification trends
• Grading
Cut scores are selected points on the score scale of a test. The points are used to determine whether a particular test score is sufficient for some purpose.
by Anastasia Spyropoulou (anastasia@eltnews.gr)
For example, student performance on a test may be classified into one of several categories such as basic, advanced or proficient, on the basis of cut scores.The setting of cut scores on widely used tests in educational contexts requires the involvement of policymakers, educators, measurement professionals, and others in a multi-stage, judgmental process.
Cut scores should be based on a generally accepted methodology and reflect the judgments of qualified people. Every test is only a sample of all the questions that could be asked. Test takers are not likely to be equally knowledgeable about all of the legitimate questions that could be asked, so test form to test form differences are likely.
Day-to-day fluctuations in students’ attention, memory, luck in guessing and so forth are also expected.Students with similar scores on a test tend to be similar in what they know about the tested subject. Most tests cannot distinguish well between students with scores that are very close to one another.
Students with scores just above the cut score and students with scores just below the cut score are classified differently. What this means is that students who score near the cut score may pass or fail a test because of random fluctuations.The more reliable a test is, however, the less likely it is that the scores will be affected by large random fluctuations.
In the panel discussions in Athens and Thessaloniki representatives from Exam Bodies operating in Greece –recognised by ASEP- answered pre-set questions. The same questions were uploaded on the ELT NEWS website thus giving teachers the chance to express their opinion. The results of this online survey were presented during the panel discussions.
