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Norway's education directors call for overhaul of grading system
🇳🇴 Norway /Culture & Society

Norway's education directors call for overhaul of grading system

From Aftenposten · () Norwegian

Translated from Norwegian, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

Analysis Named sources Context piece
  • Norwegian education officials argue the current grading system is losing legitimacy and fails to measure essential competencies.
  • They criticize the exam system for its rigidity and disconnect from curriculum goals, especially with the rise of AI.
  • The officials propose alternative assessment methods like long-term projects and digital evaluations to ensure fairness and relevance.

Norway's current grading system is failing students, according to education directors from Vestland, Rogaland, and Møre og Romsdal. With approximately 70,000 diplomas and 140,000 grades being issued, they argue the system inadequately measures the actual skills students need for higher education, work, and society.

The problem is that the grades measure students' real competence to too small an extent. Nor do they safeguard the students' right to a fair assessment.

— Bjørn Lyngedal, Eiliv Fougner Janssen and Erik BrekkenThe education directors explain the core issues with the current grading system.

The directors highlight significant issues with both final grades and exam results. The rise of artificial intelligence has forced schools to tighten controls, removing aids and internet access. This crackdown, they contend, contradicts curriculum aims for digital literacy and problem-solving in real-world contexts. The disconnect between testing methods and learning objectives undermines the system's validity.

When the exam format moves in one direction and the curricula in another, there is no longer a match between what we test and what we are supposed to learn.

— Bjørn Lyngedal, Eiliv Fougner Janssen and Erik BrekkenThe directors describe the disconnect between testing and learning objectives.

Furthermore, the current exam format, which gathers thousands of students for a single test under supposedly uniform conditions, ignores vastly different student circumstances. Factors like daily form, stress, and chance can overshadow academic merit, weakening the assessment's legitimacy. The standing grade also suffers from the teacher's dual role: supporting students while simultaneously evaluating them, which can introduce subjectivity despite professional intentions.

The result is that we are left with an assessment system that is neither sufficiently reliable nor fair.

— Bjørn Lyngedal, Eiliv Fougner Janssen and Erik BrekkenThe directors summarize the shortcomings of the current system.

To address these challenges, the directors propose a shift away from excessive control and discretion. They advocate for alternative assessment forms, such as interdisciplinary projects tackling complex issues over time and long-term assignments evaluated by external assessors. Modern digital assessment tools, they suggest, offer opportunities for neutral, student-paced evaluation, requiring new approaches to teaching and assessment organization.

The answer cannot be even more control in the exam situation and even more use of discretion in the standing assessment. We must look at other assessment forms, such as interdisciplinary projects, where students work over time with complex problem issues, and long-term assignments where students develop, document, and present their competence to an external sensor.

— Bjørn Lyngedal, Eiliv Fougner Janssen and Erik BrekkenThe directors propose alternative assessment methods.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Aftenposten in Norwegian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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