Test Record Keeping

A school holds many tests in a year: unit tests, terminal examinations and the final examination. Each of them gives every student a result. If a result is announced once and then forgotten, nobody can say a few months later how far a student has come. The teacher cannot say it, and neither can the parents. So a school writes down the result of every test, arranges it in order and keeps it safe.

When results are kept in an orderly way, the school can use them to give each student feedback on their learning: where they did well and where they need to improve. From the very day a student is admitted to a school, their progress needs to be assessed continuously. This means a school should record not only test results but the student's progress as a whole. Test record keeping therefore goes hand in hand with keeping a record of progress.

Take Bibek, a class 8 student. In mathematics he got a C+ in the first terminal examination, a B in the second and a B+ in the final examination. When all three results sit in one record, anyone can see at a glance that he is steadily improving. If the results were never written down, nobody would notice his effort, and the chance to praise him would be lost.

In our country the examination is the main tool for assessing a student. So a school keeps test records to take stock of each student's knowledge, skills and abilities. Students themselves want to know how much progress they have made, and every parent is keen to know what their child has learned at school. Keeping test records answers both of these wishes.

That is why every school should treat keeping test records and informing parents as one of its main duties. This work helps students improve their learning, and it is also useful in running the school. The main reasons for keeping test records are these:

• To tell students about the progress they have made, so that their interest in study stays alive and they feel encouraged.
• To find out whether a student has or has not successfully completed a class or a particular period of study.
• To give parents information about the student's progress.
• To show the level of a student who has to leave one school and be admitted to another.
• To give feedback subject by subject, for each subject taught under the curriculum of a particular level.
• To find out which subjects need a discussion with the subject teacher.
• To show which subjects may suit the student for higher education.

The case of changing schools makes this clearer. Suppose Sunita's family moves from Pokhara to Dhangadhi, and she has to join a new school in the middle of class 9. The teachers at the new school do not know her. The test record kept by her old school shows what results she had in each subject, and her new teachers use that record to decide where to begin with her.

A school is the place where a student's talent comes into flower. In the right surroundings, students keep making themselves stronger and more capable. When the learning environment is poor, or when teaching and learning are unsatisfactory, they cannot make the progress they should. The main thing that keeps students curious, alert and moving forward is knowing how they themselves are progressing. Knowing their progress helps students in these ways:

• Students learn their true level. Once they know where they stand, both a sense of being inferior and unrealistic ambition begin to fade. Accepting their real ability, they become eager to progress further. Knowing how classmates are doing also creates healthy competition, which helps everyone bring good results.
• Showing students their rate of progress encourages them to progress even more. Every person draws the drive to go further from the progress they have already made. When hard work brings a good result, the wish to work even harder grows. So students must be given the record of their own progress.
• Once a student's true level is known, it becomes easier for teachers and parents to guide them. Teachers and parents wish every student to progress in the same way, but students have different abilities. Some are good and some are very good, so not everyone reaches the same level. A progress report from examinations shows the real level of what each student has achieved. Because of this, a student does not have to bear needless pressure from parents and teachers. Parents get a true picture of their children's progress, and teachers find it easier to give parents accurate feedback.

Sarita's story shows how this works. In her first examination she got a good grade in science but was weak in English. Reading her progress report told her exactly where her weakness lay. She gave English an extra half hour every day and raised her grade in the next examination. Seeing that improvement made her keen to work even harder. Knowing her progress showed her where to put her effort, and then pushed her forward again.

Helping a student progress according to their talent is not the school's job alone. Parents play a large part in it too. So a school needs to show each student's progress report to the parents from time to time. Parents need this information for these reasons:

• Behaviour at home affects the student at school, and the school environment can affect the student at home. A progress report plays a good part in removing any harmful effect that comes from either side.
• Parents who do not know how their children are progressing may guide them in the wrong direction.
• Every parent needs this information to understand what their child might become in the future.
• It becomes easier for parents to decide what kind of home environment will help their children progress.

Two families make this clear. One mother let her daughter watch television for hours every evening. When the progress report showed her grades falling, she set aside one hour each evening for study, and the home environment changed. One father wanted his son to study science at any cost. The progress report showed that the boy was very strong in languages and art. With the right information, the father could guide his son according to his real ability instead of pushing him the wrong way.

A school can pass on its test records to parents in several ways. These are the main ways of telling parents about a student's educational achievement:

• Parents' day: on a day set by the school, parents come in and look at results and progress.
• Parent and teacher interaction programme: parents and teachers sit together and discuss the student's progress.
• By phone: parents who live far away or cannot come to school are told by telephone.
• Through informal meetings: a teacher can talk about progress when meeting a parent on the road, at the market or at a local event.

Besides these, every school should prepare a report to keep a record of each student's progress and to hand it to parents. A school may use several kinds of forms to report progress. Of these, the most important record is the mark sheet.

A mark sheet must be prepared according to the letter grading system in use today. Schools now give results not only as marks but as letter grades such as A+, A and B+, together with grade points. So a progress report also records a grade point for each subject.

Here is a sample progress report form. The name of the school is written at the very top. Below it are spaces for the student's name, class, address and age. After that, the results are filled in subject by subject in a table:

This table does not record only the student's own grade point. For each subject it also records the highest, middle and lowest grade point in the class. That lets both the student and the parents see where the student stands compared with classmates. The column for the grade point of the subject holds the grade point set for that subject, and the last row gives the total for all subjects.

In the second part of the form the student's name is written again, and their habits and conduct are rated on three levels. The teacher marks the level that fits:

The last part of the form records the following:

• Days present and days absent
• Result of the assessment
• The student's position in the class
• The class teacher's remarks
• The signatures of the head teacher and the class teacher

Below are two rows from Ashish's progress report. To read them, compare the grade point he obtained with the middle grade point of the class:

• In mathematics Ashish has 3.2. That is above the class middle of 2.8 and close to the class highest of 3.6. He is doing well in mathematics.
• In English he has 2.4. That is below the class middle of 2.8. He needs to put more effort into English.
• From this, his parents learn that they should talk to the English teacher. This is exactly the sixth reason for keeping test records.
• Compared with the class lowest, his results also show there is no reason for him to feel inferior. So he does not need needless pressure. Sound advice in the right direction is enough.