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One of the main problems with the educational system is that students are evaluated by the same person that teaches them. If the teacher wasn’t the one grading

One of the main problems with the educational system is that students are evaluated by the same person that teaches them. If the teacher wasn’t the one grading the mean grade of the students would be a decent evaluation of the performance of teacher.

gnicholas 8y ago
This is what “high stakes testing” is for. Not that it’s perfect, but the idea is to have objective third-party measurements.
khawkins 8y ago
If another professor wrote the exams for a class they didn't sit in, you'd have the students screaming in unison, "this wasn't discussed in class!" Not exactly disagreeing with the idea, but students have been normalized to the idea that, with enough studying and concentration, any exam can be aced. When they feel like they've been cheated by the system they get discouraged, making a harmful learning experience.
- pas 8y ago
  Pretty small price to get fair evaluations. Furthermore it forces teachers to communicate the requurements, the curriculum and sillabus well to the exam writers and graders.
- michaelt 8y ago
  If another professor wrote the exams for a class they didn't sit in, you'd have the students screaming in unison, "this wasn't discussed in class!" In standard testing at other levels, this is solved by a syllabus. For example, in electronic engineering I would expect a second-year class in switch mode power supply design at any university to look extremely similar. Admittedly there may be classes in cutting-edge research, opinion-based subjects or extremely niche topics, where you can't find two academics in the country who could agree on a year's syllabus and set of answers. In my degree I'd say less than 25% of courses were that way, though.
- tk75x 8y ago
  I went to a college where all three professors who taught Chem 101 would collaborate on writing one exam that students from all three classes would then take at the same time in an auditorium setting. This kept the testing fair over the entire course and forced the professors to teach material based on agreed upon in advance topics to certain standards.
NPMaxwell 8y ago
This is done in Denmark. At the end of each semester, high school teachers are recruited to read exams and assign grades. Teaching professors are excluded from grading and professors and students are collaborators aiming to support each other's success by supporting their own success.

gnicholas 8y ago

This is what “high stakes testing” is for. Not that it’s perfect, but the idea is to have objective third-party measurements.

khawkins 8y ago

If another professor wrote the exams for a class they didn't sit in, you'd have the students screaming in unison, "this wasn't discussed in class!" Not exactly disagreeing with the idea, but students have been normalized to the idea that, with enough studying and concentration, any exam can be aced. When they feel like they've been cheated by the system they get discouraged, making a harmful learning experience.

pas 8y ago
Pretty small price to get fair evaluations. Furthermore it forces teachers to communicate the requurements, the curriculum and sillabus well to the exam writers and graders.
michaelt 8y ago
If another professor wrote the exams for a class they didn't sit in, you'd have the students screaming in unison, "this wasn't discussed in class!" In standard testing at other levels, this is solved by a syllabus. For example, in electronic engineering I would expect a second-year class in switch mode power supply design at any university to look extremely similar. Admittedly there may be classes in cutting-edge research, opinion-based subjects or extremely niche topics, where you can't find two academics in the country who could agree on a year's syllabus and set of answers. In my degree I'd say less than 25% of courses were that way, though.
tk75x 8y ago
I went to a college where all three professors who taught Chem 101 would collaborate on writing one exam that students from all three classes would then take at the same time in an auditorium setting. This kept the testing fair over the entire course and forced the professors to teach material based on agreed upon in advance topics to certain standards.

NPMaxwell 8y ago

This is done in Denmark. At the end of each semester, high school teachers are recruited to read exams and assign grades. Teaching professors are excluded from grading and professors and students are collaborators aiming to support each other's success by supporting their own success.