In this blog post, we will look at whether the introduction of absolute evaluation of English in the Korean CSAT will reduce private education and revitalize public education, or whether it will only increase confusion in the admissions process.
It is said that ten years can change the face of the earth, but education-related policies often do not last even a year. On October 20, the Ministry of Education of Korea formalized the discussion on the “absolute evaluation of English in the College Scholastic Ability Test” that had only been mentioned so far. In other words, it will abolish the relative evaluation system, which divides students’ scores into ranks and assigns grades according to a certain percentage, and introduce an absolute evaluation system that divides grades according to certain score standards. This policy is being promoted with the aim of reducing the burden of private education costs on students and increasing their reliance on public education. However, I oppose the introduction of the “absolute evaluation of English in the College Scholastic Ability Test” because it not only reduces the discriminative power of the test but also complicates the college admissions process, which can lead to various problems.
First of all, if the discriminative power of the English test is reduced, it can cause side effects such as a “balloon effect.” Currently, the English proficiency of students in Korea is very high, and it is common for them to receive scores in the 90s and still be placed in grades 2 or 3, even if the test is just a little bit easier. For example, if you get one question wrong, you will receive a grade of 2, and if you get two questions wrong, you may be pushed out of the top 11%, i.e. grade 3, if the question is worth a large number of points. In the 2014 SAT, the cut-off for a first-grade score was 98, and 97 was a second-grade score. In the 2012 SAT, the cut-off for a first-grade score was 97, and 94 was a second-grade score, so the difference in scores between grades was very small. English is one of the subjects that is difficult to adjust the difficulty level of. In this situation, if an ambiguous evaluation standard is introduced and ambiguous-difficulty test questions are created, many students will be more likely to receive the highest grade, and the college entrance exam English will effectively become a qualification requirement. In other words, the discriminating power will be significantly reduced.
The problem does not end there. If the English test becomes less discriminating, the importance of the discriminating power of other subjects such as mathematics will increase, which may lead to a “balloon effect” in which the cost of private education for these subjects increases. The balloon effect refers to the creation of a problem when solving another problem. In other words, introducing absolute evaluation in the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) to solve the problem of private education in English may increase the burden of private education costs for other subjects.
In addition, changing the English assessment standard to an absolute assessment in the SAT could complicate the admission process for each university. Most universities use English grades as an important measure of a student’s academic ability. However, if English is assessed as an absolute assessment in the SAT, students with similar grades will flock to the university, weakening the ability to differentiate between them. To counter this, universities can conduct separate tests such as English essays or significantly reduce the weight of the SAT English score. This can lead to confusion for students as they prepare for each university’s entrance exam guidelines, and the additional private education required to meet the various selection criteria can have the adverse effect of increasing private education costs.
On the other hand, those who favor the introduction of absolute evaluation for the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) English focus on the positive effects of reducing private education costs and normalizing public education. At a public hearing held by the Ministry of Education on October 20, professors and researchers who support absolute evaluation presented the following reasons.
First, it reduces private education costs. English is one of the main subjects that students receive a lot of private education for from a young age, and the burden of private education costs is also considerable. There are English kindergartens and academies all over the place, and it is clear that many parents value their children’s language training. They argue that if absolute evaluation is introduced, it will be easier to get a high grade than with relative evaluation, which will reduce the burden of learning English and naturally reduce the reliance on private education, which will reduce private education costs.
Second, it is argued that if the burden of studying is reduced and private education is reduced, public education can also be normalized. Currently, middle and high school students study English with a focus on the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), so even if they are taught various subjects at school, they end up relying on private academies or tutoring. However, it is expected that if the burden of the CSAT is reduced and private education is reduced, the reliance on public education will increase.
Third, they argue that maintaining the ability to differentiate can be achieved by setting appropriate grade divisions and score ranges. Just as in relative evaluation, where the number of students in each grade is estimated by the examiners and the difficulty level is adjusted accordingly, they argue that in absolute evaluation, setting appropriate grade divisions can prevent students from crowding into the highest grades.
Finally, I emphasize that the purpose of learning English is to communicate, not to learn how to solve problems. In relative evaluation, students focus on how to solve problems to get even one more correct answer, but in absolute evaluation, students can learn English in a way that is true to its purpose by freeing themselves from the pressure of getting one answer right.
However, there are limitations and contradictions to these arguments from the pro-grade side. While the introduction of absolute grading may reduce the cost of private English education, the meaning of absolute grading may be diminished as universities introduce new standards for evaluating scores calculated by absolute grading. In addition, even if the cost of private English education decreases, the cost of private education for other subjects such as mathematics is likely to increase.
There are also limitations to the argument that the appropriate grading and score ranges can maintain the ability to differentiate. The expression “appropriate” is very vague. Even if the exam committee members predict and adjust the scores, it is rare for their predictions to come true. The government says that it will adjust the difficulty level of the test every year so that the number of perfect scores in each section is around 1% of the total number of examinees, but the test has repeatedly become too easy or too difficult, which has made it less discriminating. For example, in the 2014 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) Biology II exam, 4% of the test takers received perfect scores due to difficulty level control failure, but in the 2015 CSAT, only 0.21% of the test takers received perfect scores due to the test being too difficult. It is even more difficult to accurately predict such a dividing line in absolute evaluation.
Also, the argument that absolute evaluation should be introduced for the intrinsic educational purpose of English is not convincing. Whether it is an absolute or relative evaluation, it is simply an evaluation standard and has nothing to do with education focused on communication skills. Emphasizing communication skills is a matter of education, not a matter of testing. There is a fallacy in the expectation that changing the evaluation standard to absolute evaluation will turn it into a test that evaluates communication skills.
In an internationalized society, being fluent in English and maintaining a high level of learning are important advantages. To properly evaluate this, it is desirable to maintain the current relative evaluation. Introducing absolute evaluation of English in the SAT will not only reduce the overall level of students’ English, but also have a negligible effect on reducing private education costs and may only lead to the complication of the admission process. Rather, it would be more effective to improve the education system and strengthen school education while maintaining the current relative evaluation. Therefore, I oppose the introduction of absolute evaluation of English in the SAT.
