Examining the Accountability and Effectiveness of the Elementary English Curriculum from the Present Testing System at Elementary Schools

초등영어 평가체계로부터 초등영어 교과과정의 책무성과 효율성의 검증

The object of the present study was to examine whether it is possible to get appropriate data to examine the accountability and effectiveness of the elementary English curriculum from the present testing system at elementary schools. The present elementary education policy encourages using performance assessment relying mainly on teachers' observation of students' performanceinstead of objective tests of which the results are given in hierarchical number. To obtain objective data from the performance assessment, it is a prerequisite that teachers understand the achievement criteria set by the curriculum and be able to judge' performance objectively based on the same criteria. A questionnaire was used to examine the degree of teachers' understanding of the achievement criteria. A listening test was developed and given to 13 classes of 4th graders. The English teachers of the 13 classes were asked to judge whether each of their students had achieved the curriculum objective. The distributions of the test scores and teachers judgments were compared across the teachers to examine whether the teachers had the same achievement criteria. The survey showed that about a third of elementary school teachers reported that they did not have an understanding of the achievement criteria set by the curriculum. The comparison analysis showed that the levels of achievement criteria varied greatly among the elementary school teachers.