“Hone the evaluation criteria”

Viktor Aleksandrovich, now discussions about the Unified State Exam have calmed down somewhat, but I will still ask a naive question. Why was it necessary to introduce the Unified State Exam, to what extent was it relevant, and what did the organizers expect and expect from the introduction of this type of exam?

Let's turn to history. By the year 2000, the shortcomings of our educational system, which hindered its modernization, became clearly visible. In particular, it was noted that assessing the results of graduates mastering the school curriculum is no good. No one knew what was behind the same C or A in the certificates of two neighboring schools. In this regard, the state final certification, generally speaking, was not any kind of state certification. It became an internal matter for the school. Therefore, it was necessary to increase the objectivity of final school exams.

The second is the practice of entrance exams to universities. It is well known: in order to be guaranteed admission to a university, you had to attend preparatory courses at that university. And E. A. Bunimovich, a well-known educational figure and mathematics teacher, turned to Filippov, Sadovnichy and, in my opinion, the rector of the Institute Kudryavtsev: why do eleventh-graders take courses at your university, do you have special subjects or a different algebra? Why can't I teach them at school so that they do well in entrance tests? In one of the reputable universities there was an announcement: at the entrance exams in a foreign language at our institute, special attention is paid to irregular verbs. And the subtext is: “If you take preparatory courses with us, then everything will be fine with irregular verbs.” Everyone noted this practice.

And therefore, the commission that prepared the modernization concept was given the task of thinking through how to increase the objectivity of exam grades - both graduation and entrance exams. The task was to create an independent assessment system that can be used both for marking the school certificate and as a method for enrolling in a university.

How important is the objectivity of certifying young people specifically as graduates? Why does the graduate himself need this objectivity? The question is to determine whether a person will be able to study at a university. After all, school is behind us, isn’t it?

This is both true and false. This was not the case for medals.

Well, medals are a special matter.

Not at all. I remember what happened to the medalists in those years. At that time, few people were interested in the number three, and neither did the number four. But if all five... At some point there was too large a percentage of medalists, this became a problem in Soviet times. In some weak type of corruption, or distortion. Let's give our friend's daughter or son a high five, and so on. But no one understood how Russian schools really teach. We kept saying: we have the best education in the world, but was it really so? Our final assessments did not provide any information about this. And the picture, by the way, is far from happy. Twenty percent fail in math. The school needs an independent assessment procedure like air. Therefore, independent assessment is already irreversible, and it will apply to all levels of education. In the regions, conflicts are already arising between primary and secondary schools - who taught poorly? Did they do nothing in elementary school or is something wrong going on in high school? That is, you understand more and more clearly that there is no escape from the introduction of an independent assessment - this is an irreversible process.

Do you share the point of view of E. F. Saburov that within the secondary school - during the transition from ninth grades to senior grades - a state certification exam similar to the Unified State Exam should also be established?

Absolutely. Moreover, at the intra-school stage, such an exam should not only be of a qualifying or disqualifying nature, but also diagnostic. You need to understand what to do with children who have such a weak level of development. How serious are the problems, for example, with study skills. And so on. In general, this is a global trend, not a Russian one - a general global trend. That is, even for school education, the introduction of a unified exam was a big step forward.

I will try to take the side of the opponents of the Unified State Exam. I heard this argument from among teachers. The Unified State Exam combines two types of assessment: final certification and, so to speak, a ticket to the future. That is, on one side this exam summarizes and generalizes the school knowledge of a young person, and in this sense it is final; on the other hand, it should reveal whether the applicant is able to continue studying at a university. Many believe that these two assessments are incompatible in type and cannot be derived from a single exam.

What is tested at the university entrance exam level?

In all likelihood, his ability to navigate and make some intellectual decisions in the environment in which a person wants to engage in the future.

Okay, let's take the Unified State Exam. Teachers, even the most intelligent ones, say that the last part is too difficult. And there is a problem that the young man cannot solve. There is an Olympiad-type task there, absolutely non-trivial. I’m a mathematician from a previous life, and of course I forgot a lot, but I couldn’t solve the last problem today. That is, this work has already been done - there are tasks of the highest level.

How can you characterize the methods and forms of surveys and their evolution during the existence of the Unified State Examination? Do they need to be improved?

World practice, generally speaking, includes two main approaches. These are tests with multiple choice answers and an open task: solve, say, a problem in mathematics, here are the conditions for you, take it and solve it. And there is a third, intermediate form: questions with a short free answer: you need to demonstrate how you decided, you need to write formulas and answers on the left. We have all three parts. What has changed? We are gradually reducing the number of multiple choice tasks; there are fewer of them in all subjects. In literature this year, this type of assignment was completely removed. And the criteria for the most difficult part C are being worked out. This is the most difficult thing for us now. Even at school mathematics competitions there were discussions about how many points to give for a particular problem. And this is not an easy job - to hone the criteria for assessing part C. The situation with the Russian language is very difficult. If, for example, the topic is not fully covered, then how to evaluate the work?

This is such a short essay, right?

Yes, that's absolutely right. Therefore, you know, a lot of improvements are being proposed in the regions. Both university teachers and school teachers take part in this work. And every year we improve our approaches together with them. The debate is still fierce. We recently studied the Russian language and discussed which direction to move in, how to develop test materials in the Russian language. The conclusion we came to is very interesting: it is necessary to test knowledge of Russian by analogy with foreign languages. Measure all four language competencies: ability to understand, speak, listen, write. And not to test knowledge of syntax or knowledge of how an adverbial phrase differs from a participial phrase. That is, to study Russian as a means of communication and communication. Participial phrases - why do I need them in life? To put commas correctly?

Well, let's say, sometimes everything can go awry because of the wrong comma...

I agree with you, this also needs to be addressed. But that's not the main thing. Look how our children communicate on the Internet. What is the Russian language there? There is no Russian language there. Plus Anglicisms, which clog our language with terrible force. Our children have stopped understanding detailed texts. So we set tasks so that in the ninth grade and in the eleventh grade we begin to test text comprehension skills. Read, write, formulate your thoughts. And the last thing I’ll add: we started setting tasks that test students’ ability to apply their acquired knowledge in extracurricular situations. Let's say, calculate a favorable tariff for a mobile phone.

Well, yes, it’s not water pouring from a pipe onto a pedestrian... Let’s return to the attacks on the Unified State Examination. The questions of these exams must be highly formalized to increase the objectivity of the assessment. But formalization is not indicated for every discipline, not for every subject, and not everything can be formalized. And nothing can replace a conversation between a future teacher and a possible future student. In this regard: how do you feel about the idea expressed by Evgeniy Fedorovich Saburov? He proposes to reduce the number of EGK exams to two: in the Russian language and mathematics. As for specialized subjects, he believes that it is possible to find out the preparation of applicants only on the basis of an in-depth interview, which would not take into account at all the knowledge accumulated at school in this subject, say, in physics, history, and would have the sole purpose find out: why a person chose this particular subject, how strong his motivation is. I found it interesting, but to some extent contrary to the very idea of ​​the Unified State Exam. After all, an interview is a window for corruption, right?

In what subjects can a child be admitted to university? Generally speaking, many real teachers, rectors, for example Vitaly Ivanovich Vidyapin, rector of the Plekhanov Academy, say: you need three subjects - Russian, mathematics and a foreign language. Foreign language at pass/fail level. And three subjects is enough for him to select people for any faculties. He doesn't need any other exams. That is, at the first lecture they will be told: “Forget what they taught you at school.”

If we talk about admission to universities, you need to have two types of tests. The first type of test is that you have enough knowledge to listen to first-year lectures. Of course, a lot also depends on the level at which the first course is taught in the same mathematics: in Stankin and at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics - this is a different level. And the second point. Are you capable of learning? After all, what do freshmen fall short on? The inability to organize oneself, the inability to take notes, work on the Internet, prepare for classes, etc. And at the first session a lot of people drop out, because no one tests this skill.

If we talk about the interview, we generally abandoned the interview course. There is too much room for corruption and subjectivism. I don't like this kid's face or the way he's dressed. I can ask one thing: in what year did World War II end? And I will ask the other to list the names of the dead. What are they doing in the world? In the world, generally speaking, they write essays. They ask the child: “Write why you want to enroll in this specialty at this particular university.”

That is, approximately what Saburov proposed, only in written form.

Today such an interview is conducted only by physics and technical specialists. And the applicant is asked: “How did you study at school? What clubs did you attend? What did you like? What problem did you not solve at the Olympics? Why didn’t you decide?” etc. And this can earn five points. It’s better for me, I’m exaggerating, for a person who understands something, a candidate for master of sports, and has about ninety points, than for someone who has about 95 points in physics and mathematics, but has nothing in his soul. Because this one knows how to organize himself. We must take into account that this is a physical and technical school. His father and mother are in the physics and technical college, they live in the city, their training is high. Therefore, the position itself is correct: the law establishes that universities with high competition should conduct additional tests. And now the form of such a test is being worked out. And if there is a university where for 100 budget places there are 102 people with an average score of 50, why bother arranging an interview?

Many teachers say: if you don’t study extra, you won’t pass the Unified State Exam; in our class, we cannot guarantee that our children will successfully pass the Unified State Exam. Is there a problem here - a gap between the result of the educational process and the requirements of the Unified State Exam?

I don't understand what your teachers are saying. What does it mean to successfully pass the Unified State Exam? I answer extremely harshly. There are, roughly speaking, three groups of children in schools. The first group are those who need to get a C, no more. We have 20% of bad students in mathematics. And these two are deserved. For example, a child stopped studying mathematics in the fifth grade. Or from the ninth. Let's say a child is an athlete. Or a super-humanitarian. Is it possible to give these children at school knowledge at the three level? For them, success is a three. Teachers joke: “Well, of course, we write three, two in our heads.” Well, they gave him the required grade on their own, but they didn’t teach him mathematics. This was in Soviet times. So, what does success mean to such people? Swim out to three. This remains a big problem.

The second category of success is a confident four. I want to say right away that most school teachers develop this level without any additional classes. There are about forty percent of such students. These children pass the Unified State Exam in approximately the same way - with their B's and A's without additional classes. Moreover, there is a direct correlation: what the current performance was in the eleventh grade, this is approximately the score that a person received on the Unified State Exam. Eighty percent confirm their fours and fives. And twenty percent is a spread. Round trip.

Now the third category. Let's say I'm applying for admission to the Mechanics and Mathematics University of Moscow State University or some other strong university, where there is a lot of competition. There are twenty percent of such applicants. Naturally, there are not enough places in prestigious specialties in prestigious universities. And this is the normal order of things. Therefore - this was the case in Soviet times, and this continues today - I need additional classes, no matter where. This could be classes with a teacher at school or at home with a tutor; some schoolchildren themselves take reference books for applicants to universities and independently solve problems at home. Or they work with dad or mom. That is, talking about a gap between the results of the educational process and the results of passing the Unified State Exam is not entirely correct: the correlation between these values, according to statistics, is quite large, and the success criterion for different groups of students, as we have seen, is not the same.