Secondary school
General section
Assessment
As previously mentioned, upper secondary schools play a diverse role and serve students who are striving for different goals. Emphasis is placed on the students’ abilities on their journey and it is important that the assessment supports the goals being pursued.
Often the purpose of assessment is to examine the extent to which students have mastered the objectives of the National Curriculum Guide in the subject in question, but it is also necessary to look at the students’ key competences. It is desirable that assessment also includes formative assessment, that is, guidance to students on how they can most effectively manage their studies in the future.
Assessment plays an important role in gaining knowledge about the success of school work and how individual students or groups are achieving set goals. It is important that schools establish a policy regarding diverse assessment and guidance for students. Assessment must be valid and reliable and its scope must be in accordance with the learning and teaching in the relevant course.
Assessment should be based on a variety of assessment methods and include reliable sources of student competence. It should be ensured that assessment covers all aspects of the study so that students’ knowledge, skills and abilities as well as progress are assessed. Assessment methods can be practical, oral or written, and include self-assessment, peer assessment, continuous assessment and final assessment.
Secondary schools shall establish clear procedures for assessment and publish them in the school curriculum.
It should state:
- criteria for the weighting of individual factors in assessment,
- conditions for achieving a milestone,
- final requirements of study programs, if applicable,
- rules concerning student illness and the right to take medical exams,
- the right of students to view exam solutions and continuous assessment data that are part of the final grade,
- students’ rights to special resources for assessment, e.g. access to customized test materials, oral exams, longer exam times, application options for disabled and chronically ill students for deviations from traditional assessment, and so on; the assistance does not involve reducing study requirements or treating them differently for this group of students than generally applies,
- other services provided for exam anxiety, assistance for students with disabilities and/or specific learning difficulties,
- sanctions for student misconduct related to any type of assessment, such as what is required for students to be dismissed from an exam, expelled from an individual course or school, temporarily or permanently.
Final report and grades
General assessment in upper secondary schools is carried out by teachers under the supervision of the headmaster. Upper secondary school examinations shall be accompanied by a report on the general knowledge, skills and abilities of the students. Students who intend to complete the matriculation examination must have completed all courses according to the curriculum with satisfactory results according to the assessment of the relevant school. In core upper secondary school subjects, assessment in the final courses for the matriculation examination shall be based on reference tests provided or recognized by the Minister. Studies in certified trades conclude with a journeyman’s examination, the structure and implementation of which are discussed in a separate regulation.
The results of assessment may be published as grades and/or comments. The final report, which appears on the student’s published transcripts and diplomas, shall be in whole numbers between 1-10 or in a system that can be clearly linked to it. This requirement is set out to facilitate the assessment of student learning between schools. As a general rule, a minimum grade of 5 should be used to pass a course. Deviations from this should be explained in the programme description and published in the school curriculum.
The handling and publication of grades must be carried out in accordance with the Act on the Protection of Personal Information and the Processing of Personal Information. Therefore, schools are not permitted to publish the grades of individual students under their name, ID number or other registration identifier that can be personally identified unless there is written permission from the student in question. If the student is a minor, the school may hand over the student’s certificate to the guardian, but otherwise the student’s written permission is required.
Secondary schools must set out clear procedures for grading and their publication. These should state:
- a time limit for students to review their solutions in the presence of the teacher,
- rules for correcting grades and publishing a new grade.
Test solutions and continuous assessment data that are part of the final grade
Schools are required to preserve all final exam solutions for one year, whether written or electronic, in accordance with the provisions of the National Archives Act. Within that period, the examinee has the right to see the solution and receive a copy of it. After that time, the school principal is responsible for destroying all solution solutions.
Telephone assessment data falls under this provision as much as possible and can be considered feasible. All teacher reviews and grades given for individual projects, smaller tests, home tests, essays and reports must be kept for the year. Architectural artifacts and drawings that can be considered final projects should not be kept, but it is expected that students will not take the artifacts out of school until after the exam presentation, which is equivalent to them not commenting on the existing grade.
According to the Information Act, those who request it can be given copies of school final exam projects after exams in the relevant subjects have been taken.
Certificate
A school issues a diploma to confirm a student’s completion of their studies. The diploma shall include the school’s logo and name, information about the student’s studies, such as the name of the course and program, the arrangement of the studies at the proficiency level, individual subjects and course names, course grades and, if applicable, what rights the studies confer. In addition, a school attendance grade or certificate of attendance shall be included. The diploma shall be dated, stamped and signed. Individual upper secondary schools may add information if they deem it necessary.
The holder of a diploma can have it translated into English if he or she so requests, and the upper secondary school that graduates the student is responsible for such translation. The Ministry of Education, Science and Culture publishes an appendix on its website with diplomas from vocational programmes in Icelandic and English. It describes the competences that the holder of a diploma possesses upon completion of the studies and links the completion of the examination to the competence levels in the Icelandic and European reference frameworks.
Schools are obliged to keep copies of diplomas in secure storage in accordance with the provisions of the National Archives Act.
Disputes about assessment
Students have the right to receive explanations of the assessment underlying the final grade in a course within five working days of the publication of the grade. If students who have not achieved the minimum grade do not agree with the teacher’s assessment, they can contact the school principal and request an assessment by a special examiner. An impartial examiner shall then be appointed to assess the examination papers. His or her decision is final and cannot be appealed to a higher authority.
The handling of disputes regarding results in journeyman examinations is discussed in the current regulations.