The Territory-Wide Standard Assessment (TSA)

Our principal has become obsessed with improving the results of the Territory-Wide Standard Assessment (TSA). He is like many who feel the results of the test measure how good the school is based on a test taken by the P3 and P6 students. The Education Department have repeatedly stated the results do not reflect how good or how bad a school is but the principals and school management committees think differently.

Last week the Professional Teachers Union released the results of an internal poll showing 70% of those asked said the TSA should be abolished. The Education Department has responded saying they will keep it as they should but they need to modify it.

All public school primary school students have two or three examinations, along with other quizzes and smaller tests, over the course of the year to look at how they are doing. All of these tests are different from school to school and follow a common curriculum. With different schools having different tests and different ways to evaluate learning there was no standard way of knowing how students are doing.

The TSA was brought in see if students were learning the basics. Individual student scores are never kept and are not used to evaluate individual students. Government officials and schools started seeing the test as a way to rank schools even though they publicly said it wasn’t used in this way. Officials would stress the importance of improving the TSA scores without providing any support to help schools do this. The school management board committees, which have the power to hire and fire the school principal, started using the data from the TSA to compare their school to other ones. They would apply pressure on the principal who would then put pressure on the teachers who would then put pressure on the students to study for a test that doesn’t affect the students.

“Primary Education is to motivate students but schools spend too much on TSA so the  students don’t have time to enjoy their school life,” said school principal Gloria Chan, Principal, Kau Yan School on RTHK’s Talk Back on June 25th. “The schools overreact to the TSA which creates more problems than benefits on the school as they feel TSA results show how much the school has achieved so that is why school over react and neglect the other aspects.”

Most schools have additional classes, workbooks, lunch time practice tests and other forms of drilling to help the kids pass the TSA. A test which does not affect the future of the student but the school.

The government makes an important point in saying other countries like the Canada, Australia and in Europe have these types of standardized tests. What the government fails to mention is the test scores in these countries are used as a way to allocate resources to support these weaker schools which the Education Department does not do and needs to change.

Ms. Chan also mentioned how there are better ways to assess how learning is done at school using the results of the school based exams. As well schools need to go through an external assessment where independent auditors observe lessons, go through tests, student workbooks and a school’s financial records provide a better picture of a school. These external assessment are intensive and expensive to do. They are only done every three of four years.

A reformed TSA with a focus on helping not ranking schools could be an effective way to  improve the education of our weakest students.