School Effectiveness in Developing Countries - A Summary of the Research Evidence

improve quality; these include revised selection policies and the use of continuous
assessment systems (see Pennycuick, 1990 & 1991), although these must be used with
caution. Another possibility is in-service training to improve the competence of
inspectors and teachers in principles and techniques of student assessment. Lulsegged
(1988) describes a successful example of this strategy in Swaziland.

As a result of their research, Kellaghan & Greaney (1992) offer the following
recommendations:

1. Examinations should reflect the full curriculum, not merely a limited
aspect of it.

2. Higher-order cognitive skills should be assessed to ensure they are
taught.

3. Skills to be tested should not be limited to academic areas but should
also be relevant to out-of-school tasks.

4. A variety of examination formats should be used, including written,
oral, aural, and practical.

5. In evaluating published examination results and national rankings,
account should be taken of factors other than teaching effort.

6. The number of public examinations should be reduced to help diminish
repetition and dropout rates and the inevitable sense of failure experienced
by students.

7. The amount of time teachers spend on testing and preparing for public
examinations should be lessened to provide more time for teaching.

8. Detailed, timely feedback should be provided to schools on levels of
pupil performance and areas of difficulty in public examinations.

9. Predictive validity studies of public examinations should be conducted.

10. The professional competence of examination authorities needs to be
developed, especially in test construction.

11. Each examination board should have a research capacity.

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