Taking test results “into consideration” when grading

In Sweden, where this study is situated, grades are high stakes for students. Grades are the only criteria used for selecting students as they leave compulsory school and apply for upper-secondary school. When students apply for higher education, selection is also made based on the “Swedish Scholastic Aptitude Test”, but a minimum of one third of the seats (often more) are based on grades. Given that it is the individual teacher who synthesizes students’ performances into a grade, and that the reliability of teachers’ grades has been questioned (e.g., Swedish National Agency of Education (SNAE), 2019), this is a problematic situation which can potentially have a significant influence on the lives of thousands of students each year. Measures have been taken to increase the agreement in teachers’ grading, most recently by legally requiring that teachers in primary and secondary education take results from national tests “into consideration” when grading. This relatively loose strategy of taking test results “into consideration” has not yet yielded any observable change in teachers’ grades, however, and there is still a large discrepancy between teacher-assigned grades and test results for most subjects (SNAE, 2019)1. For example, the proportion of students whose grades correspond to their test results varies between 61-73 percent in the various subjects. Furthermore, it is more common that the teacher-assigned grades are higher than the test results, as compared to the other way around (with the exception of English as a foreign language, EFL). There are also gender differences, where girls to a slightly higher degree than boys receive grades that are higher in comparison with their test results. There are also large variations between schools. The question in focus here is how this difference between teacher-assigned grades and test results originate and why it persists, which is investigated from a teacher perspective.