School Records Weighted More with Less Impact of CSAT in College Admissions Process

Starting with the 2008 academic year’s college entrance criteria, the grade point system, such as the standard point system of the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) and the percentile grade system, will be abolished, and only the 9-scale grading will be offered.

Also, in order to prevent grade inflation in the confidential report system, the cumulative school record grading system will adopt a relative evaluation, changing from the existing five-point scale of A, B, C, D, and F. In the new evaluation, class standing will be categorized into nine scales with original scores of different subjects, their mean and standard deviation applied.

The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development announced its “College Entrance System Improvement Policy after the 2008 Academic Year” with its main claim giving more weight to cumulative school records and less weight to the CSAT, aiming to revive public education.

The new entrance system is being finalized after six postponements due to the controversy concerning the discrimination power of cumulative school reports and the CSAT after the draft was announced on August 26. However, universities are still doubtful because of worries that it will be hard to select students just with the CSAT and the 9-scale grades of cumulative school records.

The new college entrance system dictates keeping the first level of the current CSAT under the 9-scale system at four percent, with a decrease in the number of scales when the cumulative school records-centered system settles in.

The CSAT will have much more content from high school curriculums, and the test writers will include 50 percent of high school teachers. After adopting a public subscription system for questions in the social studies/science section in 2008, the problem-bank system will be adopted in 2010. The idea to hold the CSAT twice a year or for two days will be also put under discussion.

The cumulative school report will include volunteer activities, extracurricular activities, and reading in each subject area so that the report will be used increasingly in the college entrance selection process.

In addition, the confidence level in teachers will be promoted by putting up teachers’ teaching schemes, evaluation schemes and standards, and other information on their school’s homepage. Starting with the 2010 class of middle school freshmen, the teacher evaluation system will be put into effect in which one teacher will write out an exam and will be evaluated for it.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education has decided to develop special selection processes and promote equilibrium among regions for vocational high school students, socially marginalized classes, students in rural areas, and others.

In-Chul Lee inchul@donga.com