Here comes the Primary Exit Profile (PEP)

NEARLY 20 years ago, many parents were apprehensive with the change from Common Entrance to the then new Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT). Now, we are faced with a new dilemma again. Change is problematic for many persons. Even though GSAT had its flaws, and many are happy to see the end of it, some would still like to continue with it, as they are unsure of the new PEP assessment.

Many parents are now seeking clarity on the new exit exam from primary school, The PEP, which will replace GSAT as the national secondary-school entrance test. What is PEP?

The Ministry of Education’s new way of determining whether a student is ready to leave grade six and enter high school is the PEP. The PEP will provide a profile of where the student is academically, the student’s strengths and weaknesses, and their readiness for grade seven.

HIGHER ORDER THINKING

The Student Assessment Unit (SAU) reveals that PEP is a series of exams that is aligned to the New Standards Curriculum (NSC). The NSC is also geared to improving higher-order thinking (HOT) skills. HOT requires that we do something with the facts. It

requires thinking on a level that is not just memorising facts or telling something back to someone exactly the way it was told to you. HOT requires that we understand information, we can manipulate them, put them together in new or novel ways, and apply them as we seek new solutions to new problems.

The PEP differs from GSAT in that it assesses student’s ability to think critically and creatively, and effectively process information, rather than assessing the student’s ability to mainly remember information. The PEP is intended to provide a better and more complete profile of students’ academic and critical-thinking capabilities at the end of primary-level education. PEP is requiring the use of HOT skills.

THE THREE KEY COMPONENTS OF PEP

The PEP consists of a series of assessments that has three components, which gives the student a complete profile. The components are:

1. Curriculum-based test: Will focus on the use of higher-order reasoning skills to assess the grade-six level content in the areas of mathematics, science, social studies and language arts. It reduces an overreliance on memory and swatting.

2. Ability task test: Will assess verbal and quantitative reasoning.

3. Performance Task Test: Requires the demonstration of skills to solve real-world scenarios that will require students to apply their knowledge and skills from the following subject areas: mathematics, science, language arts, and social studies.

There are also the performance tasks to be done at grades four and five that will contribute to the student’s overall grade and be a part of the complete profile.

Students just leaving grade three at the end of this academic year (20172018) will be the first cohort to complete all the evaluations at grades four, five and six. They will do the grade-four performance task section in 2019, grade-five performance task in 2020, and all three grade-six components in 2021.

PLACEMENT WITH PEP

There is a belief that students will be placed by a new cluster-based geographical zoning-type system. This is not so. The GSAT was a placement examination, and the new PEP will operate in a similar way.

The students who will do the PEP examination will have the choice to select the first five of the seven high schools they wish to attend anywhere in the island, and then the remaining two schools should be selected based on geographic location. The placement the student gets is based on his or her performance. The placement system will still try to ensure that a student is placed in a school that was realistically chosen.

It is important that the new exit exam from primary-level school gets a chance to unfold.

DR AVRIL Z. DALEY, Clinical Psychologist