Students show what they know : Two studies concerning the national Grade 3 test for Swedish and for Swedish as a second language

In this study, more detailed knowledge is gathered in two key areas related to Sweden’s national test for Grade 3 pupils in the subjects of Swedish and Swedish as a second language. The first investigation (see chapter 2) takes as its starting point the fact that pupils who follow the national curriculum for Swedish perform better than pupils who follow the national curriculum for Swedish as a second language. Consequently, an analysis is conducted of the Grade 3 test results for a number of multilingual pupils for the years 2009–2011. The second investigation (see chapter 3) proceeds from the assumption that the tests should contribute to as equivalent an assessment as possible. This study is limited to a calculation of points for the reading texts included in the Grade 3 test for the period 2009–2012. The aim of the first investigation is thus to study in more detail a number of multilingual pupils who followed the national curriculum for Swedish as a second language from 2009 to 2011 and analyse what their Swedish language ability is like, as seen through the Grade 3 test on the subject. The results of this study indicate that the majority of the multilingual pupils meet the standards required for the different parts of the test but that more pupils meet the standards required for the oral parts than for the reading and writing parts. In a more in-depth analysis, it is found that pupils had the greatest difficulty meeting the standards required for the parts that test reading of a factual text, followed by reading of a narrative text. The second investigation is aimed at mapping in what way the reading material included in the Grade 3 test for the period 2009–2012 can be considered to meet the requirement of equivalent assessment over time. A comparison is made between the pupils’ results for the different reading texts and an assignment of points determined in advance for the lowest passing level required for the different texts. The results of this study indicate that the texts investigated meet the requirement for equivalent assessment over time. The adjustment of points assigned to the texts, moving the level a point or two up or down relative to the degree of the text’s difficulty, worked well. Furthermore, the majority of pupils achieve high points on the two reading tests, but the narrative texts are easier for pupils to process than the factual texts