Response to interpellation 2023/24:726 on national subject tests in the introductory program
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns legally secure and equal assessments for students in the introductory program during the digitalization of national tests. L argues that digitalization and future centralized grading increase equality 1 2. L argues that students in the introductory program do not get access to digital tests at the primary school level during the first years in order to minimize the risk of cheating and unauthorized distribution 3 1 2. Schools can instead use older, confidential tests 3 1 2. S argues that this creates an inequality for these students 4. S wants measures that guarantee the same fairness for the introductory program 5.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! Linus Sköld has asked me how I intend to act so that students in the introductory program will continue to have the opportunity to receive an equivalent assessment in a legally secure manner.
The national tests are an important tool to support a legally secure and equitable grading. For students in the introductory programs, the national tests are voluntary to use. If a school chooses to use the national tests for grade 9 in the introductory programs at the upper secondary school, the same rules for handling and implementation apply as for the compulsory school.
The government's decision to digitalize the national tests will result in a more efficient testing system that facilitates work for teachers and reduces the risk of cheating through unauthorized distribution of the tests and the injustices this entails. To minimize the risk of distribution, Skolverket has decided that students attending an introductory program shall not have access to national tests at the primary school level digitally during the first years of the introduction of digital national tests (dnr 2024:538). A contrary decision would have meant that all national tests in grade 9 would become available to all upper secondary activities offering introductory programs. This would have increased the risk of unauthorized distribution of the tests.
All students attending an introductory program must take national tests, but it is the schools themselves that decide how they want to proceed. Schools will be able to use older confidential national tests in paper format when the national tests become digital. Naturally, these tests will not be too old but will be adapted to the curriculum for primary school, the preschool class, and the after-school center (Lgr 22). Schools may also choose to use old tests that are older than Lgr 22 if they judge that the content largely corresponds with the content of current curricula. This means that national tests can always be used to assess students' knowledge in an equivalent and legally secure manner.
Linus Sköld (S)
Madam Speaker! Lotta Edholm has in recent years debated major systemic issues such as what the grading system should look like and how resource distribution models should function. In light of that, this may seem like a small detail. But it is such an important detail, because it says something about how we view grades and assessment.
Let me start from the beginning. In the Swedish system, we have the national tests - even though the effect of standardized tests on knowledge results is contested - to strengthen equivalence and fairness in assessment and grading. Besides the fact that they of course also provide feedback to the student on how they are doing and how it is going in school, this is the primary purpose.
In grade 9, students write national subject tests in at least five subjects. If one were to fail them so much that one fails - either by failing in mathematics, Swedish or English or by failing in too many other subjects - one does not become eligible for a national program at the upper secondary school. In that case, one ends up in the introductory program and thus, so to speak, has to brush up on one's primary school competence. Therefore, the use of the national tests for grade 9 also in the introductory programs is the only adequate way to ensure that the assessment and grading becomes as fair as possible even for those students who have gone that route into upper secondary school.
Until now, schools providing introductory programs and wishing to use the national tests have been able to do so on exactly the same terms as primary school. But with the digitalization of the national tests, the government now risks throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The interest in a fair assessment is just as great in the introductory program as it is in grade 9.
Lotta Edholm answers, in contradiction to what Skolverket has told teachers I have been in contact with, that it will be possible to use old, analogue tests for the introductory program. But there are a couple of problems with that. One is that I do not see why the privacy risk would be greater because the tests become digital. Up until now, this has been applied in such a way that the tests have been available to all schools that have the introductory program. Why would the privacy risk become greater because it is applied in the same way but with digital tests? I actually do not understand that.
The second point concerns a student who completes grade 9 this spring and ends up in the introductory program, who will have to write an old test that is supposed to reflect the knowledge requirements in Lgr 22, which has been used for only two years. This year is therefore the second time that a test is being administered based on that version of the curriculum. Students in the introductory program will therefore next spring run a 50 percent risk of having to rewrite the same test that they have written this year.
These parts are included in my interpellation, but Lotta Edholm does not touch them with a word in her answer, so I would like to ask her to comment on this.
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! I completely share Linus Sköld's view on how important the national tests are, not least for the grading but also so that students can know roughly where they stand. But we know that cheating occurs even when it comes to national tests, and we have had problems with them being spread so that students have been able to see them in advance. Furthermore, there has been an inconsistent assessment of the national tests.
That is why the government, and also the previous government, have now decided that the national tests shall be digitized. This will take place over a number of years, and gradually we will also get central grading of the tests. In order for a central grading to be possible, a digitization is also required. When all of this is in place - it is complex, I must say - we will also get a system that is more just and equitable than today.
Regarding this matter of confidentiality, Skolverket says that it will apply for the first few years; then one will probably be able to resolve it. But when all this is launched, one will certainly encounter problems, and then they will be able to solve them. The idea is that it will eventually become exactly as it is today, i.e., that one will also be able to use the digital tests that apply for the current year in the introductory programs, but they do not dare to say that it can be that way already now. Therefore, Skolverket says that one can use old, confidential tests.
To avoid the problem that Linus Sköld raises, namely that one might use the very latest national tests which are not digitized, Skolverket says that one can also use tests that were used before the new curriculum came into force, if one considers them to still be relevant. I think that Skolverket has done what is required in this matter, even though I recognize the problem that Linus Sköld raises.
If Skolverket says that one will encounter a confidentiality problem if this is distributed to all schools that have the introductory program, it is clear that I, as minister, cannot say that Skolverket is wrong. It is not my task to review this or to say that there are no confidentiality problems. It would completely exceed my ability to perform such a review. I trust fully that Skolverket is making a reasonable assessment in this, but it is also entirely possible for students in the introductory programs to take the national tests, however not the digital ones for the current year.
Linus Sköld (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Lotta Edholm, for the answer! It is particularly gratifying to hear that Lotta Edholm recognizes her limitation when it comes to reviewing the confidentiality assessments that Skolverket makes. That is indeed true for me as well. But that is not what the interpellation is about, actually.
This is about the political endeavor that must nevertheless exist. If Lotta Edholm thinks that the national tests are a factor that makes grades and assessment more fair, she should, as a consequence of this, think that the grades should be fair in the same way also for students who attend the introductory program and take measures to achieve that. From her answer here in the chamber today, I perceive that she does indeed agree that the grades become more fair because of the national tests, but that one can leave this a bit loose for the introductory program. It is a position that I am not quite satisfied with.
I think it would have been good if we could introduce a measure that constitutes a guarantee that there will be the same type of justice even if one has to continue reading the primary school's knowledge goals for another year or two before one can enter upper secondary school.
The interest that the trial secrecy is to protect is precisely the equal assessment. Leaked trials or the type of cheating that Lotta Edholm speaks of is a way to corrupt the equality of the assessment. The purpose of the secrecy is, therefore, to uphold the equality.
Now Lotta Edholm is using confidentiality to defend an inequality in an illogical way, namely the inequality between those who go directly from primary school to a national upper secondary program and those who go the route via an introductory program.
Lotta Edholm says that Skolverket has stated that it is only during the first years that it should be in this way. But it is during the first years that the problem of students risking having to retake exams will be greatest. But in five or ten years, when there are heaps of old exams based on the current curriculum, the problem will no longer be as large as when the curriculum has only been in effect for a few years.
From the answer, I understand that teachers who think older tests are relevant can choose to use them, but that does not guarantee a particularly high degree of equivalence. There is, so to speak, an inconsistency in Lotta Edholm's reasoning. She uses the confidentiality argument to defend an unequal construction. I think it is a bit of a trivialization of the risk that one completes the tests and receives their grades on unequal terms depending on whether they receive them in primary school or in the introductory program.
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! The whole idea of digitizing the national tests and gradually achieving a central direction is to increase equity. This, linked to the grading systems, will be very important.
Then there is the problem that, during the introductory programs in the first years, one will not be able to use the digital national tests that apply at that time, simultaneously, so to speak. On the other hand, one will be able to use previous tests.
It is clear that it is not completely perfect – I am fully aware of that. But it is incredibly complicated just to launch this system. And when those who are now working hard to try to move this forward by one year – we are working for it to happen – say that it is a leakage risk, I think we as politicians in this chamber actually have to take it somewhat seriously. I still feel calm and secure that one can use old tests. Teachers can also make an assessment of whether parts of tests from before Lgr 22 can be used.
It is not perfect – I am the first to admit it. But it is the system that we have now. I will not contribute to the entire secrecy issue being left to the wind, to use Linus Sköld's own words.
Linus Sköld (S)
Madam Speaker! Initially, in my closing speech, I would like to emphasize that the Social Democrats think it is positive that the national tests are being digitized. We are also in favor of a central direction of the national tests. It strengthens equity, and this has been our endeavor even while in government, as Lotta Edholm pointed out.
I understand that it is a complex matter to digitize the national tests. It is much harder to do than to say, so to speak. That is why it has been a protracted process. We started this process many years ago. It has been a protracted process to get this in place – both legally and technically. I therefore have the greatest respect for the fact that it is complex, but that does not mean that one can divest oneself of the responsibility to try to rectify inconsistencies or what could potentially become injustices in this system, on the contrary.
If Lotta Edholm thinks that the national tests are a factor that makes grades and assessments more fair, she should now step forward and say: Here we need to take measures so that the grades become fair even for students who attend the introductory program.
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! I think it is incredibly important that the national tests are representative. This will increase when they are digitized and when we achieve a central grading. I believe that it will mean very much in Swedish schools that it becomes that way.
Then we have the problem that Linus Sköld raises. I truly understand that it is a problem, but one cannot just wave the problem away and say: We make these tests available to everyone in the introductory programs - straight up. We do not listen to those who every day work hard to get this launched, but we think a bit outside the box and come up with that this works.
That is not how I intend to act. One problem we have today is that the national tests actually sometimes leak out.
The whole idea behind this is that we should have national tests that are equivalent and that students should be able to trust that they are graded in the same way. In that case, I think, it would be irresponsible to say: We don't care that Skolverket says this about confidentiality. We just let it go.
Then I think we would lose part of the idea of digitizing and gradually having a central direction.
This is important. I take the problems very seriously. But it is still the case that one will be able to use old tests if one wants to award equivalent grades.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.