Madrid, June 14 (EFE).- The rise in grades in university entrance exams is due to inflationary dynamics “the result of political decisions” and an increasingly competitive environment, according to an analysis of the selectivity of almost one and a half million students examined in the period 2013-2020.
It is one of the conclusions of the report “The rise in selectivity grades: inflation or competition?”, carried out by researchers from the Esade Center for Economic Policies Lucas Gortázar and Lucía Cobreros, and the professor of Didactics at UNED Juan Manuel Dark.
According to the authors, public attention has intensified in recent times, assuming that the rise in grades must be attributed to the fact that it is increasingly easier to pass and obtain outstanding grades, because the level of the student body would be falling. And, in turn, the level would be lower because “effort” is no longer required.
However, they explain, “as happens on other fronts in the educational field, it seems that the interpretation has preceded the evidence to install as a central hypothesis that this rise in grades implies that students know less, and that they give away the passes and the outstanding ones.” ”.
The document explores the causes of the increase in selectivity scores and tries to determine if this responds to an artificial push (“inflation hypothesis”) or if, on the contrary, it is caused by real improvements derived from greater competition, effort and student learning (“competition hypothesis”).
Who puts the bell on the story?
Three elements concur in the final mark of the Selectividad: the mark of all Baccalaureate (6 points), the compulsory subjects for each modality of Baccalaureate (general phase; 4 points), and the electives (specific phase, in force since 2010; 4 points extra).
The average mark of the selectivity has increased from 8.75 out of 14 in 2015/2016 to 10.34 in 2021/2022, a rise that is registered in all the autonomous communities.
Analyzing the data, the researchers conclude that the competition hypothesis weighs as much as the inflation hypothesis to explain the rise.
In this way, they say, the data on the Selectividad of almost a million and a half students who took it between 2013 and 2020, show that the increase in qualifications is explained at the same time by “the emergence of an increasingly competitive environment and due to an inflationary dynamic of notes resulting from political decisions”.
The specific test
The crucial change from a Selectividad to 10 to 14 thanks to the creation of the specific (optional) test, the simultaneous rise of the cut-off marks, the increase in the volume of students who present themselves and who also aspire to the highest marks, They have created a competitive environment that, for example, has led 92% in 2022 to take a part of the test that was created in 2010 as optional.
The changes in the format of the test and in its scoring system have generated more options to raise grades and, without denying the sources of inflation, “there is also more preparation, more students competing, and with the bar rising in cut-off notes”.
In summary, a good part – “perhaps half” – of the rise in grades is explained by the effect of massive participation in the specific test, with more and more exams taken and, therefore, more options to obtain higher grades. .
The effect of the pandemic
Having said this, the Esade report does not deny that part of the rise in grades is also due to inflationary dynamics.
In the case of the Baccalaureate transcript (the second of the three parts of the final admission grade that grows the most after the specific test), the incentives created by raising the transcript grade from 50 to 60% in the year 2000 , the changes in the general test in 2017 (which reduced the optionality of the general phase and caused an increase in the Bachillerato grades) and the exceptional measures in the face of the pandemic for the Bachiller evaluation, had a “clear” upward effect.
In view of these data, the work proposes improvement measures:
1. Increase again the optionality of the specific phase of the test, which has been in decline since 2017. The report shows that the 2010 reform is fundamentally behind the changes in the admission marks observed in the Selectividad in the last decade. Between 2010 and 2016, all students had more opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge and skills.
However, the 2017 reform reduced the optionality in the general and specific phase and caused an inflationary effect.
2. Eliminate the exceptional measures of greater intra-matter optionality that were taken in 2020, which had a clear justification then; they caused a significant increase in the grades of the Baccalaureate, and also in the general and specific phase (due to the greater optionality within each of the subjects).
This further reduced the uniformity of the Ebau, since, even within each region, the test carried out was less comparable for two different students.
3. Reduce the weight of the Baccalaureate record to 50 or 40% and monitor more the grades of the educational centers.
4. Increase the objectivity of the exam through a more comparable test between communities and a more reliable marking system.