The new basic skills tests are starting, which not all schools will administer anymore.
The so-called end-of-stage evaluation will be carried out using a "random sample with representativeness standards".
BarcelonaOn Monday and Tuesday, a group of secondary schools in Catalonia will administer the end-of-stage assessments, formerly known as the basic skills tests, for the first time. However, the name isn't the only thing that has changed about these exams: this year, for the first time since their creation, only a specific number of 4th-year ESO (Compulsory Secondary Education) students will take them, instead of all students finishing primary and secondary school.
As reported by the Department of Education on Last November, from now on, instead of being census-based and covering all centers, these exams will become sample-based.That is to say, they will only be administered to around seventy schools and institutes. The Catalan government assures that the selection of schools will be done "randomly with representativeness standards, that is, with scientific criteria according to strata of school complexity level, ownership, and size." However, due to scheduling issues, this 2025-2026 academic year, the basic skills tests will only be administered to 4th-year ESO (secondary school) students in the selected institutes, since they will not be given to 6th-grade primary school students because this year they are also scheduled to take the general system assessments: 6th-grade primary school students in all regions, which will also be sample-based (not all schools take them). These are the first end-of-stage tests designed since the Agency for Evaluation and Foresight of Education – the former Higher Council for Evaluation – has been headed by the mathematician Núria Planas. In fact, in the presentation of the results of the latest basic skills tests – where the The level of mathematics in 6th grade was the lowest in historyPlanas had already warned that changes to the tests were being considered because, as they had been conducted until now, it was not possible to compare the results "scientifically" year after year, since they did not share enough items.
External corrections
On the other hand, the diagnostic assessments that all 4th grade primary and 2nd year ESO students have been taking for the past two years will continue to be administered to all students, meaning that all students will be assessed. The new element this year is that, for the first time, these exams will be graded externally and automatically, meaning that teachers will no longer be responsible for marking the tests. In addition, this year oral expression tests in Catalan and Spanish have continued to be administered to all 6th grade primary and 4th year ESO students. Finally, this year some 4th grade primary students will participate in the PIRLS tests, the international exams that assess reading comprehension and are also administered to a sample of students. In fact, the international results of the latest PIRLS tests in 2021 were the first to raise alarms about the decline in the level of Catalan students: it was found that Catalan students were almost a year behind Madrid residents in reading comprehension.
