Regulations Governing Assessment of Elementary and Junior High School Students
Announced Date：2017-10-24
These Regulations have been formulated in accordance with the provisions of Article13, Paragraph 1 of the Primary and Junior High School Act.
Article 2
The aim of assessment of the achievements of students at elementary school and at junior high school is to facilitate balanced development of students’ morals, intellect, physical growth, social skills and interactions, and aesthetic sense, and assessment results with the following functions:
- They can give students an understanding of their current self-expression that they can use to adjust their learning methods and attitudes.
- Teachers can refer to them to adjust their teaching and assessment methods and counsel students to learn in suitable appropriate ways.
- Schools can refer to them and adjust their course plans and arrange incentive programs and remedial teaching to address students’ needs.
- They can give parents an understanding of their children's learning and enhance parents’ working together with teachers and the school to facilitate effective student learning.
- Special municipality governments, city (county) governments, and the Ministry of Education can refer to them to control the quality of learning, and adjust courses and educational policies.
Article 3
The assessment of elementary and junior high school students’ achievements shall comprise separate assessment of their achievements in the learning areas and in their everyday life. Its scope and content are as follows:
- Learning Areas: The scope of assessment covers the seven Learning Areas and the major issues designated in the Grade 1–9 Curriculum Guidelines. Assessment addresses ability indicators, level of student effort, and progress made, and shall encompass cognitive, affect, and skill domains, and participation in practical activities, and pay important attention to analyzing the learning process and learning outcomes.
- Everyday behavior and conduct: These assessments encompass students’ attendance, records of awards and punishments, participation in group activities, words and actions reflecting good character, community service, and any special accomplishments at school or outside the school.
Article 4
The principles underlying the assessment of elementary and junior high students’ achievements are as follows:
1.Purpose: shall be in line with legitimate educational purposes.
2. Focus: shall be on both adaptability and flexible adjustment.
3. Timing: shall encompass both day-to-day and regular scheduling.
4. Methods: shall be in line with minimizing the proportion of paper-based tests.
5. Interpretation of results: shall principally be criterion referenced and be norm referenced in an auxiliary capacity.
6. Function of results: equal attention shall be given to formative assessment and summative assessment; when necessary, assessment for diagnostic and placement purposes shall also be taken into consideration.
7. Result presentation: Equal importance shall be given to qualitative description and objective data.
8. Management of assessment results: shall include maintaining confidentiality and respecting privacy.
Article 5
The assessment of elementary and junior high students’ achievements shall be handled in accordance with the provisions of Article 3 and use appropriate methods from those listed below, in the light of students’ physical and mental development and individual differences:
- Paper-based tests and worksheets: Use worksheets, schoolwork assignments, paper-based tests, questionnaires, checklists, and rating scales to assess progress towards important knowledge and conceptual goals, and learning interest, motivation, and affective objectives.
- Practical work assessments: Use written reports, oral reports, oral communication, actual practical operations, creative work, demonstrations and performances, and observations of behavior to assess learning goals related to problem solving, technical skills, participation in practical hands-on activities, verbal expression, and behavior.
- File or portfolio assessments: Students are guided in accordance with the learning goals to use a purpose-oriented system to compile and organize sheets, test results, performance assessment material, and related records to create a file or portfolio to present their learning process and its results.
Article 6
The time when elementary and junior high students’ achievements are assessed is divided into two categories: periodic assessments and day-to-day assessments.
Learning Area assessments shall encompass periodic assessments and day-to-day assessments. Paper-based tests shall be used a maximum of three times in a semester for periodic assessments, and for the day-to-day assessment, the frequency of the use of paper-based tests in all study areas shall comply with the principle of minimization referred to in Article 4, Subparagraph 4.
If for some reason a student is unable to participate in all or some of the Learning Area periodic assessments referred to in the preceding paragraph and has been given permission by the school to take leave, that student may be given a make-up assessment. In principle, their actual marks will be used when calculating results.
In principle, day-to-day assessments will be used for assessment of students’ everyday behavior and conduct. The frequency of these assessments may be decided flexibly in the light of need.
Article 7
The assessment of elementary and junior high school students’ achievements shall be undertaken by the following personnel, and the following implementation methods shall be used:
1. Each Learning Area: Assessments shall be carried out by the teacher who teaches the Learning Area subject or subjects, and the teacher must explain the assessment plan to the students and parents at the beginning of each semester.
2. Everyday behavior and conduct: Evaluative assessments shall be made by the homeroom teacher, based on various school records, and the opinions regarding and responses to each student expressed by that student’s other teachers for each Learning Area subject, and their student peers, and parents.
Article 8
The results of the day-to-day and periodic assessments of elementary and junior high school students’ achievements in the Learning Areas shall be recorded as a grade, a numerical mark, or a written description, depending on the nature of the assessment method.
The end of semester assessment of achievements in each of the Learning Areas referred to in the preceding paragraph shall integrate the results of the various assessments recorded over the entire semester, and take into consideration each student’s personality traits, special abilities, learning progress, and attitude, and include an evaluation and description of students’ learning and specific recommendations regarding their future learning. Students’ learning for the entire semester in each learning area shall be presented using the grades A, B, C, D, and E. The marks corresponding to these results are set out below:
- A: Ninety (90) or above.
- B: Eighty (80) or more, but less than ninety (90).
- C: Seventy (70) or more, but less than eighty (80).
- D: Sixty (60) or more, but less than seventy (70).
- E: Less than sixty (60).
Records of students’ everyday behavior and conduct shall encompass separate and be factual records of each student’s behavior pertaining to each of the items listed in Article 3, Subparagraph 2; and specific advice shall be given as seen fit. These records are not used to create any comprehensive evaluation and are not converted into being presented as a grade.
Article 9
At least once each semester, the school shall give parents and elementary and junior high students written notification of the records of the assessments of the students’ achievements in the Learning Areas and of their everyday behavior and conduct, and any specific related advice.
The school may make and the distribution of all the marks public. However, it is not permitted to make any individual student’s ranking in their class or in the school public.
Within one month after the end of each semester, each special municipality, or city (county) level government shall examine the results of the assessment of the achievements of students at the elementary and junior high schools under its jurisdiction, and use these as references when formulating and promoting its education policies, and, within two months after the end of each school year, each special municipality, or city (county) level government shall submit those results to the Ministry of Education for reference, along with a report on the effectiveness of the implementation of its remedial teaching.
Article 10
The school shall draw on the resources of its educational affairs, student affairs, and counseling sections, and parent resources, to be fully informed about the status of its students’ learning. The school shall formulate and implement early intervention and counseling measures for students who are not making good learning progress.
If a student’s results in any learning area does not meet the criterion for passing the school shall implement remedial teaching and associated remedial measures. The implementation directions shall be prescribed by the special municipality or city (county) level government.
If a student's everyday behavior and conduct is not good enough, the school shall provide counseling in accordance with relevant regulations governing how teachers counsel and discipline students and contact the student’s legally designated custodian. The school shall also provide the student with opportunities to improve and have the record of one or more demerits annulled, or to offset any demerits with one or more merits.
Article 11
If elementary and junior high school students complete their studies with satisfactory results and meet the following requirements, the school shall issue them a graduation diploma. A student who fails to meet the graduation criteria will be issued a Certificate of Attendance:
- During the period of their studies, after any official leave, funeral leave, or sick leave approved by the school has been deducted, a student has attended at least two-thirds of the total number of classes, and after awards have been used to offset punishments, a student has a total of fewer than three major demerits
- The average total graduation mark in at least four of the seven broad learning areas is a D or higher.
Article 12
The results of the assessment of elementary and junior high students’ achievements shall be properly stored and managed; and individuals’ privacy and rights and interests shall be protected; students’ assessment results and records shall be handled in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Personal Data Protection Act.
Article 13
In conjunction with the special municipality and city (county) level governments, the Ministry of Education shall organize the Comprehensive Assessment Program for Junior High School Students (hereunder referred to as “the CAP”), in order to understand and ensure the quality of junior high school students’ academic abilities. The CAP shall be organized as set out below:
1.From 2014, the CAP shall be held on the same day, in May each yea, for grade 9 students at junior high schools. The CAP comprises assessments of the subjects Chinese, English, mathematics, social studies, and natural sciences, and a writing test. Students are awarded one of three possible assessment outcomes for each of the five subjects: Outstanding, Satisfactory, or Needs strengthening, and one of six possible levels for the writing test.
2. In conjunction with the special municipality and city (county) level governments, the Ministry of Education shall set up a CAP steering committee to deliberate on, coordinate, and advise on important CAP matters.
3. A CAP national examination affairs committee shall be set up under the CAP steering committee to undertake overall planning of the nationwide examination-related work. In principle, each special municipality and city (county) government shall take turns doing this.
4. The CAP related work in each examination district shall be handled by the government of the special municipality or city (county) in which the examination district is located, and such governments may, individually or jointly with one or more other such governments, commission the schools in each examination district to set up a district CAP examination affairs committee to handle the CAP related matters. Each examination district examination committee shall handle matters which are uniform nationwide in accordance with the overall planning of the CAP national examination affairs committee.
5. The Ministry of Education may commission one or more academic groups or professional assessment agencies to be responsible for drafting examination questions, finalizing the examination papers, marking examination papers, and calculating final marks, to achieve fairness and objectivity and realize the national curriculum goals.
6. All junior high students shall participate in the CAP, unless they have been given permission by the local special municipality or city (county) level government to not participate.
7.Students’ CAP results are to be used to give students, teachers, schools, parents, and competent authorities an understanding of the quality of students’ learning, and for other purposes stipulated in related laws and regulations. However, it is not permitted to incorporate CAP results into the results of school-based assessments of learning achievements.
The members of each of the committees and any personnel involved in handling any the CAP examination related work, referred to in Subparagraphs 2 to 4 of the preceding paragraph, have a duty to maintain confidentiality about examination-related matters and they shall comply with the following provisions regarding withdrawal from involvement:
- When any member of any of the committees referred to in Subparagraphs 2 to 4 of the preceding paragraph, or their spouse, or any former spouse, or third degree or closer blood relative, or third degree or closer relative by adoption or marriage, or any person who has ever had such a relationship with that person registers to participate in that year’s examination, that committee member shall withdraw from involvement in any examination-related work.
- If any examination supervisor, or their spouse, or any former spouse, or second degree or closer blood relative, or third degree or closer relative by adoption or marriage, or any person who has ever had such a relationship with that person registers to participate in that year’s examination, that supervisor shall withdraw from involvement in any examination-related supervisory work.
- Apart from any personnel referred to in the preceding subparagraph who are involved in examination related work, any other personnel member associated with the Ministry of Education or an institution commissioned by the Ministry of Education, who is involved in drafting CAP examination questions, reviewing the questions, finalizing the examination papers, marking examination papers, or calculating final marks, or has any opportunity to come in contact with examination questions or examination papers, or such a personnel member’s spouse, or any former spouse, or third degree or closer blood relative, or third degree or closer relative by adoption or marriage, or any person who has ever had such a relationship with that person registers to participate in that year’s examination, that personnel member shall withdraw from any involvement in the examination-related work
Article 14
The various forms and booklets to be used for the assessment of elementary and junior high students’ achievements shall be determined by each special municipality or city (county) level government.
Article 15
A junior high school and its competent authority may organize CAP mock exams to help prepare students to begin senior secondary education, or assist students to familiarize themselves with the CAP procedures, types of questions, and way to answer the questions. It is not permitted to hold CAP mock exams more than twice in a semester, and the marks given for mock exams are not permitted to be included when calculating a student's assessment results. The directions for handling associated matters shall be in accordance with the regulations of the Ministry of Education.
A junior high school that holds the CAP mock exams referred to in the preceding paragraph, by itself or in conjunction with the competent authority, is not permitted to assist any other institution, or group, or individual to organize such a mock exam.
Article 16
These Regulations take effect from August 1, 2012.
The amendments to these Regulations take effect from the date of promulgation.
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