Assessment Assessment and Test

18 World Bank in economic development since economic development requires human knowledge and skills Greaney Kellaghan. National assessment provides the information regarding individual student achievements in knowledge and skills which could be useful for World Bank Greaney Kellaghan. Not only for World Bank, information on knowledge and skills is also important for governments and students. Higher levels of knowledge and skills are needed if students would like to participate in the working world in the future Greaney Kellaghan, 2008. Skillful and knowledgeable workers are what the government needs in order to compete successfully in globalization Greaney Kellaghan. Other than that, governments also “need to monitor achievement levels to determine how changes in enrollment and budgetary conditions affect the quality of lea rning” Greaney Kellaghan, 18. National assessment has helped ministries of education to “describe national level of learning achievement, especially in key subject areas, and to compare achievement levels of key sub g roups” Greaney Kellaghan, 2. It has also been useful to help the ministries “to support or refute claims that standards of student achievement are rising or falling over time” Greaney Kellaghan, 2. National assessment is also claimed to be significant for policy makers, politicians, and educational community. It is considered effective in providing feedback regarding significant measures to these parties Greaney Kellaghan, 2008. It provides information on aspects of the system and basic inputs needed by the system for policy making, information which the government often lacks Greaney Kellaghan. Its results can also be used “to change practice in the 19 classroom” Horn, Wolff, and Velez 1992 as paraphrased in Greaney Kellaghan, 19. However, World Bank considers assessment of effectiveness in education field as the biggest challenge Greaney Kellaghan, 2008. This includes national assessment. Even though is considered plays important roles in giving information regarding individual student achievements in national level, not many countries systematically monitors the learning outcomes “either through conducting their own assessments of student achievement or through participating in regional or international assess ments” Greaney Kellaghan, ix-x. The information gathered from the national assessments which have been conducted in some developed countries has not been maximally used Greaney Kellaghan. The problems mentioned above might be caused by: the policy makers who are not dedicatedly and committedly involved in the assessment and unwell- communicated assessment analysis results Greaney Kellaghan. Another reason is national assessment which is only used symbolically as a scientific and modern tool to legitimate state action thus it was not seriously used in “management of the education system or in policy making“ Greaney Kellaghan, 21. Indonesian government has been implementing national assessment since 1950. The first term used to call national assessment was Ujian Penghabisan 1950-1960 Cessnasari, 2005. It was then called Ujian Negara 1965-1971 Cessnasari. The term was then changed again into EBTANAS Evaluasi Belajar Tahap Akhir Nasional 1980-2001 Cessnasari, 2005. In 2002 it was called UAN Ujian Akhir Nasional Cessnasari, 2005. In 2003, the national assessment PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 20 was centralized Rachman, 2015, April 13 . There was a national body preparing questions Rachman, 2015. This year the government set a minimum passing grade, which would be set higher periodically Rachman, 2015. The grades were used to determine whether the students could graduate from certain education level or not. Since 2005 the term has been known as UN Ujian NasionalNational Examination . The term UN has been used until now 2017. In 2011, not only the National Examination was held. Local School Examination Ujian SekolahUS was also held at the end of each level. To decide whether a student could graduate or not, the government combined the National Examination score worth 60 to the total score with School Examination score worth 40 to the total score. “According to Peraturan Kementerian Pendidikan Nasional Nomor 34 Tahun 2007 The Law of the Ministry of Education Number 34 Year 2007”, the National Examination functions as 1 the tool to map the quality of students and schools andor educational program, 2 select university student candidates, 3 determine whether students pass or fail from school andor educational program, and 4 support and help schools to improve the quality of education Sarasvati, 2012, 230. The National Examination was “held by Badan Standar Nasional Pendidik an BSNP” Sarasvati, 2012, 228. It was “the only body that is allowed to hold the national examination in Indonesia” Sarasvati, 2012, 228. The examination was compulsory Sarasvati. It was “held at the end of each level of study“ for students in the 6 th grade of elementary school, 9 th grade of secondary school, and 12 th grade of high school Sarasvati, 229. The format of the examination was multiple choices Sarasvati. The students used “a special paper and pencil to do the examination and then the examination is checked using a PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI