The School Washback Occurs to the Parties

54 Cara-cara jawabnya...yang penting kalo soalnya kayak gini, cara jawabnya kayak gini...dapet trik buat mengerjakan soal... “...in the last two years, the teachers emphasized on understanding concepts, but exercises are emphasized now…” – ET … dulu lebih ke teori.. kalo sekarang lebih focus ke soal... “...approaching the NE ahead, we are practicing with exercises all the time…” – ET … menjelang UN ini... cuma mengerjakan soal terus... “...we make discussion from exercises… it was started since the beginning of twelfth grade… and the teachers give the shortcuts as well…” – ET … kita bahas soal-soal...dari semester satu sudah dikasih soal-soal...sama gurunya itu dikasih cara cepetnya... These excerpts showed that teachers focused on giving students strategies, shortcuts, and tricks to engage with NE. Teachers argued that this way gave some benefits. This way could engage with the limited time since it was more practical. Teachers just needed to discuss what needed to answer the question instead of explaining the whole concept. Besides, students also preferred this method since it went directly to the point. Teaching about the test was one notion from measurement-driven instruction MDI. MDI was actually a positive view in general education. MDI would be beneficial if a test was properly implemented and conceived, then teachers assessed what they taught. On the other hand, the instruction would run effectively if it meshed with how students thought. MDI perspective was match with cognitive- constructivists view. It was because cognitive-constructivists viewed that teaching was likely to be holistic, long-term, integrated, project-based, and discovery-based. It meant what assessed should be what taught. Hence, cognitive-constructivists considered performance-based assessment was the best assessment model since simulated assessment was used to elicit original responses. In addition, 55 performance-based assessment also promoted high-order of thinking. Contradictory, even though NE had the notion of MDI, it presented multiple choice as the assessment that tended to be low-order of thinking. 4. Feelings and Attitudes a. Students’ Feelings and Attitudes Most of the students showed negative feelings in response to the NE preparation. The researcher revealed that such feeling such as nervous, afraid, worried, stressful, and feeling of pressure were widely showed by students. The third and fifth students, moreover, once got sick. Here are the excerpts of the interview to them: “...I feel nervous… I cannot handle the pressure until it made me sick…” – S3 … yang saya rasakan itu tegang, kemarin itu sakit karena stress... “... NE preparation put me in a deep feeling of pressure… moreover, it made me sick… and I had to lose a week to recover…” – S5 … sebelum UN ...itu tertekan banget... lalu itu aku sakit seminggu gak masuk.. iritasi lambung… Such feelings appeared since the students could not engage with their situation of pressures. Students, in response to the feelings they encountered, tended to show negative attitude as parallel to the feeling they felt. The researcher found those negative attitudes such as some students slept in class, some students escaped from the class, and they also tended to unmotivated to study. Moreover, the teacher said that two of her students were escaped on the tryout test days. It was as shown by this excerpt: “…moreover, two students once escaped from tryout tests… they joined a political campaign …” – ET 56 …bahkan ada yang…waktu ujian penjajagan aja itu ada yang kabur pak… dua anak itu… ikut kampanye… In fact, all of the attitudes showed by the students, from the most tolerable to the most extremist, showed the powerlessness of teachers and school in engaging the NE impact to their students. In addition, the disclosed information of the fraudulent practices done by the school could also be one factor to students to show such attitudes. It gave them such feeling of security. It led them to think that their school would not let them not to graduate since the school did not want to lose its ISO and prestige.

b. The Teacher’s Feelings and Attitudes

NE preparation put the teacher in much feeling of pressure. The limited time to prepare her students to NE had given much burden to the teacher. It became hard for her because her students did not perform good cooperation to her. Her students tended to keep being in their comfort zone rather than to boost themselves in preparing the NE. Besides, she also got intimidation from some of her students. The teacher said that she was a bit afraid of her students if she pushed her students too much with her instruction. In an excerpt she explained: “…and they are big boys… they intimidate me…” – ET … dan anaknya juga gede-g ede, dan ngancem gitu… All of the above pressure did make her felt bad. The teacher chose to concede and follow as school instructed. In the beginning, it had been mentioned that the school had done fraudulent practices. Such practices also involved teachers. In this situation, teachers did not have choice except following what school instructed even though it opposed her conscience. It was shown by this excerpt: 57 “…even I myself, who act as a student advisor for twelfth grade that actually posses the authority to process the school scores, get some intervention from school and some other teachers… I am made to somehow make up the scores… to graduate all the students…” – ET …karena saya kan juga wali kelas... bahkan ada gutru yang bilang udahlah buk… terserahlah... terserah hitungaannya gimana… gimana caranya buk bi ar dia besuk lulus… oke diubah… In addition, the teacher was only an honorary teacher. Her status in school had made her powerless. Thus, she did not have another choice except followed as school instructed. c. School’s Feelings and Attitudes The school had been confident to welcome the NE ahead. VP explained that all the series of preparation programs made them ready for NE. Besides, the current graduation regulation gave 60 precious quota for school score. He said that school had big chance to interfere the graduation by optimizing all the programs school had made. He said: “…I think the current NE regulation makes NE is not frightening anymore… If we have prepared from the beginning of tenth grade, it will help much…” – VP … nah ini kebijakan aturan UN kemudian menurut saya pengaruhnya UN menjadi tidak berat sekali.. kalau kita sudah menata dari kelas sepuluh... kalau sudah tertata dengan baik nanti pada akhirnya sudah membantu... It was obvious that the school, through VP, had positive feeling in response to the NE. In contrast, the teacher conveyed the opposite from VP. She pointed out that the school was in a huge pressure. She further explained that the pressure was demanded from the ISO and its prestige. It, previously, had been explained that the school had to achieve 100 graduation to defend the ISO certificate and keep society’s trust for prestige and getting students in the future. The unsatisfying result from the tryout tests lead the school to do whatever ways to save its goal –achieving