Parents and students at schools around Beijing received a shocking notice yesterday that the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) cancelled their May IB Diploma Programme examinations due to COVID-19. Likewise, Cambridge Assessment announced that they too would be cancelling Cambridge IGCSE, Cambridge O Level, Cambridge International AS & A Level, Cambridge AICE Diploma, and Cambridge Pre-U.

The IBO website stresses that the cancellation of the exams is due entirely to the safety and fairness for its students and schools. “As an organization, it is critical for us to ensure that the options we provide our global community of IB World schools are based on compassion for our students and teachers and fairness for the difficult circumstances our students and educators are experiencing. We are grateful for your patience and consideration. As a result, the IB with considerable advisement from stakeholders across the globe including schools, students, universities and official bodies has determined the most responsible and ethical way forward.”

As a result, the exam that was originally scheduled between April 30 and May 22 will no longer be held. IBO states that, “Depending on what they registered for, the student will be awarded a Diploma or a Course Certificate which reflects their standard of work. This is based on students’ coursework and the established assessment expertise, rigor and quality control already built into the programs.”

As schools, parents, and students wrap their minds around this historical decision, the IBO has updated their list of FAQs to reassure those who are affected that life, and their college career, will continue as normally as can be.

At the moment, Cambridge Assessment has not yet announced how they will provide guidance to schools or how students will receive their grades, but will update the information as soon as possible, as well as offer support and resources for schools, teachers, and students on their website.

We spoke with Hamilton Gregg, founder of International Educational Consulting and contributing writer for beijingkids, on how the cancellation of IB exams will impact students.

Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do.

I have been in education since 1986 working in schools in the US, Korea, Japan, and China. I have mostly been a college counselor but held different positions – Dean of Students, Academic Dean, AP/IB Coordinator at various schools. For the last ten years, I have also been an Independent Educational Consultant. I have held leadership positions in the International Association of College Admission Counselors Int’l (ACAC), been on committees for the National Association of College Admission Counselors (NACAC), and I am currently on the Board for the Independent Educational Consulting Association (IECA). Currently, I work part-time as College Advisor for Harrow Beijing and work as well with Shang Nancy Friends as partner and lead consultant.

Students and parents were just notified that IB exams will be canceled this year. What does that mean for students and their academic career?

In these trying and new times, everyone is having to adjust. As organizations like College Board, ETS, IELTS, IB, and the A Level exam boards respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has caused a disruption to exam invigilation. Unfortunately, this has meant that in the case of SAT, IELTS, and most recently IB, exams for this Spring have been cancelled.

These cancellations have most definitely upset the admissions cart. Students who have been planning to take any of these exams are now wondering what does this mean.

Focusing on IB, this means most likely that a student’s internal school grades now bear all of the weight in the final assessment of a student. For students, please remember that in the case of US schools, IB results really only determine two main things.

Results are used to ensure that you have met the conditions under which you were admitted and that you perform to the standards expected by that university. Results are used to award academic credit.

As it pertains to #1, this is why internal grades will now have more weight. So, despite a student’s school-specific procedures of conducting “school” online, it is terribly important that students continue to show up online, do homework and other assignments and other important school tasks. Perform at the highest level expected, using the virus is not an excuse to not work to one’s full potential.

To the final point of the question, colleges and universities are not going to hold students accountable for the cancelation of exams. Through all of the emails I have been receiving from universities, every one of them has indicated that they will work with students, and ensure fair and appropriate accommodations. In short, a student’s admission decisions will not be affected. Poor internal grades may have undesired effects, however.

Instead of an exam, this year the IB Diploma or DP Certificate will reflect the standard work of students. Is this a more fair decision than basing a student’s score on one exam?

“The IB will use a range of evidence to award the Diploma or course certificate including coursework already completed by the student…. Where the IB has 50% of a student’s assessment components for any given subject, there is a long-standing process—the missing mark procedure, which can be used. The missing mark procedure allows us to estimate how a student would have performed on any missing assessment component (like an examination paper) based on the other elements of the assessment they have completed.” IB.org

It is hard to tell if this is fair or not. Certainly, an exam is typically a relatively accurate representation of a student’s ability. You will note my hesitancy due to the fact that some students perform better under different circumstances. It is fair to evaluate a student based on components received and making an “estimate” on performance can be a bit tricky. However, if we assume the cumulative nature of learned material, student and teacher assessments and other materials, it should be possible to “guesstimate” how a student might perform on an exam within reason.

I am still a bit hesitant to say if this is fair or not. It all sounds reasonable and most likely IB has spent a great deal of time considering this decision plan and how they will go about determining a particular mark in each subject. I am sure there will be some students who will be satisfied and others who won’t.

Should students view this as a hurdle in their college application?

Absolutely not, in the case of Seniors. As mentioned previously, if a student is performing at their best, given the circumstances, colleges will be understanding.

The real hurdle is the emotional and psychological effects this event is having on students. Mental health, particularly depression and helplessness, as well as time management, will be some of the hurdles students need to be aware of. This is a time of crisis and some rise to the challenge while others do not. It is important that all students be aware of their own circumstances as well as those of others. I recommend creating virtual communities online, study groups just as if you were at school. Acting as if you were going to take IB exams. Check-in with classmates and encourage everyone to do their best. This is an opportunity to come together, as best as possible.

Are there any other challenges you predict high school upper-class students will face this year?

Yes, there are some, but from the sounds of improvements around China, schools are beginning to open slowly. This is a good sign and should bring some hope to everyone that we will get through this.

Will COVID-19 affect any other aspects of college applications?

COVID-19 has changed a lot of things and this may affect Junior students more. We may see more schools go test-optional. We have already seen schools adopt Duolingo as an English assessment. Virtual college presentations and school visits are and may become the new normal. This may change the overall recruitment process colleges and universities use. AP and TOEFL are considering online assessments that students can take at home. Lots of possible changes.

What I hope will not happen is the person to person interaction that makes education so invigorating and valuable. Being a bit of an old school person, online education has never appealed to me. Face-to-face interaction is more engaging and I think more promising than what can happen over the Internet. But that is just me.

Photos: ibo.org

It happened again but this time to ACT. On Saturday, ACT tests in Korea and Hong Kong were cancelled due to compromised tests. It goes without saying now that more students from these two countries are focusing on ACT given the changes to the rSAT. It was only a matter of time before test prep companies focused their methods on the ACT. The question is, can a company like ACT handle this new attention? What actions will ACT now take to ensure security of materials? With their new bandwidth of test takers, can they handle these new pressures?

The real problem is testing. With delayed scores, cancelled tests and the uproar, the current climate affects every student from this part of the world. As mentioned in previous posts, it seems quite clear that test results from this part of the world have limited validity. This includes SSAT, SAT, ACT and TOEFL. Test prep has cornered the market and either by illicit means or not, invalidated any test score. Very few students choose not to employ test prep companies to help them “prepare” for these tests. While it is easy to come to the conclusion that a student who used test prep can memorize well, I seriously doubt whether a test score predicts academic performance on the level of critical and analytical thinking required for entry to boarding school or university.

But then there is the problem with the reports coming out of the University of Iowa, of companies that help students get through their undergraduate programs. What is most discouraging about all of this is that seemingly education is for sale, rather earned. When I started working in this area, the world was a much more complacent place. There was not the pressure to get into Ivy League schools to the extent it seems today.  Sure, there was test prep, but families seemed more at ease with the value of education from a wider variety of schools. This is not just an Asian thing, it affects students everywhere and has created multi-million dollar industries to enhance a student’s look – from companies providing community service projects to essay writing to whatever it takes to “get in.”

To say the least, the ramifications of the trend the education system is moving toward discourage me. Even more worrisome are the college leaders who seemingly turn a blind eye to the issues confronting them, leaders who continue to push for higher test scores, creating new applications, allow agents to provide students to enhance enrollment numbers, the use of ranking, and on and on.

Several weeks ago I came to the conclusion that all is not well on the education front. Having worked in this field for over 30 years, it seems that the news only provides more discouraging information about the state of affairs. I also recognize and realize that the problem does not affect everyone. My concern is that the pendulum is moving in the wrong direction, and as it does so, it affects the students most. They have few alternatives and perceive the only way to be “successful” is to follow the trend.

Increasingly school counselors are also caught in the middle as the tidal wave of parents push for more, colleges look for more and the criteria for acceptance gets harder and harder for those select few schools deemed the Holy Grail of future success.

The other day during a conversation with a reporter, I was called a dinosaur with my antiquated views of admission. Both sadly and joyfully I nodded acceptance of this moniker. But I also realize that the dinosaurs of the admission world are slowly becoming extinct. The role of college counselor is changing. This can be seen directly with the advent of the Coalition application that cuts out the specific tasks of what counselors do. While I admit that the admission process is in drastic need of change, this move away from counselors, who know their students and work with them in close context and work to help them understand the value of education, has undermined everything we stand for and hope to achieve.

I jokingly, with an undertone of seriousness, tell my students that everything I teach them will get undone when they go home. While I know that there are a lot of people fighting the good fight to curb the trends we see, it is very much in the hands of leaders in admission to affect a course change back to being student centered. Unfortunately, the changes would leave the system in a new era. In a different world – schools would stop participating in ranking, go test optional, set specific academic expectations like the British, provide multiple options in the admission process like NYU, require Third Party interviews like IntialView, and be more specific in the qualifications for admission rather than stating the look at Holistic Review.

Idealistic? True! But something does need to change to radically alter the course we are currently on. Given the events of the last two years around testing and the more recent revelations of how some students are getting through university, I am wondering where the uproar is? If anything similar were to happen in the corporate world there would be a very different response at the injustices current practices seem to be taking. When will educators take and make a stand against these issues? Students are why we are supposedly working in this field, yet as counselors we are being incapacitated by the lofty leaders unaware, or at least not paying attention to what is happening in the trenches.

Photo: channelnewsasia.com

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