Educational assessment in the Republic of Korea: lights and shadows of high-stake exam-based education system

Abstract

Educational assessment in the Republic of Korea reflects social and cultural perspectives, as most assessments are considered as a ‘gatekeeper’ of one’s success in life, in terms of entering an elite school or having a better career. This paper presents a profile of the education system, especially focusing on the college entrance examination system in the Republic of Korea, and discusses the washback effect of the high-stake exam, the College Scholastic Ability Test, on stakeholders and the entire society. Furthermore, this paper will discuss the ways to improve the education policy, particularly the college entrance system, with emphasis on implications for future assessment reform from a standardised high-stake test to move towards the formative assessment.

Keywords:

• education systems
• assessment reform
• high-stake examination system
• affective characteristics
• education reform

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. If the number is positive, the index of affective characteristic is higher than the OECD average, and if it’s negative it’s lower than the OECD average. This data indicates Korea’s relative position to the OECD average, and the negative number does not mean negative properties.