Korean Education at a Glance: National Assessments
& Educational Attainment of Korea
Moonbok Lee
Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation
Historical backgrounds about Korea’s “education fever”
 Hendrick Hamel’s account of Korean education in 17th century
The nobles and the free men take great care for the education of their
children. They place their children under the direction of teachers to learn
to read and write. The peope of this country are very enthusiastic about
[education] and the method they use is gentle and ingenious. Teachers
offer their students the teaching of earlier scholars and constantly cite their
example of those who attained fame through high scholarship. The boys
devote their time to study day and night (Choe, 1987, p. 98).
 “The Story of Spring Fragrance” (Chunhyangjeon in Korean), Korea’s
best-loved folktale
The protagonist, Yi Doryong, is able to save his sweetheart, Spring
Fragrance (Chunhyang), from a venal new governor by placing first on
the governemnt exam. He is consequently appointed a secret inspector
who anonymously wanders the countryside checking up on local
administrators, and, in the nick of time, coming across the new governor
oppressing the love he left behind in the countrysice.
 Education both as a means for personal self-cultivation
and as a way of social advancement
 High-stake examination system served as main selection
mechanism for the limited number of government posts
 Formal education organized largely around exams
preparation
 EDUCATION = EXAMs = SUCCESS
 TESTocracy” culture
Brief history of Changes in the National Curriculum
Key Directions of Revised National Curriculum
CSAT
Key characteristics
-
College Scholastic Ability Test
An assessment tool designed to measure students’ academic readiness for college
education
An achievement + proficiency test that also measures high-order thinking skills
Administration
-
The CSAT is administered once a year (in Nov.).
Commissioned by the Ministry of Education, KICE develops and implements the test
each year.
Test-takers
-
High school seniors
People with a high school diploma or equivalent certificate
Test composition
Korean
Language
Math
English
Inquiries
Social
Studies
Sciences
Vocational
Studies
2nd Foreign
Languages/
Chinese
Characters &
Classics
Test subjects
Test
Korean
Language
Associated National Curriculum subjects
Type A
Speech & Writing I, Reading & Grammar I,
Literature I
Type B
Speech & Writing II, Reading & Grammar II,
Literature II
Type A
Mathematics I, Pre-Calculus and Pre-Statistics
Type B
Mathematics I, Mathematics Ⅱ,
Integration and Statistics, Geometry and
Vector
Math
English
English I, English II
Number
of Items
Testing Time
(min)
Item type
45
80
Multiple choice
30
100
Multiple choice
(70%)
short answer
(30%)
45
(including
17 listening
items)
70
Multiple choice
Test subjects
Test
Inquiries
cont
Subjects (NC)
Social
Studies
Life & Ethics, Ethics & Thought, Korean History, Korean
Geography, World Geography, East Asian History, World
History, Law & Politics, Economics, Society & Culture
(up to 2 of the 10)
Sciences
Physics I, Chemistry I, Life Science I, Earth Science I,
Physics II, Chemistry II, Life Science II, Earth Science II
(up to 2 of the 8)
Vocational
Education
Agricultural Bio Industry, Industry, Commerce &
Information, Fishery & Shipping, Home Economics &
Business
(1 of the 5)
2nd Foreign
Languages/Chinese
Characters
and Classics
German I, French I, Spanish I, Chinese I, Japanese I,
Russian I, Arabic I, Basic Vietnamese,
Chinese Characters and Classics
(1 of the 9)
Number
of Items
Testing
Time
(min)
Item type
20
per subject
30 per
subject
Multiple
choice
30
per subject
40 min
Multiple
choice

Annual events
Mar.
Announcement
of Annual
Administration Plan

Jun.
June
Mock Test
Sep.
Nov.
September
Mock Test
Administration
of the CSAT
Test Development & Administration
Test
Development
Printing
Administration
Scoring
Score
Reporting
Session
Test
Time Schedule
Entering the room by 08:10
1st
Korean
08:40 ~ 10:00 (80 min)
Break - 10:00 ~ 10: 20 (20 min)
2nd
Mathematics
10:30 ~ 12:10 (100 min)
Lunch - 12:20 ~ 13: 10 (50 min)
3rd
English
13:10 ~ 14:20 (70 min)
Break - 14:20 ~ 14: 40 (20 min)
4th
Social Studies
Sciences
Vocational Studies
14:50 ~ 15:50 (60 min)
Break - 15:50 ~ 16: 10 (20 min)
5th
2nd Foreign Languages/
Chinese Characters and Classics
16:10 ~ 16:50 (40 min)
Registration
Number
Name
Resident ID
High School
(Class or Year of Graduation)
12345678
Kim, Gil-Dong
951234-1234567
Seoul High School (0009)
Korean
Mathematics
B
A
Standard
Score
131
137
Percentile
Rank
93
Stanine
2
Test
2nd Foreign Language/
Chinese C&C
Social Studies
English
Korean History
Economics
Japanese I
141
53
64
69
95
97
75
93
95
2
1
4
2
2
NAEA
• Assessment Based on National Curriculum
-
National Assessment of Educational Achievement
• Achievement Standards
– Descriptions specifying the objectives and content of the national
curriculum enough to guideline in teaching and learning
• Assessment for Population
– Since 2008, NAEA is census test for all students who study national
curriculum
Assessment framework
•
Assessing academic achievement based on national curriculum
Grades
Subjects
Contents
9th grade
Korean language,
Social Studies, Mathematics,
Science, English, and
Questionnaires
All the content covered from
the 7th to the 9th grade,
1st semester
11th grade
Korean language,
Mathematics, English, and
Questionnaires
All the content covered
in the 10th grade
* Social Studies and Science for 6th grade are assessed in a sample survey(since 2012)
ADVANCED
Superior academic performance of required knowledge and skills
(Above 80% reached to the desired performance that must be achieved
in each content and grade )
PROFICIENT
Solid academic performance of required knowledge and skills
(50 – 80% reached to the desired performance that must be
achieved in each content and grade )
BASIC
Partial mastery of required knowledge and skills
(20 – 50% reached to the desired performance that must be
achieved in each content and grade )
Base Line of basic academic achievement
BELOW- BASIC
Achievement trends in 9th Grade (2009-2012)
Percentage(%)
80
60
17.1 23.1
31.0 31.1
13.5 16.6 14.6 18.9
21.4
40
20
51.7 49.9 50.3 52.5
50.0 46.9 49.1 49.0
17.2 15.2
1.4 1.0
29.0 30.1 29.6 26.6
21.6
34.8 37.7
20.6
44.0
16.6
19.7 19.9
50.0
17.3 13.5
44.3
39.2 36.9 43.9
26.1
25.4 32.2
27.9
45.9
45.1 42.4
38.5
0
20
26.5 23.7
4.6
3.2
40
60
7.6
6.5
6.7
32.9 34.6 31.5 29.8
5.0
10.9 6.1
4.0
3.4
33.4 35.0 33.7 37.2
23.8 28.3 28.0 23.9
5.0
7.7
8.1
5.1
3.9
1.3
2.2
4.8
'09 '10 '11 `12
'09 '10 '11 `12
'09 '10 '11 `12
'09 '10 '11 `12
'09 '10 '11 `12
Korean Language
Social Studies
Mathematics
Science
English
Use of results
PISA 2012 Result: Performance of Korean students
Science
Mathematics
Mean
Mean
(Korea)
(OECD)
554
494
Reading Literacy
Rank
1
Mean
Mean
(Korea)
(OECD)
536
496
Rank
1~2
Mean
Mean
(Korea)
(OECD)
538
501
Rank
2~4
0.31
0.17
-0.2
-0.21
-0.39
CATEGORY
RANKING
Intrinsic M
Extrinsic M
27
32
-0.36
-0.38
Self-efficacy Self-concept
33
-0.21
33
Anxiety
4
Participation
in math
activities
8
Math
intentions
33
Subjective
norms
in math
24
Percentage of students who reported being happy at school
.
.
.
 In Korea, entering a prestigious university is a decisive factor in accomplishing socio-economic
success of one’s life and desired career. For Korean students, CSAT score is the first priority to
consider when selecting which university to enter and what to major in, rather than their academic
interests or aptitude.
 Since the measures of effectiveness of education is primarily based on the standardised tests, good
teaching means teaching students to ace both in-class achievement tests and high-stake exams like
the CSAT. However, the reality is frustrating because many high schools in Korea mainly focus on
cramming for knowledge and test-preparations in the classroom.
 In a broad sense, education is meant to include socilising skills in teaching, such as attitude,
communication, character, leadership and collaboration. In order to make positive educational reform
in Korea, we need to seek ways to use the assessment for supporting students to develop talents and
achieve their dreams, such as performance assessment, formative assessment, portpolio, etc,
instead of using it as a decisive factor to make one’s life decision.
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING