Since the beginning of 1940 there have been externally developed tests in Sweden. Their appearances have changed over the years together with the cognitive approach. Nowadays, this kind of tests is going by the name of the National tests, which was introduced in the year of 1994. When the Swedish National Agency for Education received the assignment to develop new purposes and National tests to the third grade students, debate took a bounce. The matter was well discussed; National tests in third grade or not?The National tests thus far carried out four rounds in the third grade and the purpose of my study was to find out how teachers are reasoning about the tests.

This essay aims to study how National tests in the ninth grade are being viewed upon in the Swedish school system. What are the affected people?s thoughts regarding its field of application? For further information about this matter, three different sub studies have taken place. In the first sub study, literature from The Swedish National Agency for Education (SNAE) has been studied and compared to other researches. In the second sub study, pupils who took part in the National tests during the previous year answered a survey about their experiences working with the tests.

National tests has been carried out in fifth grade since 1996. Spring 2011 is the first year since the start, when it is no longer mandatory for Swedish schools to carry out the tests in fifth grade. Instead the tests will be moved to sixth grade, starting in spring 2012. This thesis investigates what effects the National tests has got on the teachers planning, but also what attitude the educators have to the tests. To solve the subject, teachers that are active in fifth grade and have recently carried out nationel tests in their class, were interviewed.

A significant amount of a teacher?s work consists of evaluation and marking of the students, which involves a great responsibility. This essay put the teacher?s evaluation of the students in focus. Today?s course Idrott och hälsa A, at the upper secondary school level, consists of 100 points and all students take this course apart from students attending apprentice programs.

The purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate how some teachers make use of the results of the National tests in mathematics to plan their teaching. The questions are how they plan their teaching in mathematics and if they use the results of the National tests to compare with their own teaching.   Five teachers in mathematics has been interviewed. I have used unstructured interviews with open-ended questions, and I have been able to ask follow-up questions based on their answers. The analysis of the survey is made from a systems theory approach.  The result of the survey shows that teachers make use of student performance to look at their own teaching of the current group of students. However, there is not enough time to rehearse and repair the deficiencies discovered in the National tests, which for some is perceived as a stress factor.

The purpose of this study is to illustrate how some teachers in multicultural school environments reflecton and experience the educational work with National tests in the third grade for students who do not have Swedish as their native language. The research questions I have chosen to work with are:How do teachers experience working with National tests in groups of students where there are children with Swedish as a second language?How do the teachers reflect on the students linguistic preconditions relating to the National tests in these groups of students?What strategies in their teaching on National tests do the teachers use when it comes to students with Swedish as a second language?In this study I have chosen to use a qualitative interview method. Since the purpose of the study is to understand how teachers reflect on students with Swedish as a second language the obvious choice was to interview teachers who work in a multicultural school. In my thesis I have chosen to use sociocultural theory, Cummins four quadrant model and context for theoretical approach.

Our aim in this study is to explore if the schoolchildren?s written language differs from the?National tests? in Swedish and from Facebook. We specifically want to see if we candiscover words and expressions mainly from the English language or other languages in the?National tests? in Swedish written by the schoolchildren in the ages between 18-20 yearsold. The methods that we used to discover the results in this study was; to interview threeteachers, have 30 schoolchildren answer a questionnaire survey, analyze 30 written ?Nationaltests? in Swedish by the schoolchildren and finally analyze two Facebook walls from twoschoolchildren.

This is a study of the national test in 3rd grade. The national test is obligatory and is conducted in 5th and 9th grade, but since the spring of 2009 the tests also become mandatory in 3rd grade. The case study of this research is to find out how children in 3rd grade perceive the purpose of the national test. The survey should also clarify how students think and feel about the national test, and how they feel before the national test and after they have finished writing the test. Has the test positive or negative influence on children? The survey will also show how much teachers clarify what the significance of the national test is for the students.

This work studied the information flow and information handling among different parties. The study focused on how educational materials on National tests from The Swedish National Agency for Education is managed by school principals and teachers and how the information is passed on to students. The data material was based on observations and interviews at two different high schools. Six teachers and their classes and principals participated in the study. The Agency was also interviewed.

AbstractThe intension with this paper was to describe the understanding students in third grade had about mathematics and how these students, based on their previous mathematics experiences, apprehend the coming National tests in mathematics. After the test period the student was interviewed on how they experienced their participation in the test. The choice of method was the qualitative case study where the data was collected from interviews and observations. In the result that was found, the interviewed students described mathematics as counting. Students preferred easy math work and to solve routine tasks in math books instead of more demanding work.

The purpose of this study is to provide a description of how mathematics teachers in grades 3 choose to work with mathematics and how it affects of student performance in National tests. The categories I will use are outdoor education, textbooks, learning materials and problem solving. Laboratory materials can be everyday materials and educational materials in which pupils have an abstract understanding of the subject. This survey was conducted through interviews and observations. The survey was also conducted in relation to student performance in national math tests.

The aim of this study was to analyze the assessment of the National tests seen from the teacher?s perspective. The National tests are performed in the Swedish school, classes 3, 5, 9, and the upper secondary school (gymnasiet). There has been an ongoing discussion regarding assessment and grading for a long time and it is of high interest now more than ever. The last control assessment done in 2009 by the department of school inspections on the order of the Swedish government, showed big differences between the assessments done by the teachers, and the assessments completed by the department of school inspections.

The purpose of this essay has been to investigate if the national test results, in the subject of Swedish B at upper secondary school, are affecting a student?s final grade in varied degree among different teachers. The purpose has also been to investigate if the assessment of these tests is equivalent among different teachers. This particular investigation showed that there are big differences between how teachers grade, in relation to achieved results on the national test. According to the Swedish National Agency for Education, the teacher should take all performance information available into consideration for each particular student.

Syftet med detta examensarbete är att undersöka lärares uppfattningar om det nationella provet i engelska, samt hur dessa lärare arbetar med provet för att kunna hjälpa eleverna att nå sina kursmål. Undersökningsmetoden är kvalitativ då vi intervjuat fyra lärare i engelska på en högstadieskola. Intervjufrågorna har innefattat allt från hur lärare arbetar med det nationella provet och hur de ser på provet, till hur målen med det nationella provet uppfylls. Resultatet av undersökningen är att det nationella provet underlättar lärarnas arbete. Lärarna anser även att provet fungerar som ett bra stöd då de ska betygsätta eleverna.

The level of increased central government that we have experienced during the last decades in school, for the purpose of increasing equality and to adapt the Swedish school to a certain international standard, clearly shows that increased control scarcely leads to improvement.The aim of this paper is to examine whether teachers believe that National tests contribute to equivalent assessment and increased goal attainment. Furthermore the teachers? attitude towards and work with National tests is described. The paper is written from a school improvement perspective, where good examples from current research on what creates increased quality in school meaning increased goal attainment and equivalent assessment are related to research on school effectiveness and increased testing in schools. The study builds upon a quantitative survey among teachers in upper primary - and secondary school in a medium-sized municipality in Sweden.The result shows that the teachers have a somewhat more positive than negative attitude towards National tests, as a whole.