introduction

This article introduces the national English middle school entrance examination proposition evaluation work carried out by the Curriculum and Textbook Research Institute under the commission of the Ministry of Education from 2018 to 2023, aiming to improve the quality of proposition and give full play to the educational guidance role of the examination. The evaluation work started in 2020 and includes two parts: basic evaluation and key evaluation. Basic assessment revolves around five aspects to ensure that the proposition unit grasps the correct direction, focuses on ability testing, reasonably controls difficulty, and enhances proposition techniques. Key evaluation focuses on the key and difficult issues in the proposition, summarizes experience through evaluation, identifies problems, and provides solutions for reference. The key evaluation contents include the preparation of multidimensional detailed lists, the design of test paper structures, the creation of test question scenarios, difficulty control, the examination of thinking and cognitive levels, and the comprehensive, applied, and open-ended evaluation of test questions. In 2021, a special evaluation of oral testing was also conducted. At the end of the chapter, the overall situation, basic evaluation situation, and key evaluation situation of the three-year formal evaluation are reported, and suggestions for improving the quality of proposition are proposed for prominent issues.

overall situation

Introduced the evaluation criteria developed based on the "Yijiao Curriculum Standards" and the "Yijiao New Curriculum Standards", evaluated 107 high school English test papers, and found that the quality of proposition has been improving year by year. The selection of proposition materials is more rigorous, emphasizing authenticity, strengthening comprehension and expression ability tests at the discourse level, reducing mechanical language knowledge tests, gradually phasing out pure language form conversion test questions, and increasing the proportion of open-ended test questions. The proposition unit has optimized the preset and actual difficulty levels based on a multidimensional detailed list, resulting in a more reasonable structure of the test paper and emphasizing the examination of different levels of thinking. However, some proposition units still have problems in terms of the proportion of examination content and structure, the quality of multidimensional detailed list compilation, excessive proposition, and difficulty of test questions.

Basic assessment situation

A detailed evaluation was conducted on multiple aspects of the national English middle school entrance examination questions from 2021 to 2023. Firstly, the 107 proposition units have performed well in the task orientation of cultivating morality and talents, emphasizing ideological, educational, and humanistic aspects, while also testing students' international perspectives and cross-cultural communication skills. In terms of material selection, most units have integrated positive English speaking cultures and advanced socialist cultures, but some test papers have deviations in theme and content value orientation. Secondly, according to the requirements of the "Yijiao Curriculum Standards", the proposition unit has improved in testing students' comprehensive language proficiency, but there are still problems with the selection of materials and task design that are not rigorous and sufficient, resulting in the phenomenon of exceeding the standard proposition.

Key evaluation situation

During the period of 2021 to 2023, the evaluation team conducted an in-depth analysis of the national English middle school entrance examination questions, focusing on the rationality of the test paper structure, the comprehensiveness, applicability, and openness of the questions. In terms of the structure of the test paper, most of the questions have a moderate proportion of content, a balanced proportion of skills, and appropriate combination of question types and score ratios. However, there is a deviation in the score ratio between comprehension skills and expression skills in some test papers, and the proportion of language knowledge application and comprehensive test questions is low. The quality of question design needs to be improved. In terms of comprehensiveness of test questions, most proposition units can comprehensively test students' listening, speaking, reading, writing and other skills, but some units do not involve comprehensive skill testing or have insufficient skill testing.

Suggestions for solving prominent problems and improving the quality of English subject proposition

Multiple suggestions have been put forward to improve the quality of national English middle school entrance examination questions. Firstly, the importance of proposition based on standards was emphasized, requiring the proposition unit to deeply understand and ensure that the assessment objectives are consistent with the curriculum standards, while combining with the analysis of the learning situation to avoid exceeding the standard proposition. Secondly, suggestions were put forward to improve the quality of multidimensional detailed list compilation, including improving the elements of the detailed list, setting examination content and ability goals based on curriculum standards, reasonably determining preset difficulty levels, clarifying material sources, and strengthening the understanding of the detailed list by the proposition team.

conclusion

Reviewing the positive impact of the three-year high school English assessment work, it is pointed out that the proposition reform has shown a good development trend. Despite the problems, the quality of the test questions has been improved, which has promoted a change in teaching methods. In the future, proposition units and personnel need to establish a scientific testing concept, improve proposition techniques, optimize exam content and format, test students' core competencies, align with the overall goals of the English curriculum, and implement the task of cultivating students' moral character.