Monitoring Student Progress in Reading
Every year, students are given two report cards attesting to their progress in learning: one at the end of the first trimester (midterm) and the other at the end of the school year. They are evaluated on a scale of 1 to 10 and receive a written description of the skills they have reached during the school year. These report cards also contain a conduct (behavior) mark expressed both analytically and synthetically. During the 2017–2018 school year, the numerical marking system will be replaced by a lettered system of A through E.
In primary school, failure leading to a school year repetition is possible only in exceptional cases with serious motivations. Students graduate from primary to lower secondary school on the basis of an evaluation carried out by the class council at the end of Grade 5; there is no state examination at this level. In daily practice, teachers have the autonomy to determine how to assess students at all levels through oral, written, and practical testing (depending on the subject). Teachers present student grades in their respective discipline to the class council, at which point the council discusses and approves final student grades by a majority vote.
Since 2004, the National Institute for the Educational Evaluation of Instruction and Training has sought to improve the quality of Italy’s education system through the administration of national and international student assessments.25 External assessments of student performance in reading, grammar, and mathematics are administered in Grades 2 and 5 in primary school, Grade 8 in lower secondary school, and Grade 10 in upper secondary school.26