Pupil Assessment
Throughout a pupil's compulsory schooling, the school must keep pupils and parents/guardians regularly informed of progress at school. The basic form of contact between school and home is in the form of a verbal personal development dialogue focusing on the pupil's progress, knowledge and social skills. Meetings with the pupil and parent/guardian should be held at least once every term and result in an individual development plan for each pupil. Teachers monitor pupils' progress through continuous assessment.
The grading system is related to goals and attainment. The goals are expressed in the steering documents. The grading scale contains six levels and a seventh coding to indicate that a grade cannot be awarded. Five levels, A-E, denote pass results and F a non-pass result. If material for the assessment is entirely non-existent due to substantial absenteeism, a grade will not be awarded, and this will be designated by a horizontal line (dash - ). The grading scale is related to knowledge requirements. The teacher should make an overall assessment of the pupil’s knowledge but for the grade E (Pass), the pupil must meet all the knowledge requirements fo grade E laid down in the syllabi. The grading scale covers all school forms for children and youth, as well as municipal adult education. However, in schools for children with learning disabilities and in adult education for people with learning disabilities, grades will not be set for results that do not merit a pass, and the grading level F will thus not be used. Nor will the dash apply to these types of schools.
Pupils in compulsory school are awarded grades starting from school year six, including the Sami school (sameskolan) the school for children with intellectual disabilities (särskolan) (when grades are awarded) and the special school (specialskolan) from school year seven. Grades from year six were introduced in the school year 2012/13, prior to that grades were awarded from year eight.
Mandatory national tests (nationella prov) in year three, six and nine are used to evaluate the pupil’s knowledge in relation to the knowledge requirements expressed in the syllabus. Pupils in year three have national tests in Swedish/Swedish as a second language and mathematics. Pupils in year six have national tests in Swedish/Swedish as a second language, mathematics and English. In year nine the pupils do national tests in Swedish/Swedish as a second language, mathematics, English, one of the social science subjects (geography, history, religious studies or social science) and in one of the natural science subjects (physics, chemistry or biology).
If the school is concerned that a pupil might not reach the goals in the syllabus for school years three, six and nine, it is the responsibility of the school to develop a program with measures to be taken. The pupil and the pupil´s parents/guardians should have the opportunity to participate in the development of the program. Pupils who do not reach a pass level in a particular subject are not awarded a grade in that subject. Instead, a written assessment is made that identifies a pupil's aptitude for further studies.
The Swedish National Agency for Education (Skolverket)
The Ministry of Education and Research (Utbildningsdepartementet)
Progression of Pupils
Pupils automatically move to a higher class each year. After consulting a pupil's parents, or if requested by a pupil's parents/guardians the school head may decide not to move a pupil to the next class, however this is unusual. The school has to adapt its teaching to ensure that the pupils reach the goals, and usually employs several other support measures before grade retention is proposed. During the school year, the school head may also decide to transfer a pupil to a higher class if the pupil is deemed able and the pupil's parents consent.
Certification
A school-leaving certificate is issued at the end of compulsory schooling. The school-leaving certificate from the compulsory school (grundskolan), contains the pupil's final grades in subjects, groups of subjects and optional courses. All subjects are taught as courses which can last from a few months to several years. School-leaving certificates are set by the teacher and signed by the school head. The grades given in the school-leaving certificate awarded in the ninth year are determined with the aid of nationally devised grading criteria in conjunction with the course syllabus for each subject. It is possible to complete a school-leaving certificate though adult education.