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DISCOURSE AS A FORM OF MULTICULTURALISM IN LITERATURE AND COMMUNICATION

SECTION: PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION SCIENCES Arhipelag XXI Press, Tîrgu Mureș, 2015, ISBN: 978-606-8624-21-1

356

NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF COMPETENCIES IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

WITH SPECIAL REGARD TO THE ASSESSMENT OF MINORITY STUDENTS’

READING AND WRITING SKILLS IN THE ROMANIAN LANGUAGE

Szántó Bíborka

Assist. Prof., PhD, ”Babeș-Bolyai” University of Cluj-Napoca

Abstract: The Romanian Law of Education promulgated in 2011 prescribes the requirement of putting

into practice the assessment of competencies in every educational cycle. The assessments provide

feedback to students about the results of learning, and in the same time they serve as the basis of devising

individual developing programs. Starting from the school year 2013/2014, the basic competencies of 2nd

and 4th

grade elementary school students are assessed in the framework of the national assessment of

competencies. Annually, the Ministry of Education defines in a decree the tasks of the measurement and

evaluation, which cover the analyses of the development of basic competencies in reading and writing (in

the students‟ mother tongue) and mathematical literacy. In the case of students attending schools

teaching in a minority language, in addition to communication in the mother tongue and mathematical

competence, their reading and writing competency in Romanian language is also assessed.

The study describes and analyses the tests and results of the reading and writing competency assessment

in Romanian language of 4th grade elementary school students belonging to the most numerous national

minority in Romania. It states that the evaluation report of the national assessment of competencies does

not include the analyses of the results for minority students. By mapping the students‟ abilities, strong

and weak points for reading and writing competency in Romanian language, the study wants to give an

integral analysis of the achievement in communication in Romanian language of 4th grade students

studying in minority schools.

Keywords: evaluation, assessment of competencies, reading and writing, Romanian language, minority

education



357

1. Introduction

Starting from the school year 2013/2014 the National Evaluating and Assessing Centre

controlled by the Romanian Ministry of Education organizes competency assessments for 2nd

, 4th

and 6th

grade students measuring reading and writing skills in the mother tongue, mathematical

skills and – for minority students – reading and writing skills in the Romanian language. The

national assessment was introduced by applying the new Educational Law (2011/1) promulgated

in 2011.

According to the Educational Law the major goal of the national competency based

assessment is to provide information for the different participants of the educational system

(students, teachers, parents, headmasters etc.) which could help them optimizing the process of

teaching and learning. Besides this, the law formulates specific goals for the measurements

organized at the end of the certain teaching cycles. Regarding primary school, these are the

following (Educational Law 1/2011, article 74, section 2-3.):

(2) At the end of 2nd

grade, every school organizes and puts into practise based on the

methodology worked out by the Ministry of Education, the measurement of the basic

competencies (reading-writing, mathematics). The results of the measurements prepare ground

for devising individual developing programs. The parents are informed about the results of the

assessments and the individual developing programs, and the latter ones constitute part of the

students‘ portfolios.1

1 La finalul clasei a II-a, fiecare şcoală, în baza unei metodologii elaborate de Ministerul Educaţiei, Cercetării,

Tineretului şi Sportului, organizează şi realizează evaluarea competenţelor fundamentale: scris - citit şi matematică.

Rezultatele evaluărilor sunt folosite pentru elaborarea planurilor individualizate de învăţare ale elevilor. Rezultatele

evaluării şi planurile individualizate se comunică părinţilor elevilor şi constituie documente din portofoliul

educaţional al elevului.



358

(3) At the end of 4th

grade, the Ministry of Education assesses by sampling the basic

competencies acquired by the end of primary school, in order to diagnose the results of primary

education.2

The major goal of the competency assessment organized at the end of the primary cycle

is to evaluate primary school education (to compare students‘ results to the requirements of the

school curriculum, to compare students‘ individual results to the average national achievement,

to compare the results of national assessments to the results of international measurements etc.).

At the same time, the measurements have a forward-looking role: the results play an important

role in organizing the teaching-learning process in upper school education, and besides this they

can help in making education policy decisions and provide important data for curriculum- and

textbook-developers.

2. The structure of the reading comprehension tests for the Romanian language

The working groups of the National Evaluating and Assessing Centre worked out two test

versions for 4th

grade students, so students read different texts and solved different reading tasks.

According to the government decree No. 3334/24.04.2014 regarding the organization of the

assessments, the 4th

grade minority students‘ knowledge of the Romanian language was assessed

by text comprehension, and students had 60 minutes at their disposal to solve the tasks connected

with the unknown text. The students belonging to different minorities were given different texts

in Romanian.

The tasks applied in the evaluation did not measure the level of the acquirement of the

curriculum content, but they examined to what extent can students apply the acquired

knowledge, skills and competencies by the end of primary school education.

The two tests designed to measure reading skills in the Romanian language of students

belonging to the Hungarian minority contained narrative literary texts. The title of the text of the

1st test version was The tale of the rainbow (Povestea curcubeului), the text of the 2

nd test version

was an adaptation of a Petre Ispirescu tale, entitled The man, the snake and the fox (Omul,

2 La finalul clasei a IV-a, Ministerul Educaţiei, Cercetării, Tineretului şi Sportului realizează, prin eşantionare, o

evaluare la nivel naţional a competenţelor fundamentale dobândite în ciclul primar, după modelul testărilor

internaţionale, pentru diagnoza sistemului de învăţământ la nivel primar.



359

şarpele şi vulpea). The 1st text contained 268 words and the 2

nd one 304 words. The texts

designed to measure reading comprehension skills in the mother tongue (Hungarian language),

were longer: they contained 570 (1st test version) and 629 (2

nd test version) words.

There were two question-types present in the tests designed for the measurement of

Romanian language skills: open-ended an closed-ended questions. A closed-ended question is a

question format that limits students with a list of answer choices from which they must choose to

answer the question. In the tests, these types of questions were mostly in the form of multiple

choices in which students had to choose the correct answer out of four answer choices: only one

answer was correct, the other three were unequivocally wrong ( e.g. 1st version, 1

st task). Those

tasks are also closed-ended in which students had to decide – based on the text – if the

formulated statements were true or false ( e.g. 1st version 11

th task). Matching tasks (e.g. 1

st

version 12th

task) and those ones in which students had to put the events of the text into

chronological order (e.g. 1st version 10

th task) also belong to the type of closed-ended questions.

In the case of open-ended questions students had to give a shorter or longer written answer.

When solving the tasks which require a short answer, the student had to formulate his/her answer

by using a shorter element (e.g. 1st version 2

nd task), the tasks requiring longer written answer

expect an extended phrasing from the students (e.g. 1st version 14

th task). The question- and task-

types of the two tests measuring Romanian language skills are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. – Types of reading tasks

Item format Items of the 1st

version

Total Items of the 2nd

version

Total

Closed-

ended

1., 4., 5., 6., 7., 8., 10.,

11., 12., 13.

10 1., 4., 5., 6., 7., 8., 10.,

11., 12., 13.

10

Open-ended 2., 3., 9., 14., 15. 5 2., 3., 9., 14., 15. 5

Total 15 15

The report exhibiting the results of the national assessments (CNEE, 2014) states that the

tests were developed based on models used in international assessments. The report formulates

that the tests measuring reading literacy (both in the mother tongue and in the Romanian



360

language) were structured similarly, i.e. the same types of comprehension processes are used in

the assessment in developing the comprehension questions. These, and their proportion in the

test are shown in Table 2.

Table 2. – The prescribed structure of the reading comprehension test according to

comprehension processes (CNEE, 2014, 21)

Cognitive area Proportion in the

test

Number of

items

Making operations:

-with the major ideas of the text (in the case of

literary texts) -with explicitedly stated information

in the text (informational texts)

40% 5-6

Making operations with inferences:

-based on literary text

-based on informational text

-based on questions relevant to the text

40% 5-6

Interpreting ideas/data of the text and applying

them creatively in a new context

20% 2-3

In the tests measuring reading comprehension skills in the Romanian language there were

tasks that assessed each process, but each comprehension question dealt with one of the

processes (see Table 3.). In focusing on and retrieving explicitly stated information, readers use

various ways to locate and understand content that is relevant to the question posed. Retrieving

appropriate text information requires that the reader not only understand what is stated explicitly

in the text, but also how that information is related to the information sought. Successful retrieval



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requires a fairly immediate or automatic understanding of the text. This process needs little or no

inferring or interpreting. There are no ―gaps‖ in meaning to be filled – the meaning is evident

and stated in the text. Focus on the text typically remains at the sentence or phrase level in this

type of text processing (Mullis et al., 2009, 24–25). Making inferences allows the reader to move

beyond the surface of texts and to fill in the ―gaps‖ in meaning that often occur in texts. Some of

these inferences are straightforward in that they are based mostly on information that is

contained in the text: the reader may merely need to connect two or more ideas or pieces of

information. Although the ideas may be explicitly stated, the connection between them is not,

and thus must be inferred (Mullis et al., 2009, 25–26.). As readers interpret and integrate ideas

and information in the text, they often need to draw on their understanding of the world. They

are making connections that are not only implicit, but that may be open to some interpretation

based on their own perspective. When they interpret and integrate text information and ideas,

readers may need to draw on their background knowledge and experiences more than they do for

straightforward inferences (Mullis et al., 2009, 27).

Among the comprehension questions dealing with the process of retrieving explicitedly

stated information (see Table 3.), there were very uncomplicated ones, mostly multiple choice

questions, in which students had to focus on and retrieve one element at the sentence or phrase

level (1st version 1., 4., 5., 6., 2

nd version 1., 4., 5.,).

3 The open-ended questions related to

retrieving explicitedly stated information in the text were more complicated ones than the

multiple choice questions, because students had to formulate the answers with their one words in

a language that is not their mother tongue (1st version 9.).

4 Those tasks which asked students to

retrieve explicitedly stated information at the level of the text were also at a higher level of

3 1st version. 1. Care cuvânt continuă propoziţia? Încercuieşte varianta corectă. În text este vorba despre povestea A.

ploii.B. primăverii.C. curcubeului. D. cerului. 4. Încercuieşte varianta corectă. Fiecare culoare a vrut să fie A. cea

mai bună, cea mai deşteaptă, cea mai importantă, cea mai folositoare, cea mai colorată.B. cea mai înaltă, cea mai

frumoasă, cea mai harnică, cea mai folositoare, cea mai iubită.C. cea mai bună, cea mai frumoasă, cea mai

importantă, cea mai cuminte, cea mai atentă.D. cea mai bună, cea mai frumoasă, cea mai importantă, cea mai

folositoare, cea mai iubită. 5. Încercuieşte varianta corectă. Ce s-a întâmplat în timp ce culorile se certau? A.

Soarele strălucea pe cer.B. Un fulger a luminat cerul.C. A început să bată vântul.D. A început să ningă. 6.

Încercuieşte varianta care continuă propoziţia. Curcubeul îi învaţă pe copii A. să fie atenţi.B. să coloreze frumos.C.

să se certe.D. să fie prietenoşi. 2nd version. 1. Încercuieşte varianta corectă. Cine mergea prin pădure? A. un lupB. o

femeieC. un omD. un urs. 5. Încercuieşte varianta corectă. Cine a spus în poveste: ,,Asta este răsplata?” A.

vulpeaB. omul C. ursul D. şarpele 49. Răspunde la întrebare. Când apare curcubeul pe cer?



362

difficulty (1st version 3.).

5 Question number 2 in the 2

nd test version was a simple one regarding

the process of comprehension that it deals with, but in order to answer correctly the question,

students must have been aware that the word gaură appearing in the question is a synonym of the

word culcuş present in the text (meaning ‗burrow‘).6 Question number 3 in the 2

nd test version

was also a very complex one, because students had to answer four open-ended questions. In

answering the second subquestion students had to focus on and retrieve information from a

whole paragraph.7

There are 7-7 comprehension tasks that dealt with the comprehension process of making

straightforward inferences (see Table 3.). In the 9th

question of the 2nd

test version students had

to make inferences regarding certain acts: in order to discover why the fox thought that the man

was right, students had to refer to a piece of information present earlier in the text (i.e. The man

did the snake a good by saving it from its burrow.).8 Tasks that asked students to make

connection between the person‘s facts and attributes, or to recognize the personage based on its

facts, were also meant to activate the more complex process of making inferences (1st version 8.,

12., 15., 2nd

version 6., 8., 12.).9 We have to highlight the 12

th task of the 1

st test version, in

which students had to match the words describing characteristics with the facts. This task can

also be solved without reading the text, if the students are aware of the meaning of the words, but

if they are not, they cannot solve the task. In the 10th task of the reading comprehension tests,

53. Scrie, lângă fiecare propoziţie, numele personajului potrivit. „Uitaţi-vă în jur şi o să vedeţi că sunt peste tot!‖-

Verdele

„Eu sunt culoarea vieţii şi a iubirii!‖

„Fără mine nu există nici apa, nici cerul!‖

„Oricine vede strălucirea mea!‖

„Pe mine mă iubesc oamenii puternici!‖ 62. Răspunde la întrebare. Ce a căzut peste gaura şarpelui?

73. Răspunde la întrebări. Ce a auzit omul? Unde era şarpele? Când a căzut piatra peste gaura şarpelui? Ce a făcut

omul? 89. Răspunde la întrebare. De ce i-a dat dreptate vulpea omului?

9 1st version. 8. Încercuieşte varianta corectă. Cum era ploaia? A. bucuroasăB. neliniştităC. înţeleaptă D. mândră,

12. Scrie în tabelul de mai jos cuvintele: gălăgios, speriate, strălucitor, lăudăros, care arată însuşirile personajelor,

pe baza faptelor lor. Faptele personajelor: s-a lăudat, a strigat, s-au ţinut de mână, a luminat. Însuşiri. 2nd version. 6. Încercuieşte varianta corectă. Cum era vulpea? A. şireată şi mincinoasăB. şireată şi înţelegătoareC. prietenoasă şi

harnicăD. deşteaptă şi înaltă. Nu se completează de către elev. 8. Încercuieşte varianta corectă. Cum era şarpele? A.

recunoscătorB. nerecunoscătorC. mincinosD. prietenos 12. Scrie, în tabelul de mai jos, cuvintele: înţelegător,

nerecunoscător, deşteaptă, care arată însuşirile personajelor, pe baza faptelor lor. Faptele personajelor Vulpea a

reuşit să pedepsească şarpele. Omul a ascultat rugămintea şarpelui. Şarpele a vrut să-l mănânce pe om. Însuşiri



363

students had to make connections within the text by putting into cronological order the events of

the texts.10

Tabel 3. – Reading tasks according to the comprehension processes

Comprehension processes 1st

version 2nd

version

Retreive explicitely stated information 7 (1., 2., 4., 5., 6., 9.) 5 (1., 2., 3., 4., 5.)

Make straightforward inferences 7 (3., 7., 8, 10., 11., 12.,

15.)

7 (6., 7., 8., 9., 10., 11.,

12.)

Interpret and apply creatively in a new

context ideas/data of the text

2 (13., 14.) 3 (13., 14., 15.)

Total 15 15

The last group of the reading comprehension tasks present in the tests belonged to the

comprehension process of interpretating ideas of the text and applying them in a new context.

The interpretation of the text leans on understanding, but at the same time it is a creative process,

so it assumes a reflective relation with the read and understood text. The 13th

task of the 1st test

version, and the 15th

task of the 2nd

test belonged to this group of questions: the students had to

state the overall message of the texts.11

Task number 14 of the 1st and 2

nd versions asked students

to apply the ideas present in the texts in a new context.12

These tasks actuated students‘ writing

skills also.

3. Achievements in Comprehension Processes

The report on the results of the national assessment does not refer to the results of the

minority students achieved in reading comprehension in the Romanian language. Only the tables

10

1st version. 10. Numerotează propoziţiile în ordinea întâmplărilor din text. Violetul a vorbit cu mândrie. Verdele a

spus că este peste tot. A început o ploaie puternică. Galbenul a râs. Portocaliul s-a lăudat că este folositor. 2nd

version. 10. Numerotează propoziţiile în ordinea întâmplărilor din text. Cu ajutorul omului şarpele a ieşit din gaură.

Vulpea a judecat corect. Un şarpe a rămas închis într-o gaură. Şarpele a vrut să-l mănânce pe om. 11 1st version. 13. Încercuieşte varianta corectă! Care este înţelesul propoziţiei ,,Acesta va fi semnul prieteniei dintre

voi.”? A. Prietenilor le place curcubeul.B. Prietenii trebuie să fie alături aşa cum sunt culorile curcubeului.C.

Curcubeul ne arată cine ne este prieten. D. Suntem prietenoşi când vedem curcubeul. 2nd version. 15. Marchează cu

X propoziţia care se potriveşte cel mai bine poveştii. Întotdeauna câştigă cel puternic. Bunătatea trebuie răsplătită.

Nu lăsa pe mâine ce poţi face azi.

12 1st version. 14. Scrie un alt final al poveştii! 2nd version. 14. Scrie câte o propoziţie despre comportamentul

fiecărui personaj din poveste.



364

of the Appendix containing data inform us about the Hungarian students‘ reading achievement in

Romanian. Data were collected in seven counties:13

Bihor, Cluj, Covasna, Harghita, Mures, Salaj

and Satu-Mare. The results are presented according to the processes of comprehension activated

by the questions of the reading tests (Tables 4., 5. and 6.). . The data presented in the tables show

the proportion of the correct answers.

Table 4. shows students‘ achievement in the comprehension process of retrieving

explicitedly stated information in the text. It can be seen that the students solved questions/tasks

activating the most simple comprehension process in 69,45% (1st test version), respectively

64,39% (2nd

test version). In the case of the 1st test version they had difficulties in answering

correctly question number 9 (the proportion of the correct answers is only 50,08%). This

question was an open-ended question which had to be answered by using the students‘ own

words. In the case of the 2nd

test version students achievement is the lowest (29,69%) for the 3rd

question. The Appendix does not show the results achieved separately in each subquestion: it is

likely, that the low achievement is justified by the fact that the second subquestion of the 2nd

task

was at a higher level of difficulty than the other three subquestions. Analysing the results achived

by counties it can be seen that Cluj county preformed the highest and Harghita county the lowest

in both test versions.

Table 4. – Results achieved in the comprehension process of retrieving explicitedly stated

information (based on Anexa 2, 2014, 392–398.)

County

1st

version 2nd

version

Retrieve explicitedly stated information Retrieve explicitedly stated

information

1. 2. 4. 5. 6. 9. AVG 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. AVG

Bihor

87,5

4

66,8

4

68,0

3

63,2

5

71,1

1

52,4

1

68,1

9

88,8

7

59,1

8

34,6

9

80,3

3

69,3

9

66,4

9

Cluj

92,5

4

80,7

0

84,0

7

79,6

5

87,1

7

60,1

8

80,7

1

97,9

3

76,0

9

46,9

6

94,7

8

74,7

8

78,1

0

13 The Appendix of the report shows the results of those counties in which at least 100 students sat the tests

(Appendix 2, 2014, 392–398.).



365

Covasna

86,2

8

59,7

8

65,7

7

55,9

9

63,5

6

39,9

1

61,8

8

87,5

6

38,2

5

14,5

9

77,7

3

52,6

9

54,1

6

Harghita

83,4

3

60,7

6

71,2

4

49,3

9

63,6

8

39,1

8

61,2

8

88,4

1

35,2

3

13,8

0

75,5

3

46,7

3

51,9

4

Mures

88,9

0

66,8

4

74,6

4

63,6

7

73,1

8

50,7

3

69,6

6

91,3

3

61,5

7

33,0

6

84,5

7

64,3

3

66,9

7

Salaj

92,0

5

74,0

6

81,5

9

66,1

1

79,5

0

56,3

6

74,9

4

94,8

8

58,6

0

36,2

8

87,9

1

63,7

2

68,2

7

Satu-

Mare 89,5

1

64,2

9

69,4

2

67,4

1

74,7

8

51,7

9

69,5

3

91,6

5

57,9

9

28,7

5

81,3

3

64,6

2

64,8

6

AVG

88,6

0

67,6

1

73,5

3

63,6

3

73,2

8

50,0

8

69,4

5

91,5

1

55,2

7

29,6

9

83,1

6

62,3

4

64,3

9

Table 5. shows the achievement in reading for the inferencing comprehension process for 4th

grade students. Students performed relatively low in both test versions when solving the tasks

and questions dealing with this complex comprehension process. In the case of the 2nd

test

version the average achievement (47,91%) is even lower than the achievement for the 1st test

version (53,37%). In the case of the 1st version students had difficulties in solving the 15

th task

(27,37%), where they had to recognize the personages of the story by their facts. Students

performed low in solving the 9th

task of the 2nd

version, where they had to make reference to a

piece of information present earlier in the text, and had to attribute thoughts to a personage in

order to answer correctly the question: Why did the fox think that the man is right? (Because the

man did a good for the snake by saving it.). Looking across the results there can be seen that

Harghita county performed the lowest, and Cluj county performed the highest in reading for the

inferencing comprehension process.

Table 5. – Results achieved in the comprehension process of making straightforward inferences

(based on Anexa 2, 2014, 392–398.)

County 1

st version 2

nd version

Make straightforward inferences Make straightforward inferences



366

3.

7.

8.

10

.

11

.

12

.

15

.

AV

G

6.

7.

8.

9.

10

.

11

.

12

.

AV

G

Bihor

56

,92

75

,00

50

,86

56

,90

55

,34

46

,38

31

,55

53

,27

44

,16

68

,65

47

,87

21

,71

51

,95

57

,14

52

,69

49

,16

Cluj

82

,02

88

,50

61

,06

77

,43

72

,12

69

,64

45

,29

70

,86

55

,22

81

,74

58

,26

28

,26

69

,13

71

,30

64

,35

61

,18

Covasna

51

,26

67

,19

39

,43

50

,79

42

,65

31

,06

13

,95

42

,33

38

,40

57

,60

40

,09

11

,21

31

,34

34

,72

32

,77

35

,16

Harghita

51,0

4

65,6

3

38,8

0

52,6

1

42,0

1

26,7

2

12,2

2

41,2

9

37,2

6

52,1

6

34,5

0

7,6

4

25,3

0

30,4

5

36,1

9

31,9

2

Mures

59,6

6

77,0

1

53,7

0

58,2

8

57,4

1

47,0

9

28,7

3

54,5

5

45,0

4

69,8

3

49,3

8

19,3

1

47,8

0

55,6

5

49,1

0

48,0

1

Salaj

65,2

7

77,8

2

54,8

1

62,7

1

56,3

6

51,2

8

33,7

6

57,4

3

41,8

6

69,7

7

46,9

8

25,1

2

52,0

9

50,2

3

53,4

9

48,5

0

Satu-

Mare

56,7

0

76,5

6

54,1

4

53,3

8

57,8

8

46.1

5

26,1

4

52,9

9

49,0

1

70,6

2

50,6

2

17,2

8

47,5

2

53,8

5

44,8

0

47,6

7

AVG

60,4

1

75,3

8

50,0

4

60,1

5

54,8

2

45.4

7

27,3

7

53,3

7

44,4

2

67,1

9

46,8

1

18,6

4

60,2

2

50,4

7

47,6

2

47,9

1

Table 6. shows students‘ perfomance in reading for the comprehension process of

interpreting and applying creatively in a new context ideas of the text. The results reveal that

students‘ achievement was the lowest regarding the most complex comprehension process.

Students performed very poorly in the tasks where they had to use writing skills in order to solve

the task: to give a different ending to the story (1st version, 14) or to write sentences about the

behaviour of each personage (2nd

version, 14.)..

Table 6. – Results achieved in the comprehension process ofinterpreting and applying creatively

in a new context ideas/data of the text (based on Anexa 2, 2014, 392–398.)

County 1st

version 2nd

version



367

Interpret and apply creatively in a new

context ideas/data of the text

Interpret and apply creatively in a new context

ideas/data of the text

13. 14. AVG 13. 14. 15. AVG

Bihor 54,83 19,17 37,00 41,19 30,24 65,47 45,63

Cluj 64,16 19,91 42,03 48,70 41,30 75,88 35,29

Covasna 36,32 11,09 23,70 31,11 17,16 50,35 32,87

Harghita 37,74 8,34 23,04 23,66 14,18 51,58 29,80

Mures 49,87 16,93 33,40 40,44 28,41 60,03 42,96

Salaj 53,39 15,68 34,53 38,60 30,23 61,50 43,44

Satu-

Mare

51,92 11,94 31,93 41,09 25,99 64,25 43,77

Áverage 49,74 14,72 32,23 37,82 26,78 61,29 41,96

4. Conclusion

The aim of the study was to present the structure of the tests of the national competency

based assessment, designed to measure minority students‘ reading skills in the Romanian

language. The study also presents the 4th grade students achievement in reading for different

comprehension processes (retrieving information, making inferences and interprating and

creatively using in a new context ideas of the text).

Looking across the results it can be stated that students‘ average achievement is around

57% (1st version), respectively 57% (2

nd version) (see Table 7.). The relatively big difference

between the results achieved in the two test versions can be explained by the fact that the tests

were not totally equivalent regarding the complexity of the texts or of the comprehension

questions.

Table 7. – Results achieved by counties



368

County 1st version 2

nd version

Bihor 57,04 54,23

Cluj 70,96 65,64

Covasna 47,66 41,03

Harghita 48,38 38,17

Mureş 57,77 53,32

Sălaj 61,38 54,08

Satu-

Mare

56,80 56,9

AVG 57,14 51,91

The results also confirm that the counties that show relatively low performance are Harghita and

Covasna counties, where students learn the Romaniain language mainly in school, because they

have less opportunities to acquire it form the language environment.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1. Ina V.S. Mullis, Michael O. Martin, Ann M. Kennedy, Kathleen L. Trong, and Marian

Sainsbury (2009): PIRLS 2011 Assessment Framework. International Study Center,

Lynch School of Education, Boston College

2. National Evaluating and Assessing Centre (CNEE) (2014): Evaluările Naţionale la

finalul claselor a II-a, a IV-a şi a VI-a. Raportul administrării. Ministry of Education,

Bucharest

3. Pletl Rita. (2012): Helyzetjelentés az erdélyi magyar diákok olvasási és szövegértési

képességének színvonaláról. Ábel Kiadó, Kolozsvár



369

4. ***Metodologia de organizare şi desfăşurarea Evaluărilor Naţionale la finalul claselor

a II-a, a IV-a şi a VI-a în anul şcolar 2013-2014. Anexă la Ordinul ministrului

educaţieinaţionale No. 3334 from 24.04.2014.

5. ***Legea educației naționale 1/2011. In: Monitorul Oficial al României anul 179

(XXIII), nr. 18., luni 10 ianuarie 2011. Romanian Law of Education. In: Official Journal

of Romania, 179. /(XXIII.), No. 18., Monday, 10th

January 2011.

(http://www.edu.ro/index.php/legaldocs/14847) (2015.09.28)

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