Investigation of the 2019-2021 National Evaluation exam: A case study of high school admissions in Bucharest

With knowledge being at the center of societal development, global policy forums, such as OECD, promote policies to improve national education systems. According to the most recent PISA evaluation, 40% of Romanian 15-year students are considered functionally illiterate. The Romanian education system’s mission to catch up with international standards was challenged by the policy shocks following the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In an attempt to adapt to the new situation, the Minister of Education implemented a substantial reduction of the curricula covered by the National Evaluation exam held in 2020. In 2021, the exam was restructured so to resemble the PISA tests. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how these changes have impacted the Romanian upper education system. We used the 2019-2021 high school admission data published by the Ministry of Education. Our results indicate apparent progress of high school efficacy due to the inflationary grade effects. We provided an alternative metric based not on grades but high school candidates’ rank. The classification of high schools based on this instrument is revealed as more robust. Most high schools in Bucharest run in the lowest performance category with the upper education system relying on a few top-performing high schools. For administrators and policymakers, this type of instrument is crucial for a proper evaluation of educational institution efficacy and authentic progress. This type of evaluation is the first action in the process to meet OECD requirements to close the gap between the lowest and highest education institutions in the EECA region.