Monitoring umiejętności językowych, kryteria oceny poziomu kompetencji. Pierwsze rezultaty

Monitoring of language competences, criteria of competences’ level assessment. First results The article is an attempt to meet the high demands on the authors of critical publications as expressed by B. Śliwerski: “several analyses independent from the authorities have appeared in Polish comparative literature. At the heart of these analyses was a concern of investigating the truth about solutions widely recognized as obvious and indisputable in Polish education”. Th e authors have developed and tested their own methods of measuring language skills adapted to a various level of competence of upper secondary school students so that this article can be included in such a group of independent publications and the results obtained may reflect the actual state of education. Th e analysis of the results of measurements conducted in the first classes of the so-called “Laboratory District” proves a deep crisis in Polish education. Th e level of language competences of over half of the junior high school graduates is so low that they are not able to write a short argumentative writing piece. In this situation, uniform general lower secondary education can be considered as a wrong solution, and teachers of upper secondary schools, especially technical, are facing a difficult task of catching up with many years of general education.