ABSTRACT
Legislative and sociopolitical factors have a significant impact on the process of educating ELLs. The design of graduation exams in secondary schools while paying attention to the provisions to respond to students’ special linguistic and cultural backgrounds can be problematic. This chapter addresses the issue of the state-controlled design of Matura, a graduation exam in secondary schools in Macedonia. It presents information about the content and the suitability of the qualitative aspect of the exam and the skills being tested with the focus on writing, as well as the criteria and ethical values used for assessing the writing section of the State Matura exam.
