Thursday, May 7, 2009

Testing in America

Testing in America originated as a way to determine if students had acquired the information taught by a teacher. If a child did poorly on such a test, he or she was unable to advance to the next grade. Over time testing has evolved into a measure of accountability, and now because of NCLB, districts, schools and teachers are penalized if students are not able to pass state tests. Standardized tests have become the only measure used to track student achievement in schools. Using tests in this way has had a tragic effect on instruction and curriculum.

Standardized testing as the primary factor for accountability is causing an imbalance between skills and the purpose behind those skills in schools. Curriculums across the country have been chiseled down to practically nothing, and since most standardized tests do not offer specific feedback, students are never given a chance to find out what they answered correctly and what they got wrong. Test results are also basically useless for teachers and parents who often do not understand the data.

This is a parent’s blog entry that addresses the problems associated with standardized tests - http://www.averynearlytea.com/2006/07/standardized-tests-american-addiction.html.

Let’s consider some reasons why we take time to educate our youth:
-They must be prepared for the challenges of tomorrow.
-They need to understand how to become active members of our society.
-They need to have desirable qualities and problem solving skills in order to be successful in the job force.
-They must know how to interact with people from many different cultures.
-They need to be encouraged to become lifelong learners.

“Testing is Not Teaching. Teaching is choosing the right skills based on an astute observation of the child’s needs.” Donald H. Graves, a quote from Testing is Not Teaching, a great book everyone should check out.
For information on alternatives to standardized tests go to: http://performanceassessment.org/

3 comments:

  1. Beth,
    The quote "Testing is Not Teaching. Teaching is choosing the right skills, based on an astute observation of the child's needs", by Donald H. Graves, pretty much sums it up for me!

    In order for a child to learn anything, they have to be "met where they are" and THEN possibly, some day, they can pass a test, showing what they know!

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  2. Yea I can see where testing is a helpful tool in assessing the progress of students. When used in this manner, it can be useful to both teachers and students. With NCLB and the nationwide push for educational accountability standardized testing has become a major component. I find the whole concept of teaching to the test to be absolutely ridiculous. It boggles my mind that schools (such as the charter school I work at) will spend so much time teaching kids how to take the test, beat the test, make the scores, but over look the necessary skills needed to become a contributing member of society. This whole process seems to be a bit backwards. The original propose of an assessment was to measure mastery of content, not beat the system.

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  3. good points, all. my sense is that a standardized test can only be justified to decide things like college admission or placement in honors or remedial classes, NOT as a measure of school quality. but the public wants 'cheap' accountability, and until the general public is convinced that standardized tests do not measure what is important, we will continue to have them.

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