Instead of Standardized Testing

[evpace]

Please respond with your thoughts on, and experiences with, standardized testing. Are standardized tests helping students to achieve at a higher level? Do you think the money used to develop and administer standardized tests could be used more effectively in education? If so, for what?

[evpace]

I want to get some responses for a project I am doing. The project is due on Tuesday. Will you please help me. Thank you!

[javamomma]

I think standardized testing is good as "a tool" to watch for student growth and to guide student learning. However they should not be a win/lose test that a student or teacher's entire academic life depends on. Some students are not good test takers, some student/parents could care less, and some children have to much going on in their personal life to do well on a standardized test. It is sad that teachers can be reprimanded or students put on academic improvemnt over a score on a test.

[mulder32]

In my experience, they are mostly irrevelant, especially in any high stakes kind of situation. Usually, only multiple choice questions are asked, which means you never really understand what a student is thinking. I had one student a couple years ago who just filled the entire test out using his favorite band "ACDC". He went through the entire test this way, the results came back and he scored proficient. These tests are a disaster, and a horrible use of money.

[iteachsocialstudies]

I totally agree with what everyone is saying: there's too much weight and money put on them, and they become all consuming. However, you do have an opportunity to teach students some valuable skills. For example, in reading, students will learn how to read a paragraph/essay learning to look for things like climax and resolution. You can spend valuable time teaching them how to look for characters, plot, and key words. You can teach them (or at least give them practice) in looking for context clues.

And if nothing else, you can give them good testing skills. Like it or not, testing is huge part of life. Want to go to college? You must take the SAT/ACT. Want to go to law school? The LSAT. Be a lawyer? The Bar. Med school? MCAT, Dental? DAT, etc, etc, etc. I have been successful in adulthood with some of these other horrible standardized tests because of skills I learned early on in taking standardized tests.

[Mamaste]

Here's my perspective:

The reason for the upsurge in "accountability" for teachers and schools in the form of standardized tests is (in my opinion) a drive by our current administration toward privatization of education. Remember when vouchers were being promoted to give families choice and every child a chance for a decent education? When it didn't succeed, NCLB was born and public educators were set to be "tested," and "held accountable" for their performance as indicated by student performance on standardized tests. Any reasonable argument about the way NCLB is being implemented, or attempts to make it more useful to students, is met with suspicion that the educator bringing it up is trying to wriggle out of "accountability."

It is interesting to consider that if education is privatized, and more kids go to private schools with taxpayer dollars funding it, they'll be going to schools where standardized tests are not mandated, teachers are not held to standards to be "highly qualified," and AYP is neither measured nor required.

There are many ways the money could be spent. Not buying textbooks, tests, test prep books, scoring services, and reporting services from one or two corporations would have more of an affect on those corporations than on schools. The money would buy a lot of field trips, arts programs, and teachers' aides to help do more valuable assessments of student progress. Just for a start.