Standardized tests are being utilized in schools throughout the country to evaluate student performance at different points in their academic careers. A standardized test is a test administered and scored in a consistent manner. The tests are designed in such a way that the questions, conditions for administering, scoring procedures, and interpretations are consistent and are administered and scored in a predetermined, standard manner according to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standardized_test. Standardized tests are used to basically compare students to each other in order to try to evaluate what students are learning in school to say the least. Standardized tests have been used in different aspects of education, such as school funding and school status.
There are several beliefs about standardized tests. Some believe these tests have many positive attributes. For example, they can help in improving education or adding services for students. According to www.brighthub.com standardized tests can help teachers in their preparation of lessons as they use the results of the tests to see students' potential strengths and weaknesses. Also, it allows parents to see how their children are performing in school and see if there are areas in which their children need additional help. Another point, is that the results of the tests can be used to compare the performance of students of diverse groups. According to the article, there have been improvements of standardized tests to make them less bias. Lastly, results of standardized tests can be used to track student performance over years.
On the other hand, there are those who believe standardized tests are not good ways of assessing student performance. For example, many schools are forced to raise scores which puts a tremendous amount of stress on the teachers, principals, and students. Curriculum can be narrowed so much to get as much test prep in the daily schedule as possible. Teachers are forced to minimize creativity in the classroom. Also, teachers have to leave out social science, science, etc in order to make more time for test prep. Students are stressed to the max to perform well or better htan they did previously. In many cases students are aware that they scores can make or break their school. That is a tremendous amount of pressure for anyone. Students can develop test anxiety.
If standardized tests are going to be used in schools, they should be used responsibly. There needs to be more emphasis place on the true purpose of tests: to assess student learning. The results of tests should not be used to determine if a school will remain open. The students should not be pressured to "make the score" on the tests. Curriculum should not be narrowed or adjusted to overly included test prep. Standardized tests need to help identify strengths and weaknesses of the student body as well as possible flaws in the curriculum. Also, test prep skills should be included in the curriculum already. It should not be a seperate lesson. Teachers and students should be put at much ease about the tests. Tests can be a great asset to learning, but as long as they are used responsibly and conducive for learning more about the students and not for politics.
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Ideally, standardized tests should be used early and late in the school year as a measure of individual growth - they also are a good tool to compare growth between schools and classes and as an indicator of which educational practices are working best, so that those practices can be adopted on a larger scale. There is a website at http://www.fairtest.org/how-standardized-testing-damages-education that talks about the many inappropriate current uses for standardized tests.
ReplyDeleteIt is important to keep in mind that there are several alternate methods of measuring individual student growth - such as keeping a portfolio of work over a period of time.