- What standardized tests have your completed?
- Did taking any one (or all) of these help you demonstrate evidence of learning? Which one?
- What do you think motivated the development of standardized testing?
I have taken a number of standardized tests in my school years. In the time leading up to high school, I took the MSPAP. I do not remember much about this test, however I do remember that multiple subjects were tested and I believe it also included a written component. During high school, I took both the PSAT and SAT. The PSAT was a test similar to the SAT and allowed a student to see what they have learned so far and understand what will need to be known in order to be successful in college (CollegeBoard, 2016). While this test has changed and adapted over time, I believe that the essence of the test remains the same. This test is a good indicator of what a student might receive on the SAT if taken at that given time. Another standardized test I took was the SAT, which was used to determine college acceptance. The SAT scores allow a college to see where you stand among other students. The scores also indicate how you might perform in college and indicate your preparedness for college (CollegeBoard, 2016).
In ways, taking the standardized tests did demonstrate learning. Standardized tests allow a student to see where their strengths and weaknesses are (Flanagan, Mascolo, and Hardy-Braz, 2009). It also is a way in which students can be screened (Flanagan, Mascolo, and Hardy-Braz, 2009) and can be used to determine readiness for other programs. Another way standardized testing does demonstrate learning is it can show growth over a period of time (Flanagan, Mascolo, and Hardy-Braz, 2009). This idea of growth is a much better use of standardized testing because it can truly capture what a student has learned.
In other ways, learning cannot always be captured from standardized testing. Standardized testing is taken at a fixed point and does not factor in outside forces which could include attention, distractions, and fatigue (Flanagan, Mascolo, and Hardy-Braz, 2009). By not taking these factors into consideration, it is hard to obtain an accurate picture of where students stand. Accommodations needed by disabled students are not factored in as well (Flanagan, Mascolo, and Hardy-Braz, 2009). In fact, these accommodations might affect the purpose of the test in the first place (Flanagan, Mascolo, and Hardy-Braz, 2009). For example, if a student has difficulty or the inability to read the test independently, they would generally have accommodations made so that the test was read to them. If the purpose of a test is to assess how well a student reads and their ability to answer questions regarding that reading, a fair assessment of that student is not obtained. Another issue is that students learn in a variety of styles. Part of being a teacher is making sure instruction is done in a way that appeals to multiple learning styles so that students are able to garner as much knowledge as possible. Standardized tests do not appeal to different learning styles and are therefore unfair assessments to students that cannot complete tasks in a learning style different from their own. As students should be taught through individualized learning, it is assumed that they should be assessed in the same individual way. Although this is not always possible, it is important to understand that some students do not do well on pencil and paper tests and adjustments should be made when examining scores.
Standardized tests were developed to obtain a better picture of a student’s knowledge (Fletcher, 2009). Colleges could use tests, like the ACT and SAT, to determine a student’s readiness for college and are used to determine acceptance into different colleges (Fletcher, 2009). A college can set a score limit and this can help eliminate students from the numerous applications a school receives. Over time, standardized testing has morphed into a way to divide federal funding and to obtain a picture of performance from school to school (Fletcher, 2009).
References:
CollegeBoard, 2016. Inside the PSAT/NMSQT and PSAT 10. Retreived 1/31/16 from https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/psat-nmsqt-psat-10/inside-the-test
Flanagan, D., Mascolo, J., Hardy-Braz, S. (2009). Standardized testing. Retrieved from http://www.education.com/reference/article/standardized-testing/#C
Fletcher, Dan, 2009. Brief history standardized testing. Retrieved from http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1947019,00.html
