Yesterday, I defined standardized tests and began detailing why some believe that standardized tests are not fair. Today, I would like to continue the discussion by adding even more factors that do not support standardized testing.
Some believe that the tests are unreliable due to score variations. A reliable test will produce the same results each time the test is taken. However, standardized tests must factor in a “measurement error”. The results may be different each time the test is taken due to the child’s ability to focus because of mental and emotional factors. Therefore, a child may be able to actually score higher had he not had a bad morning or an upsetting night. Some say the scores are not accurate.
The results of standardized tests are rarely used by teachers to improve their teaching. Multiple-choice tests are not designed to provide information that can be helpful to teaching styles. Teachers cannot gain information about how the student learns or thinks. Because test results in my district are not received until the next school year, a teacher cannot take the test result and target areas of weaknesses with a student. A teacher would have to gather the information from the child’s previous year’s teacher, and this is rarely done. Teachers can look at the class as a whole and see what area was the weakest. However, again this would be referring to a class that has already moved on. The new group of students may have different areas of weaknesses.
So how should we evaluate students according to the advocates against standardized tests? They feel that teacher observations, records of student work, and performance-based assessments are good choices.
In my next articles, I will discuss why some feel that standardized tests are accurate measurements of students’ achievements. I will also offer my opinion of standardized testing. In the future articles, we will explore performance-based assessments and see if they are a possibility to replacing standardized assessments.
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