It's That Time Of Year.

 

At school, we just started doing the annual standardized testing. The state I live in, just changed their test again and have the yearly one now working as an extension of the others.  It feels as if the students are being tested so many times during the school year that by this time of the year, they are tired of it and do not do their best on this one.

I really dislike these tests because I usually end up working with students who are behind due to where they live and their socioeconomic status. In addition, many students are classified as English Language Learners so their scores tend to be below proficient anyway.  Furthermore, after two years of missing school due to COVID, they are behind where they should be.

I did a search on standardized tests and if they are really effective.  I found lots of articles from as early as the 1990's stating these tests do not accurately reflect a student's knowledge, especially since it does not look at creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, or artistic ability.  In fact, many claim that these tests only test a small amount of student knowledge and since most questions are multiple choice or true or false, the questions are actually evaluating rote knowledge of math, science, and English.

Even as early as 2004, people were arguing that comparing results of standardized tests from year to year does not provide an accurate picture and the math used to figure out how much growth may be totally off and create a misleading picture.  

Furthermore, these tests are not necessarily fair since the tests do not account for learning disabilities, language barriers, personal struggles, and a lack of standard American conventions.  Many times, standardized tests place students from lower socioeconomic groups at a disadvantage.  In addition, students who suffer from test taking anxiety tend to shut down and not do well.

The thing is that I know what my students can do and where many of them are without the use these tests.  I know one teacher who looked at what standards were tested the previous year and focused her teaching on that.  When her students took the standardized test, they didn't do as well because the test didn't test about half of the standards from the previous year. 

 I don't believe teaching to the test is right but if we continue these test, I will continue teaching my students strategies to help them do better on the test.  Those will do more good than anything else. Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.