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.

Does Standardized Testing Really Show A Person's Knowledge.

I just spent the weekend in Los Angeles talking with several different people at a conference.  The topic of teaching and testing came up.  One gentleman who is a local teacher said  his school beta tested one of the Smarter Balance Tests. 

He noted many sections presented information but the questions did not use that information.  He also stated that many of the questions used methods that are not normally taught in class.

He wondered why we teach box and whisker plots or stem and leaf plots because he's never seen them used in real life.  He worked in industry before he became a teacher and in all that time, he's only ever used histograms.  These two observations lead to someone who spent 40 years working for the FAA add most people are not required to know all the material in their head.  They are allowed to work with others, look up information, or check to make sure they have it set up right.

It was acknowledged that tests are used to check for a person's basic knowledge in the case of a person who wants to become a lawyer, CPA, or Nurse but once they are done and have their credentials, they don't have to take the test again unless they move to another state.  Yet we are now testing students every year.

I hate standardized testing for several reasons.

1.  Many places use only the results from standardized testing to determine if a school district is progressing nicely. 

2.  Special education students are held to the same standards as those without a learning disability.  Even with accommodations, students may not have the knowledge to pass these types of tests.

3.  Many questions are not culturally appropriate. I've seen questions showing a student who rides a bus to the mall to shop for a coat.  There are no buses in my village and their clothing is usually ordered from a place online.  They do not relate to this.

4. A student's results vary from day to day depending on so many outside factors such as are they sick?  Did they get enough sleep the night before?  Have they regularly attended school?  Is their understanding of the English language good enough to understand what is being asked?

5. Results from the standardized tests are sometimes used to determine where students need improvement.  Unfortunately, the standards are being tested vary from year to year so what was tested last year may not be the same ones tested this year.

6.  Multiple choice math questions for the most part only tell us which questions students got correct, the questions do not tell me what part of the process the student still has issues with.  It doesn't tell me which problems they don't even know how to do. 

If I am going to use standardized test results to help determine what I teach, I'd rather use them them as one part of results I use.  I spend time in my class teaching students ways to take standardized tests such as elimination, underlining key words, etc.  I even work on teaching appropriate vocabulary such as Justify, Elimination, etc.  They have to understand what they are being asked to figure out the first step in solving problems.