Monday, January 28, 2008
Standardized testing
Last semester I worked at Attwood Elementary school as a Lead Preschool teaching assistant. I went back last week to check out the library lay out for our project and was talking to some co workers when the subject of standardized testing came up. What does everyone think about standardize testing for K levels?
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8 comments:
I think standardized testing is a terrible measure of a child's intelligence or learned knowledge. The fact that teachers are now having to "teach to the test" totally defeats the purpose of the test. Standardized tests do not measure the intelligence of students, but their ability to think how the test makers want them to.
Standardized testing at a K level would be even more degrading for the kids than it is at 1st grade. All kids learn at a different rate, escpecially in the younger grades. If you use a standardized test to tell them they are "not up to par" when they are kindergarteners than that will just start the process of lowering their self-esteem and motivation at a younger age.
Why do people think there's such a push for standardized testing? What is is supposed to do? Are there any potential benefits?
Standardized testing is not fair. People learn at different levels and its not right to expect everyone to be at the same educational level and know the same things. Elementary school teachers are pushed too hard to meet a "standardized testing quota" rather than making sure that students learn. Students learning and understanding concepts and ideas should be more important than a score on a biased test.
I'm going to push this, not because I disagree with what Amanda and others have said, but because I want us to think about the issue in more complex ways. If it is so "obvious" to us that these tests are bad, then why are they being promoted?
Although I definitely believe there is far too much emphasis placed on standardized testing in our education system, I think it's somewhat necessary. It is an effective way of measuring all students on an equal scale. As much as we don’t like the idea of comparing children to one another, and know the negative effects it can have on students, it is beneficial in a few ways. The results are useful to school districts because they can examine what areas their students are struggling in and make changes accordingly. Also, they evaluate the performance of educators. How their students perform on these tests will show what areas are being taught effectively and which need improvement. Educators can their change teaching methods in order to better focus on what needs to be learned.
Standardized testing is something which truly frustrates me. I agree with meridith when she says it is a horrible measure of a child's intelligence or learned knowledge. The children are always tested in math, science and reading. Although these are critical areas to check a student's progress, it is unfair to say that a student is doing poorly due to a lower proficiency in one of those levels. What about those students who have trouble learning science because they find the material dry? They may be really smart in other areas such as history, or geography, but those are not areas tested often if at all.
To also comment on the Kindergarten standardized testing, I feel it would be very hard to have a child that young sit down and take one of those bubble sheet tests. Also, the children at that age may have only been in an organized school environment for a few months at the time of testing. I do not feel that is a fair judge of the teachers ability to teach the students if she has only been able to do so for such a limited period of time. Not all children come in to Kindergarten with the same skill level, so others may be seen as behind because they were not offered the same opportunities as their classmates.
I don't agree with standardized testing. I think that they put tons of pressure on kids when they should not feel pressured about how smart they are. I don't think one test can determine how smart a person is and I also don't even agree with standardized tests for people my age. I think the whole idea is just another ploy to weed people out.
Although I was the orginal post, I know have new questions that tie into this. I am traveling to South Africa this summer in hopes of widening my view on educational systems. In my pre studies I have learned that America and Canada are the only countries that do not have a country wide test once reaching the end of 12th grade to determine what will follow and what college or career you will go into. All this pressure on one test. What do people think about this? Does anyone know someone who has graduated from oversees and how they feel?
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