NationStates Jolt Archive

Hey, sorry to waste space but I was just curious as to how the general public felt about standardized testing as a means to judge how well kids are being taught, does it help/hurt etc.
...yeah I'm doing a paper on it, I'm sorry >_<

Any comments will help (even if it's just 'man I hate you'), so thank you!

well i don't think standardised testing is necessarily the best way to judge a student's performance. tests place too much emphasis simply on memory and not on ability, skill, understanding. coursework/assignments provide a much greater insight into those qualities if you ask me


but then, i suck at exams and rule at coursework... i have a slight bias :D

Repyh']Hey, sorry to waste space but I was just curious as to how the general public felt about standardized testing as a means to judge how well kids are being taught, does it help/hurt etc.
...yeah I'm doing a paper on it, I'm sorry >_<

Any comments will help (even if it's just 'man I hate you'), so thank you!

I always was an ass kicker at the standardized tests back in junior high and high school.

Whatever happened to me?

Personally I hate standardized tests. I hated taking them and I hate that one day I will have to administer them (I'm studying to be a teacher as we speak). They are not reliable in that other factors can alter the performance of a student's work. For example, if 'John' is usually a very intelligent little boy, but his dog just died, he won't be having a good day, may not be able to perform up to his usual potential, and may do poorly on the test the day he has to take it because he is upset. Standardized testing doesn't take into account outside factors like that. Also, scoring for standardized testing can be confusing, and the method used must be clear when sending results to children and parents. For example, a percentile score will yield different numbers than a raw score, and if these are confusing for you, remember that there are many parents who don't realize the difference. So when a child's scores are reported they may be misunderstood and create some discomfort. My biggest gripe with them though is that when standardized tests are going to be administered it makes the teachers teach to the test rather than trying to get students to actually learn information. Believe it or not there are stories about teachers who looked at the test beforehand (even though this is illegal) to tell students what the answers were so they would be able to perform at the required standard. Not only are students being taught according to information on a test, they are not learning other information that might be even more important.

These are just my personal views though, and I advise you to be careful using any comments you find on the forum for your paper, as the comments are not valid sources. However, in case you were wondering I got my facts from:
Educational Psychology: Developing Learners by Jeanne Ellis Ormrod

Good luck!

I advise you to be careful using any comments you find on the forum for your paper, as the comments are not valid sources.

Thank you for your advice ^_^ I am not necessarily stating what is said in here as fact, just honest people's opinions :)

You were a great help, thanks! (Good luck with becoming a teacher, that's actually what I am thinking of doing.)

I would like to say yes and no. Though I believe in standardized testing that it's a necessary... evil.. Mine the pun. :D

There is no perfect system unfortunately.

You'll need a system that bases everybody on equal standing. But Not everybody is fantastic at academics.

Unfortunately because of it, lots of people underachieve because of the stigma of doing poorly in exams means your a loser and will end up being a nobody in life.

But if you don't set a standard, the people on average would not strive to do better than the rest, and in the whole, they do worse eventually.

(kinda something like here, they lower the academic standards just to accomodate the locals into university, but then once they can't complete their exams in uni, they lower their standards even lower. By then, when they come out to work in the market, they can't get jobs because nobody wants to hire them, their just too incompetent to begin with. And now the governments in big trouble.)

Standardized testing is terrible - I wrote a whole op/ed piece on it for my school paper about it; lemme see if i can find it anywhere

While teaching, I've helped proctor and administer the test in a Middle School, and I've given hundreds of standardized tests when I was a Test Admin for a private learning center. I think what a lot of people have said about the limits and weaknesses of standard testing are very accurate. Although proponents of the testing will claim that as a broad systemic measuring tool, the effects of illness and anxiety can be normed statistically, that is small comfort to the individual student whose scores are not truly reflective of his/her ability.

The one area where I do think standardized testing can give useful information is in the area of rudimentary mathematics, say up through trig. Those problems can be presented and phrased in a cultural neutral way, and for the most part have a single definitive answer. This makes them suitable for standardized testing.

In the end, though, I believe there is a body of evidence in cognitive research that indicates that standardized testing is not a high correlate with success in post-secondary education or job success. As such, they should be taken with a WHOPPING big grain of NaCl. My $.02.