• Discuss one question or confusion you have from reading Module 30.
• Is it difficult for teachers to not teach to the test? I know that you shouldn’t but how do you teach a lesson without incorporating what is on the test?
• What are some of the tensions that arise (for students, teacher, and schools) from high stakes standardized testing? Why do these arise?
• There are many reasons why tension and anxiety arises from teachers, students and schools from high stakes standardized testing. The school has to worry about the test scores being publicized in local newspapers and if the test scores are not high enough they could lose the school districts funding. A couple of reasons why students feel anxiety from high stake standardized testing is because depending on if they pass or fail they may or may not graduate, move onto the next grade level or receive a certificate or license for entering a specific profession. Schools give teachers merit pay raises or bonuses if their students have demonstrated increased performance on standardized achievement tests, which can cause a lot of tension to arise. Another reason a teacher may feel anxious about testing is because their futures may be based on their students’ test scores. One major problem that may come out of this is teachers teaching to the test rather than sticking to their curriculum.
• What are high stakes tests measuring, exactly? Are they measuring intelligence or something else? How do you know?
• High stakes tests are measuring how well a school is doing with keeping all the students on remotely the same intelligence level. It not only shows if a teacher is doing his or her job correctly but it also demonstrates how well students are understanding the material they are learning. I do not think that high stakes tests are measuring intelligence because I do not believe that you can determine how intelligent someone is simply by giving them a test. Not only is it a test but it is a test that the majority of students feel very pressured to do well on. I know that I do not work well under pressure and high stakes tests were very difficult for me because my nerves would take over.
• If a student fails a standardized test (gets a 50% score), is it because of the test or the student? How do you know?
• This is a very difficult question because there are so many reasons to why a student may fail a standardized test. One great way to figure out the problem is to compare his or her test scores with the other students in the classroom. If he or she was the only one who failed then there is a good possibility that the student does not understand the material. But if you discover that not only did he or she fail but the entire class did then maybe the teacher is not doing their job as well as they thought.
I think one issue that arises when teachers 'teach to the test' is the fact that some teachers will discard other topics they wanted to teach in the course in order to spend more time on the subjects that will appear on the test. Because teachers are sometimes held accountable for low test scores, they will do whatever it takes to help their students get good scores. Teachers often know what is going to be on the test or at least they have a general idea of what will be covered. So, when the teachers begin teaching directly to the test, students miss out on the opportunity to learn other information and receive a full education.
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