Module 30

Issues in Standardized Testing

Due December 8th at 11pm, comments due December 11th at 11pm

Blog Post

• Discuss one question or confusion you have from reading Module 30.

The thing that interested me the most is that the country as a whole doesn’t have a set-grading rubric. Each state has their own rubric and a school’s score might be passing in one state but in another state it might be failing grade.

• What are some of the tensions that arise (for students, teacher, and schools) from high stakes standardized testing? Why do these arise?

The main thing that teachers might face is the fact that they might have to teach to the test, so they change their standards just so they can help prepare their students perform well in the test. This would cut out some of the teacher’s creativity and freedom to teach his or her classroom because they would have to be focused only on test scores. If the schools don’t meet a certain percentage they might be able to lose some of their funds, replace the whole staff and curriculum and lastly be taken over by the state. As for students, if they don’t pass the test they wouldn’t be able to graduate from high school or receiving a GED.

• What are high stakes tests measuring, exactly? Are they measuring intelligence or something else? How do you know?

I think they were meant to test intelligence when they were first created but now it seems like they are just testing the ability to take a test. Also I think they test the “intelligence” level of ethnic groups and how they compare to the “white” population. If the test was only meant to test intelligence I think it would look a lot more like an IQ test and it really isn’t. Some of the wording and some of the questions are targeted to only a certain group. I think that ultimately they’re testing the school as a whole and seeing if they’re doing a good job educating the students.

• If a student fails a standardized test (gets a 50% score), is it because of the test or the student? How do you know?

I think it could be either or. Some students are just not good at taking tests and even though they might know the material they can forget it all once they start the test. Like I mentioned some of the wording can be pretty tricky and it might be hard for some students to understand the questions. There’s also the chance that maybe the student just didn’t know any of the material and failed. Standardized tests are complex by themselves and I think that the scores are arbitrary, they don’t quite portray the student’s knowledge.