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Understanding Standardized Tests: Overview and Strategies

Learn about standardized tests, their development process, uses, major developers, and the impact of the No Child Left Behind Act on assessment practices. Explore the benefits and challenges of standardized testing in education.

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Understanding Standardized Tests: Overview and Strategies

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  1. Standardized Test Overview TCH 345 Assessment & Evaluation Strategies Han Liu, Ph.D. Department of Teacher Education Shippensburg University

  2. What it is Standardized Test? • Large number of students across the nation, a region, a state, or a district, take the test: • Using same/similar sets of exercises • Administering the test under approximately the same conditions • Applying uniform scoring procedures • Following uniform formula to interpret test results

  3. Uses of Standardized Tests • Compare results across large student population for important decisions • Test students’ achievement or their aptitude or intelligence • Decide K-12 students promotion & graduation • Decide college admission • Predict student future success • Decide scholarship recipients • Evaluate teacher performance • Evaluate instruction/school management intervention • Funnel resources to where needed

  4. Users of Standardized Tests • Typically, standardized tests meet the once-a-year information needs of: • School leaders • Policy makers • Instructional program designers • Teacher, Student, Parent • The society

  5. Major Steps in Developing Standardized Test • Clarifying achievement targets – Goals and standards based on grade level and subject areas (knowledge, reasoning, performance, products, and dispositions in relation to specific contents) • Translating those targets into assessments –Matching targets with methods, creating test specification blue print • Developing test items – Create a test bank of valid testing items in various formats • Assembling and evaluating the test for soundness – verify validity and reliability and modify test items through pilot study • Administering the test - - Define conditions for the test, such as how long the test takes, what are the grading guidelines, and how to report test results – norm-referenced or criterion-referenced

  6. Standardized Test Developers • Professional Test Developers • ETS(Educational Testing Service) • SAT • GRE • PRAXIS • Professional Testing • Pearson • Test Publisher • State Department of Educaton • Through contracts • PSSA

  7. PA Teachers Care about Most… • PRAXIS • SAS (Standards Aligned System) • PSSA • PSSA Anchors and Scoring Samplers

  8. Sample standardized Tests • IQ • PRAXIS • SAT • ACT • TOEFL • GRE • PSSA (Pennsylvania School System Assessment) • CAT (California Achievement Test)

  9. Layers of Standardized Tests • College Admissions Testing – 1930s • SAT, ACT • District Wide Testing –1940s • Statewide Testing – Since 1960s • PSSA • National Assessment – 1970s • National Assessment of Educational Progress (NEAP) • International Assessment • The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) • National Every-Pupil Testing – 2001 • No Child Left Behind Act • PSSA • AYP (Adequate yearly Progress)

  10. NCLB Law and Assessment • In 2001 national every-pupil testing was enacted through the No Child Left Behind Act. • NCLB requires each state to design or select an assessment yielding results that can be used to classify students into performance. (PA: PSSA) • The law requires every state to administer annually a standardized achievement test to every student in grades 3-8 (recently this law has been extended through high school).

  11. NCLB Law and Assessment • Results are reported by school district and by ethnic group to the public and used by states to demonstrate whether students are making adequate yearly progress (AYP). • State school systems will be held accountable for making AYP. So it is called High stake test. • Those schools labeled as "failing" receive both special attention and possible sanctions if their failing rates continue.

  12. Issues in Standardized Testing • Can standardized college admission test predict student future success? • Does international assessment accurately measure student real academic performance? • Does standardized test provide fair measurements for all learners? • Standardized tests • Encourage rote learning • Lead to “teach to the test” classroom practice • Lead to cheating • Lead to grade inflation • Impair student’s creativity

  13. Reference

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