Are Standardized Tests having a negative affect on education?

1. Are Standardized Tests having a negative affect on education?

2. Standardized Testing Educators are asked to teach in multiple ways to reach all learners And then on the big test day, only one format is used Advantages • Carefully constructed by experts • They are easy and inexpensive to administer • Objective and lend themselves to machine-based scoring • They offer the public an easily understood report card on how well schools are doing • Provide a realizable measure of accountability for the educational leadership, politicians, and the public at large disadvantages Disadvantages • They fail to measure what they claim to measure • They exaggerate the significance of isolated facts • They tend to ignore higher-level thinking skills and discourage differing responses • They fail to deal with different learning styles • They consume excessive amounts of classroom hours and resources

3. Learning Styles Approximately: • 20-30% of the school-age population remember what is heard • 40% recall well visually the things that are seen or read • Many use their fingers in some manipulative to help remember basic facts • Other people cannot internalize information or skills unless they use them in real-life activities • Such as actually writing a letter to learn the correct format

4. Alternatives • Alternative Assessment means alternative voice, perspective and actions • Creating an alternative approach to accountability • “To create standardized testing that will inform parents and community members about how well the schools are doing and whether their children are learning what they need to know.” • Alternatives are in use in both the United States and other industrialized countries • Student Portfolios • District-wide proficiencies • Outside review teams that evaluate a school

5. The Need for Alternative Assessments • A one-size-fits-all assessment measure doesn’t work • Multidimensional assessment means evaluating students on a broader concept of intellectual ability and learning • Alternative assessments may ask students to perform, create or produce a product “Americans must demand higher standards in testing, as they are demanding higher standards in education. In and of itself testing is not the treatment” – Educational Testing Report

6. Continued Classroom Based Advantages • Evaluation is based on a wide range of student work done over a long period of time • Encourages schools and districts to invest in the professional development of the teachers and outside evaluators • Pushes teachers to reflect more consistently on the quality of student work in their classroom

7. Criticism? • This classroom approach, over time, can encourage collaboration between teachers and improve their work • Teachers regularly talking about student work will allow more-skilled teachers to help less-experienced teachers • Portfolio discussions will inevitably include not only how to evaluate student work, but the nature of the work that is going on in particular classrooms, and strategies to get students to do better work Logistics (organization or movement management) Possible Solutions: • Video-tape portfolios • Save the information digitally

8. Overly Subjective Evaluation? • Teachers may not be sensitive to the needs of students of color, or non-English speakers, or immigrants • However, this problem can arise in any form of assessment • Who chooses the questions for standardized tests? • Rarely is it immigrants, non-English or educators of color

9. Portfolio-Based Assessment • Throughout the school year, teachers and students gather work which shows student progress and achievement in various subjects • Students are encouraged to reflect which contributes to the overall goal of improving student learning “Random Sampling” • A number of learning records and student portfolios are selected randomly from each classroom • An independent group review the records and portfolios • Approaches of this sort have been developed in Britain, Australia and the United States

10. (based of Rhode Island’s Ponaganset High School) Digital Portfolio System As A Possible Reform?... • Students upload completed work to their portfolios • At the end of each school year, students give a 15-minute talk on their portfolios to two teachers • Teachers have experienced a change in their teaching style, they do less lecturing and more engaging students in projects • When many educators began to worry that teaching to the test had become the norm, proponents say, the portfolios gave students more ways to show what they know “They’re showing they can meet a set of standards, but they’re also showing who they are as individuals.” –David A. Niguidula