Wednesday, March 22, 2006

1. Standardized Tests are...

a. being dumbed down.
b. so widely used that the testing industry can't keep up with demand.
c. being challenged by the State of Connecticut.
d. all of the above

2. Now, write an essay on whether you believe that standardized achievement tests accurately reflect students' knowledge and an ability to apply that knowledge. (150 words or less; cite at least three reasons for your view.)

5 comments:

Ed Darrell said...

One test, of fewer than 100 questions, on U.S. History, cannot even scratch the surface of what a kid should know. Of necessity, then, any standardized test on "social studies" will only touch on some of the topics kids should know in some depth.

Standardized tests cannot substitute for a good education. They may be only a tool for determining specific areas in which a kid does not know something, but even in the areas they cover, they do not establish what the kid actually does know.

Why would we want the negative information? How can we get the positive?

Mark Daniels said...

Ed:
"Standardized tests cannot substitute for a good education." You've said a lot there. While standardized tests have their place, there must be more to how students are evaluated than that.

Standardized tests are a political solution to the problems in education and culture. But I'm not sure that they're actually improving the educations children receive. Most teachers and administrators will tell you the same thing.

Thanks for dropping by and for your comments.

Mark

Icepick said...

Mark, Ed,

If the test has been written well, a well educated person should do fine. If someone can't do well on the GRE exam, for example, I suspect they probably aren't THAT well educated, even though the GRE won't allow me to make specific determinations about that person's subject-area knowledge. (That's what the subject-area GREs are for!)

And I refuse to write an essay in the required format because I'm a rebel.

Mark Daniels said...

Icepick:
My point is that a poorly educated person can do well on some such tests, albeit one "educated" to give parrot responses on a multiple choice test.

By the way, I'm a rebel too. So, go for it!

Mark

Icepick said...

My point is that a poorly educated person can do well on some such tests, albeit one "educated" to give parrot responses on a multiple choice test.

I understand. But I would claim that particular test hasn't been well designed. I will concede that for many subects (History, Literature) that multiple choice tests can't do a good job of judging reasoning, even if they can test specific knowledge.