A WORLD WITHOUT STANDARDIZED TESTS?
A thought experiment: What would happen if standardized tests were suddenly banned from all schools? How would education change? Would teachers’ daily instruction be different? Would teachers still be able to teach? Would students learn? How would we know if learning occurred? How would we know which students were the struggling readers? How would we know which schools were the best? How would we know which schools were under-performing? Would education as we know it cease to exist? Would the educational world suddenly implode from lack of data? Would there be economic chaos? Without a number attached to them, would there be massive waves of identity crises among the student population?
Norm-Referenced
Let us define our terms: A standardized test is any published test in which there are mandatory instructions for administering and scoring. It is standardized so that all the testing variables are the same. These are usually, but not always, norm-referenced. A norm-referenced test (NRT) compares students to a “normal” population. All the scores are put together and distributed along the familiar bell-shaped curve (Figure 1). Average is established, with half the population above and the other half below. The term, ‘standardized test’ is used here to indicate standardized, norm-reference tests. Standardized tests are good for comparing students’ performance to the performance of other students in order to determine how far away from “average” they are. They can be used as one indication that there might be reading problems. However, they do not tell you exactly what these problems are.
Before Standardized Tests
It may be hard to imagine, but there was a time when standardized tests were not used. Growing up in the small rural town of Grantsburg, Wisconsin in the early 1960s, there were no standardized tests and yet, somehow, many of us managed to learn to read. Also, we did not need standardized tests to identify the struggling readers. Every kid in the class knew who they were. These were the kids the teacher skipped over when using round-robin reading for our Weekly Reader. Also, they were all put in the same group for reading instruction during the six years we moved through the elementary grades together.
Standardized tests can be useful educational tools. However, they are one tool among many tools to use to evaluate, assess, and document learning. And like any tool, their effectiveness is determined by how they are used. A misuse of this tool would be to use them as the sole means of (a) determining students’ placement in a program; (b) identifying strengths and weaknesses; (c) measuring students’ progress; (d) evaluating teachers, programs, or methods; and (e) diagnosing the cause of a reading disability. An effective use of standardized tests would be to use them to indicate which students might be struggling with reading and need further diagnosis.
Standardized tests can be helpful in certain situations and for specific purposes. However, that does not mean that more standardized tests are more helpful. A pig does not get heavier by weighing it. There is not a standardized test in the world that has helped a student create meaning with print. You cannot ‘standardized-test’ your way to literacy achievement.
Sr. VP of Operations | Program Manager | Project Manager | Lab Manager - Innovative Solutions for Intractable Challenges
5 年Really?? I don't think so.? Every day is a test and students work very hard to achieve.? You are suggesting that that achievement and hard work be eliminated in favor of attendance ribbons for just showing up. Sorry, but the world doesn't work that way, and it never will.? Exemplary achievement should rightly be recognized and rewarded, and testing is how it's done.
Vice Principal | Family Man
5 年"Standardized tests can be useful educational tools. However, they are one tool among many tools to use to evaluate, assess, and document learning." Interesting point here, they should not be used as the benchmark as some students are not comfortable with tests and would perform better in a different setting. Formative methods are better suited to gaining more accurate results. The Finnish system is an interesting one to look at. Thanks for the post Andrew Johnson
Human being, professor of literacy
5 年Third, they disempower teachers. The educational industrial complex can maintain its hold on the educational system only if classroom teachers are not able to make the decisions that are best for their students. A disempowered teacher does not ask question. A disempowered teacher simply implements commercial programs with “fidelity” and measures students as directed by entities outside the classroom.
Middle School Thematics Coordinator & Teacher at Green School SA | Nat Geo Educator
5 年As long as tertiary institutions measure success in learning using tests, and as long as they demand test results, there will be no way for schools to change. There are more effective ways to test for learning and deep understanding, but the fact remains we have this 'Grade 12 Exam' hanging over us, or whatever other countries have as equivalent. That is all that seems to matter.? Once we can move away from test-based learning to experiential, inquiry-based, student-driven learning then we will be able to send well-rounded young adults into the world who can solve problems, thrive creatively and change the world we live in for the better.
French/English and CLIL history teacher at het atheneum Hasselt
5 年I wonder indeed. All lvl related international ranking tools work with specific standard tests or require standardised parameters which, imo, don't cover the wider scale of skills, knowledge or competences one acquires in their lifetime. But still, the rankings are used as a referencing tool globally. So yes, I wonder what we would discover if we dropped the standardised tests ??