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Movement Against Standardized Testing Gaining Strength
More groups are saying that the time and expense dedicated to standardized testing is having negative impact on student academic outcomes.
Opposition to standardized testing is drawing surprising adherents as more groups, including some that have previously supported the high-stakes assessment method, are calling for reform and even outright elimination of testing going forward. What Reuters calls “a backlash” could be partly explained as a reaction to the increasing enthusiasm for standardized tests exhibited by both federal and state governments. Hundreds of millions of dollars are going towards design and development of new testing regimes, to be used for children aged 5 and up. The tests themselves play a role not only in assessing student progress, but also in determining teacher effectiveness and in decisions on grade promotion.
A growing number of parents are also rebelling against what they see as valuable instruction time being wasted not only filling out Scantron sheets, but teaching students the mechanics of test-taking. But the biggest issue seems to be that the effort and expense of student stress and lost learning time isn’t translating to real academic gains.
In elementary schools, they protest that a laser focus on the subjects tested, mostly math and reading, crowds out science, social studies and the arts. In high schools, they’re fighting standardized exams that can determine a student’s course grade in subjects from geometry to world history.
“I see frustration and bitterness among parents growing by leaps and bounds,” said Leonie Haimson, a mother who runs Class Size Matters, an advocacy group in New York City that pushes for reduced testing and smaller class sizes. “What parents are saying is, ‘Enough is enough.’”
Some parents are taking a stronger stand than just lodging complaints. A group in northwest Washington took a more concrete step and kept their children out of school on testing days, which resulted in hundreds of children missing their state exams.
In Texas, where such testing regimes have previously been popular, over 500 schools have signed petitions to have the focus on standardized testing reduced. These actions were echoed by several districts in Florida. Parents in New York also protested outside the testing giant Pearsons Plc, which provides tests and exam administration services to schools around the country, and has lately been subject to questions regarding the quality of its product and its business practices.
Advocates of testing respond that a nation that invests $525 billion a year in its public elementary and secondary schools needs to know what it’s getting.
“Parents are measuring and testing their children all their lives, from when they’re born and we start weighing them to see if their growth is on target,” said Doug Kubach, the chief executive officer of Pearson’s testing division. “Assessments play the same role in the education world.”
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Comments
This is soooo true! I am an educator and I welcome evaluation, but quit taking all the time to test – let us teach!!
Let us teach and let students learn.
It’s really much better
“let us teach!!” sounds good but… how to evaluate the output of your teaching? I do not want my children to discover at the time to enter a college that they are well behind of any colleges programs.
It could easily happen if there are no standardized tests!!!
I teach in Texas. More importantly, I have 2 children that are in school in Texas. My son graduated in 2010. He graduated in top 10 percent of his class and cannot pass remedial math. He passed his Exit Level TAKS the first time. So how did “the test” prepare him? My daughter just finished 9th grade. She passed all of her EOC’S. All of them had a passing rate of below 50 percent. Why? Because very few would have passed. Pearson is out of touch with what is required to be taught. we won’t know passing rates for grsdes 3-8 unti January. How does that help me teach correct deficiencies in my students. It is a waste of time and money.
I feel the large standardized test should go. As a teacher, I can tell you that a good two to three weeks of academic time is wasted in preparation for the yearly standardized test. These test don’t measure a students true potential. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use assessments. My district uses the NWEA Map test. It is given three times a year. You can monitor growth and progress. You immediately see how the child scored, where the area of strengths and weakness are, and use the data to meet students needs or change your teaching style. You don’t have to wait until the middle of summar (when you no longer have the child) to see the results of their test.
Standardized testing is not the end-all be-all determining whether or not your child is prepped for college. I, too, welcome this evaluation! There are many different learning styles for children and these tests only test one way. They are a pain in the butt and they are boring for the students as well!
I didn’t go to school and get my masters just so I can teach children how to properly fill in a bubble and find the correct answer! Let us teach!! That is what we all went to school for!
I would like all states to have the same tests, its ridiculous how some states water down their tests so they look better then they really are.
While states that give rigorous test get penalized.
Why is it always all or nothing, we need some testing to make sure all teachers are covering the curriculum. As a parent I just dont like the elimination of other crucial aspects to a well rounded education. Kids need art and music and hands on science, public speaking and computer technology.
Stop demeaning teachers, stop insulting them, put education back in their hands. Get rid of radical political correctness and and let teachers expose kids to the enjoyment and excitement of learning in all aspects.
Put teaching back in the hands of the teachers, for heavens sake. Who else knows how to do the job? Who else cares enough about your kids to spend their adult life trying to improve the lives of children? Teachers are not opposed to testing/assessment, but want to have a say in it and need to tailor it to fit their students. Education/learning should be rigorous, thorough, novel, exciting, hands on and innovative. No test does that or measures all of that. That’s what teachers are for, God bless their giant hearts.
When 16-18 weeks out os a school year are lost to testing, a substantial amount of learning is lost. Not only do educators battle a society that cares more about missing school for a birthday or a feel good sense of entitlement (sorry, everybody isn’t the same) they battle the pressure to “give” grades for graduation rates, the all important school grade and bad administrators. For every “bad” teacher there are a hundred great teachers. Bring back vocational education. Get rid of testing circuses. Put an end to the great lie of OWEMEITIS.
I don’t mind testing for progress, but don’t pass/Fail an 8 year old child based on one test taken in the middle of allergy season when all the snot has their brains clogged up anyway, and who knows what else is going on in their lives that would distract them from doing well.
While I think it’s fine to expect much older children ( High schoolers) and adults ( college aged people) to push through and concentrate despite the other parts of their lives, it is not fair to the youngest children.
I don’t think testing is an accurate way to evaluate a student. Some children do poorly on tests and in reality know quite a bit. I think the day to day activities and lessons are a better way to evaluate the student.
I am so against standardized testing. It does nothing to truly measure a student’s ability. We’ve done the Woodcock Johnson achievement test and I so prefer that to filling in the circles. I think standardized testing is more for the state and the school than the student. We’ve got to come up with a better solution to make children feel special in their own way while measuring their individual achievement.
We have created a nation of second guessers, not thinkers, with standardized testing at the cost of teachers’ jobs and good programs for students. The students are “experts” at eliminating poor answer choices and choosing the best of the remaining….but if you ask them to name the capitols of the states, they cannot, because, Social Studies has been eliminated as not important enough to be a tested subject.
But… but… the Declaration of Independence states that “all men are created equal,” so that means we should all be able to do just fine on standardized tests, correct? After all, we are equal. [/end sarcasm]
I see the point of standardized testing as a college entrance exam (ACT/SAT), but for lower grades, especially elementary school, I question the logic.
My memory recalls a time when those standardized test scores (I took the IOWA tests, myself) dictated which type of classes you were eligible for: SPED, vocational/regular, or advanced/gifted. Sadly, this is no longer the case.
Perhaps if the big (albeit well-paying) lie of “everyone should go to college, wants to go to college, and can succeed in college!” was quashed, schools could shift focus back to teaching students and do away with much of the testing.
Still, since standardized testing is big money so won’t be going away, could we please have one standard per country, instead of the multitude of options currently available? Students cannot help where their parents live, nor how often the family moves. Having the same tests and a similar curriculum across the national board would help those students out immensely.
[...] via : EducationNews.Org [...]
here is the problem, student participation, most students only care enough to pass so they can graduate. B ut let us look at a situation i encounteed. I had a student in which the day before the standartized test, dad got drunk, beat up mom, dad is in jail, mom in the hospital. the aunt sent the kids to school to deal with legal and medical, Do you think the kid is going to do well on the test. Then as a teacher i am resposible for his grade. also we as teachers must use several evaluators to grade a student not just tests, how can the government make that requirement that one test will determine a student’s ability and knowledge.
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I’m a science teacher in Texas. After this past year and the problems associated with the first round of EOC testing in Texas (at the same time we are also TAKS testing), I’m ready to quit. The lower grade-level exams are not resulting in the retention and/or remediation of students who are not ready for the next grade level. The mandate is to “accelerate” their learning in the same time frame using any number of expensive and probably worthless strategies. In my opinion, non of this helps the students master subject matter in which they are lacking. We are supposed to be “preparing them today for jobs that don’t yet exist” as well as assuring that all students are prepared for college. Somewhere along the line, students are totally forgotten. We discuss “testers” in our faculty meetings rather than learners or students. To me, standardized testing has taken a pretty good education system and destroyed it. Get rid of the tests, give teaching back to the teachers and learning back to everyone.
By the way, while I can only speak for chemistry, if you want to see if your child is ready for college chemistry, have them look at some of the chemistry content from MIT Opencourseware, with Drs. Catherine Drennan and Elizabeth Vogel-Taylor. That is an “exemplary” but not difficult chemistry class in a well thought out format. If a prospective student can understand the first three or four lectures, they are probably ready for college chemistry otherwise, be ready to hire a tutor. Also, colleges make a lot of money (yours) teaching remedial level classes.