Concluding Explorations

My thinking has evolved from a complex understanding to a more simple one as I did my exploration. I learned how standardized testing not only provokes poor measurements towards students abilities but many other things such as the ones I mentioned in my previous posts. Every time I found research, it lead me to other different questions, and sometimes found myself getting sidetracked answering and talking about the real question. But those questions led me to the understanding of, how standardized test cause other issues. That will impact the answer to the real question. Meaning that I definitely found not only one satisfactory answer to my initial question but many. Although some questions still linger in my mind such as, if having proof and studies, why can't there be something done, to stop thinking that the way to measure a students ability is by giving them a standardized test? So that's the question I will still wonder in the weeks ahead or until schools have found a new solution to stop this. My final point is that I will argue and agree with why standardized tests don't measure your abilities very well. Or should i say not at all.

Post #3

I am now on my third post, which means i've explored deeper about my topic. And of course more research leads to more questions. I discovered two articles that had great facts and found them super useful with great information. The two articles are, The Important Things Standardized Test Don't Measure and  Study Says Standardized Testing Is Overwhelming Nation's Public Schools.




In the article The Important Things Standardized Test Don't Measure Jeb Bush, Bill Gates, Lou Gerstner, and Arne Duncan talk about how using the numbers on standardized tests to frame the life chances of students, decide on the reputation of teachers according to the scores, judge the excellence of school administrators, and decide wether a public school or a private school is more convenient. Do you guys see how standardized tests not only measure a students ability but also doesn't measure the importance of other things? Realizing how much it limits the teacher's abilities to educate the students according to their needs and differences because the scores are not accurate is super useless. The importance on how much needless stress it causes the student during the time when the test is being taken, and taking over causing a low score. And this could be a straight A, high GPA student. So are these tests testing how much anxiety can take over a student when taking a test rather than testing the students abilities?

In the article Study Says Standardized Testing Is Overwhelming Nation's Public Schools Michael Casserly states "you've got multiple actors requiring, urging and encouraging a variety of tests for very different reasons that don't necessarily add up to a clear picture of how our kids are doing." That's exactly what's happening, at the end of the day students know a lot more than what's written on that test. Their abilities aren't defined by sitting down in a classroom desk with death silence circling an A, B, C, or D answer.


Both articles talk about the way standardized test are taken and what they include. Which would only be the a,b,c and d answers, where students have to be sitting down circling, in a certain amount of time. That is why these two articles agree, that the scores are not reliable, measure a students' ability nor do they help a teacher know what to help the student with next, in order to help him or her succeed.




-https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/03/01/the-important-things-standardized-tests-dont-measure/?utm_term=.814c6e7913a2 

-https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/study-says-standardized-testing-is-overwhelming-nations-public-schools/2015/10/24/8a22092c-79ae-11e5-a958-d889faf561dc_story.html?utm_term=.07b68c6dca69 

Post #2

I did research and found super interesting facts, but I also found myself asking more questions. And well without further a do, let me get into the information I was able to put together.

Let me start of by saying standardized tests do a poor job of measuring a students ability. And the reason behind that is, the scores on tests don't give enough or useful information to be able to evaluate a students ability to success. It's time for schools to look beyond a score written on paper and  pay closer attention to what these test can and cannot do. I read an article on the FRCC data base that said "If anything the intervening years-- primarily the years of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and it's strict test-driven regimen-- have made the problems in this area worse because we've asked test scores to carry ever more weight and we've depended on them to make ever more consequential decisions. Because of NCLB-- and the [Barack] Obama administration's "blueprint" places similar weight on test scores-- we now use "achievement tests" to decide wether students are entitled to tutoring services or whether they can transfer to a different school or whether we should close a school and reconstitute it's staff. And many states now have strict rules about who qualifies to receive a high school diploma primarily by the scores on a standardized test of "achievement." (Standardized Tests Do Not Effectively Measure Student Achievement) But wait, what happens to doing your homework and class work on time? what happens to having perfect attendance? what happens to paying attention in every class and participating? I guess what I'm trying to say is, whats the point of having all perfect scores on those things if schools will still judge you, your ability, success, achievement and so on, according to a standardized test score. Rochelle Gutierrez gives an appropriate understanding of achievement, "achievement-- all the outcomes that students and teachers attain. Achievement is more than a test score but also includes class participation, students' course-taking patterns, and teachers' professional development patterns." It is super dangerous for schools to depend on these tests scores because "achievement" means more than a given number on a standardized test. And the conclusions schools draw from the knowledge that is being gathered. 

Furthermore as i had said about scores on tests not giving enough information to evaluate a students' ability, a psychometrician Daniel Koretz said they "usually do not provide a direct and complete measure of education achievement." Meaning that theres only a part of the goals towards education. For example things that standardized test don't even measure are, creativity, persistence, endurance, curiosity, empathy, self-awareness, self discipline, leadership, and integrity. Im sure these are things we want our children to obtain and learn, this is what i consider real and beneficial "achievements" Shouldn't schools strive for goals that involve all the things i listed, along with their traditional academic goals? And if teachers aren't able to teach this from school sources such as text books, the idea here is to model them or create their own ways of teaching these things. If schools think they have a great understanding of their students development, they don't. And that is because, they aren't coming to a conclusion about how students are growing and developing physically, emotionally and intellectually. 

In the article Whats Wrong With Standardized Tests? talks about similar things as in the first article. But more questions came up that are more related towards how are standardized test scored? The way test are scored is usually by an accurately programmed machine. But are these test scores reliable? And i would think that if these scores were reliable, the second time testing, the score would be exactly the same. Which comes to the conclusion that these kinds of test are very poor on student learning. They also don't asses on what students can do on the real world task. And for teachers, are these tests helpful? The answer is not really, as it is shown on a classroom survey. The tests do not give helpful information about how the student learns or thinks in order for the teacher to understand on what to do next in working with them.

-http://www.fairtest.org/whats-wrong-standardized-tests 

-Phillip, Harris. “Standardized Test Do Not Effectively Measure Student Achievement.”Opposing Viewpoints, ic.galegroup.com.frccwc.idm.oclc.org/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?disableHighlighting=false&displayGroupName=Viewpoints&currPage=&scanId=&query=&source=&prodId=OVIC&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&mode=view&catId=&u=west59484&limiter=&display-query=&displayGroups=&contentModules=&action=e&sortBy=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ3010478218&windowstate=normal&activityType=&failOverType=&commentary=+. Accessed 9 Mar. 2017.

The Real Question Follows More...

   In today's society standardized tests play a huge roll in students' and teachers' lives. I think standardized tests, by no means, rank a student's success. Standardized tests simply consist of certain subjects in which some students do not excel. They do not assess things you will need in your everyday life and a test does not factor in the traits a person needs to be successful in society. They concentrate on answers that look good on paper, but don't give you the ability to assess yourself to be able to prosper in society. They do not deal with handling finances, balancing a checkbook, and the ability to adapt to the world.
   Every two weeks I have at least two tests or quizzes I have to prepare and study for, on top of that, I go home and have to spend certain hours on homework and extra work that is expected to be finished by the next class period. It is very rare when there is a review day in class because every topic is being squished together and we are "running out of time." This creates stress.
   Standardized testing shouldn't play a huge part in determining an individual's ability. Teachers have to do a lot in teaching. Students can only benefit from what a teacher helps them accomplish. With my experience of having to take standardized tests, I never felt that they accurately judged the knowledge and learning I experienced during a specific time period. Most students are not the best at test taking. They cause different emotions that will overwhelm the student. Individuals have different ways of learning and processing material. Furthermore, each state is different and requires dissimilar education and tests. Students have different educations, so the tests do not show the students' academic abilities because standardized tests are different and more or less complicated.
   So the question here is, how well do standardized tests measure your ability? Also, are standardized tests accurate in judgment? Do standardized tests show what you've learned? Not only are students questioning, but also teachers and parents. All students are pressured to do well on a test, which causes stress, and trying to focus while being under stress never works. So is standardized testing really helping the learning process for students? Do they really define who we are and what we are capable of doing? With research, Ted-Talks, studies and sources I would like to explore answers to these questions.

                                                                                        http://tinyurl.com/jfb7vl7

How Well Do Standardized Test Measure Your Ability?

https://tinyurl.com/hm793xt