Many teachers and parents are wondering whether or not standardized testing helps or hurts schools. The benefits for students are often discussed at school PTA/PTO meetings and in neighborhoods. There is also another way to look at the problem; that is to decide if standardized testing is an accurate measurement of learning and knowledge. There are two types of standardized tests; the aptitude test (like SAT-1 and ACT) and the achievement test. There are five national achievement tests which can also be called basic skills tests. The achievement test is useful for measuring how much a child has learned or how much their basic skills have improved. This essay argues that there is a great need for standardized testing in American schools today. That is because standardized testing is a positive for everyone, it tells us how our students are progressing, how beneficial our teachers are, and what schools are struggling.
Discussion
Measuring what is gained by education can be difficult because there are so many different opinions on what is important, in other words on what should be measured. Hoover (2011) described the situation in reference to a college degree and found some interesting perspectives that can relate to all education. School takes up a lot of time and it takes a lot of energy. Now-a-days parents are also concerned with the amount of money it costs to send children to school. Both parents and college students understand the amount of money a college education costs. Younger children do not understand as well but parents and children’s caregivers understand that school clothes, books and computers cost more than ever. Not only that gas mileage back and forth to school and school events requires more of the budget. So how can parents understand whether or not they are “getting their money’s worth” in terms of their children’s education?
Charles Murray (2011) the W. H. Brady Scholar in Culture and Freedom at the American Enterprise Institute believes that certain children do not have the ability to reach “high intellectual levels.” Therefore he supports the use of standardized testing. Murray (2011) feels that is important to “ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging State academic achievement standards and state academic assessments.” So what are standardized tests? A standardized test is standardized in many ways. The tests are made by companies who specialize in educational testing. The companies make the tests and they also correct the tests and make public the data on the results. Another way the tests are standardized is that all students of the same age are given the same test under the same circumstances. Because students of the same age are given the same tests their progress is easy to determine. Diane Ravitch is a journalist who has asked probably thousands of parents about education. She reports that thousands of people live in fear about the state of American schools.
I have traveled the nation speaking to nearly 100,000 educators, parents, and school-board members. No matter the city, state, or region, those who know schools best are frightened for the future of public education.
Ravitch (2011) takes the opposite view to Murray. She does not think the standardized testing fulfills the promises made about improving children’s education. She is very angry with President Obama over his educational policies that support standardized testing. Here are three arguments that show the advantages of standardized testing.
Measures Student’s Progress
Teachers have always used tests to measure whether or not the student’s in her (or his) class are learning. The general purpose of all tests and quizzes is to understand how much children know and what types of exercises can they do. Standardized tests are not made by the classroom teacher to only test a few children at a time. Instead standardized tests can measure a student’s abilities and then compare them to other children. Using standardized tests provides every child the same chance to do well on a test. Standardized Achievement Tests or SATs are familiar to high school students because their scores will help them enter college. It is tricky designing a really good test that actually measures achievement so a lot of time and money is invested in designing standardized tests.
Measures the Performance of the Teachers
Much like a student’s educational performance can be measured by standardized testing so can a teacher’s performance can be measured. Teacher’s can easily be evaluated by basing their evaluation on the performance of their students on the tests. The administration in schools can use the results of test to decide how effective the teachers at their school really are. Effectiveness is a difficult thing to measure. The test results are like a yard stick because they help determine teacher effectiveness more easily. High test scores mean high effectiveness while low test scores indicate a lack of effectiveness. Joe Klein (2011) was the chancellor of the New York City school systems. He says that this type of evaluation is called “teacher value-added.” Each year in an annual test for math and English were given to third graders through to eighth graders. The results measured both the progress of the student as well as the effectiveness of the teacher. The teacher’s union did not agree that a teacher’s effectiveness was accurately measured by student tests. Klein on the other hand was shocked when teachers did not agree that their tenure should be linked to the student’s progress in learning. Klein agrees with President Obama that the person who most affects a student’s future success is their teacher. In Klein’s (2011) view
Rather than create a system that attracts and rewards excellent teachers – and that imposes consequences for ineffective or lazy ones – we treat all teachers as if they were identical widgets and their performance really didn’t matter.
In other words Klein highly supported using student’s test scores to reward good teachers and punish bad teachers.
Identifies Struggling Schools
Test scores are used to close schools with poor test scores. Not everyone agrees that this is a good idea. Ravitch (2011) has said that the reasons for low test scores that lead to school closings may have nothing to do with the educational process. Her point is that when schools have in attendance the children of mostly poor people this can also impact test scores. On the other hand there are advantages to evaluating schools by using test scores as a measure. When a school had low test scores then something must be wrong. The low test scores can help everyone sit down and find the problems and solve them. Schools are paid for with tax payer money so the taxpayers need a way to hold schools accountable for offering a good education.
Conclusion
Testing has always been a part of the American educational system. Standardized testing has become an integral part of the school curriculums since federal and even state funding for schools can be linked to test results. The reasons that standardized testing is good to help evaluate teachers, students and schools is that because it is a fair way of testing students over a big range of subjects. The use of standardized testing is supported by many professionals in education and administration. It is a useful measurement to use.
References
Hoover, Eric. "College's Value Goes Deeper Than the Degree, Graduates Say," Chronicle.com, 15 May 2011. Web. 21 October 15 2012.
Klein, Joel. “The failure of American Schools” The Atlantic, 2011 June . Web. 20 Oct. 2012.
Murray, Charles. “The age of education romanticism” The New Criterion, 1 May 2008. Web. 20 Oct. 2012.
Ravitch, Diane. “Obama’s war on schools” in Newsweek Magazine, 20 March 2011. Web. 20 Oct. 2012.
