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Alexander W

ARE HIGH-STAKES TESTS WORTH THE WAGER? - 0 views

sks.sirs.es.vrc.scoolaid.net/...hst-article-display

shared by Alexander W on 24 Mar 10 - Cached
  • 24 states now require students to pass exit tests before they receive their high school diplomas
  • 80 percent of adults believed students should have to pass standardized tests in order to graduate from high school, those results suggest that public support for more student accountability is growing
  • they have a largely unquestioned reputation for objectivity
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • scores don't depend on who is performing the assessment; tests yield numerical scores, which are precise measures of performance; and, like a laboratory measurement, test scores are reliable.
  • an improvement in students' ability to perform well on that particular test.
  • reading scores for African American students actually went down
  • these kinds of tests are hardly adequate measures of what students should know and be able to do: "Though they are very hard to track, we should be asking ourselves instead what our schools do that makes a difference in terms of real-world outcomes."
  • high school dropout rates in Texas, particularly among minority students, are considerably higher than they were before the TAAS
  • performing ongoing evaluations of the intended and unintended effects of high-stakes testing
  • some researchers contend that a test-driven curriculum is better than no real curriculum at all
  • structure and coherenc
  • "testing effects versus learning gains,"
  • test should reflect the curriculum in both its content and the cognitive process involved
  • test should be given a second chance
  • performing ongoing evaluations of the intended and unintended effects of high-stakes testing
  • "The state's accountability system was originally designed to hold school administrators and teachers accountable, but the main people who are being punished here are the children," Valenzuela said
  • a good idea because they create incentives for students, teachers, and schools to meet high achievement standards
  • a good idea because they help to ensure that all students will graduate with at least a basic foundation of academic skills
  • "[Students of color] are not getting the same educational experience as kids in suburban schools," she says
  • they must have access to the materials, curriculum, and instruction to enable them to succeed on such assessments: "When content standards and associated tests are introduced as a reform to change and thereby improve current practice, opportunities to access appropriate materials and retraining consistent with the intended changes should be provided before schools, teachers, or students are sanctioned for failing to meet the new standards."
  • Alexander W on 24 Mar 10
     
    Sadowski, Michael. "Are High-Stakes Tests Worth the Wager?." Harvard Education Letter Sept./Oct. 2000: 1-5. SIRS Researcher. Web. 24 March 2010.
Alexander W

Points of View Reference Center Home: Counterpoint: National Education Standards Overlo... - 0 views

web.ebscohost.com/...detail

shared by Alexander W on 24 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Teachers are forced to teach to the test, rather than to the subject matter.
  • stop trying to use standardized testing as a way to force national educational standards on local school systems.
  • rely too heavily on statistical analysis of the extent to which students learn isolated facts and figures rather than the knowledge they gain within the context of lesson plans and unit studies
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • standardized tests should be replaced with other forms of testing, such as essay writing and oral examinations
  • tests are too narrowly focused, and that they fail to help students learn important skills such as critical thinking
  • First, it fails to take into account that not all children learn in same way
  • State and federal educational bureaucracies tend to use standardized testing as a way to increase their own control over the educational process
  • overemphasis on vocational education
Crista M

Standardized Testing and Assessment Improve Education - 0 views

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shared by Crista M on 24 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Standardized Testing and Assessment Improve Education
Crista M

Standardized Testing Has Negatively Impacted Public Schools - 0 views

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shared by Crista M on 24 Mar 10 - Cached
Alexander W

Education Futures - Ken Robinson on standardized testing - 1 views

www.educationfutures.com/...binson-on-standardized-testing

shared by Alexander W on 23 Mar 10 - Cached
    • Alexander W
      Alexander W on 24 Mar 10
       
      Sir Robinson provides some rather interesting points here: for one, the intelligence measured by standardized tests and in the school system today only measures a certain type of intelligence. People are all different and have different kinds of talents, and schools should learn to try and encourage a development of these talents into something tangible. Also, students shouldn't fear the possibility of failing, because there will always be some problems when you try to learn something. There will always be mistakes.
    • Alexander W
      Alexander W on 24 Mar 10
       
      The harm revolves around the decreasing efficiency of the school system to educate the students of tomorrow. The inherency, meanwhile, is that the system doesn't differentiate between the diverse range of students that are attending public schools these days, and it is the significance, that we should emphasize a more individual-driven education, that leads us to the question: how will we do this?
Charlotte S

What's Wrong With Standardized Tests? | FairTest - 0 views

www.fairtest.org/...whatwron.htm

shared by Charlotte S on 24 Mar 10 - Cached
  • all students answer the same questions
  • They reward the ability to quickly answer superficial questions that do not require real thought. They do not measure the ability to think or create in any field.
  • They also assume all test-takers have been exposed to a white, middle-class background.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • This means an individual's score may vary from day to day due to testing conditions or the test-taker's mental or emotional state
  • On the SAT, for example, the test-makers admit that two students' scores must differ by at least 144 points (out of 1600) before they are willing to say the students' measured abilities really differ.
  • Do tests reflect what we know about how students learn?
  • Do test scores reflect real differences among people
  • Are test scores "reliable"?
  • Are standardized tests fair and helpful evaluation tools?
  • While our understanding of the brain and how people learn and think has progressed enormously, tests have remained the same
  • they do not indicate how the student learns or thinks
Alexander W

Points of View Reference Center Home: Point: Standardized Testing is the best Way to Es... - 0 views

web.ebscohost.com/...detail

shared by Alexander W on 23 Mar 10 - Cached
  • standardized tests allow comparisons to be made among students and schools in different communities.
  • Most states required only one year of math instruction and only one year of science, while in 13 states, students could earn 50 percent or more of their credits required for graduation with electives.
  • can we really be so surprised that the most recent generation is absorbing different kinds of information and learning different skills from the world around them?
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • However, there may also be a way to interpret some of this data as a reflection of cultural change.
  • evidence of a "dumbing down"
  • but the fact that they reveal the discrepancies between what we think kids should learn and what we teach?
    • Alexander W
      Alexander W on 23 Mar 10
       
      Interesting...they can serve as a standard, of course, and if they are analyzed merely in this way and not as the end-all be-all test, then maybe people would be more accepting of it.
  • Critics of the test note that teachers now teach to the test, and that little time is spent on teaching non-tested subjects.
  • Standardized tests are important, not for the testing, but for the standards. They are, in essence, a benchmark that when properly done, sets out for students, teacher, parents, and a nation, goals for the next generation.
Charlotte S

Standardized Testing Does Not Measure College Success - 0 views

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Affirmative

shared by Charlotte S on 23 Mar 10 - Cached
  • What I do wonder is how will admissions officers, politicians, schools, families, and children deal with yet another examination that pretends to tell us something about—what?
  • We really want to be able to make the best estimate of who will ultimately be happiest and most successful in the particular educational setting our college provides. Test scores do not predict such happiness and success; so why do so many of us require the scores?
Charlotte S

Standardized Testing Measures College Success - 0 views

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shared by Charlotte S on 23 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Camara pointed out "At the point of making decisions, admission directors must use the best information available, and admissions tests continue to be a valuable and reliable tool."
  • four-year public and private institutions have consistently reported that high school grades are the most important factor in admission decisions and have always ranked it higher than scores from admission tests.
  • 96 percent require an admission test today
  • Charlotte S on 23 Mar 10
     
    http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/infomark.do?contentSet=GSRC&docType=GSRC&type=retrieve&tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010478210&userGroupName=smithtown&version=1.0&searchType=BasicSearchForm&source=gale Jeffrey Penn. "Standardized Testing Measures College Success." At Issue: Standardized Testing. Ed. Roman Espejo. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2008. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. SMITHTOWN HIGH SCHOOL EAST. 23 Mar. 2010 .
Alexander W

Assessment Through Standardized Testing Isn't Recommended for Colleges - 0 views

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shared by Alexander W on 23 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Alexander W on 23 Mar 10
     
    http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/infomark.do?contentSet=GSRC&docType=GSRC&type=retrieve&tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010478215&userGroupName=smithtown&version=1.0&searchType=BasicSearchForm&source=gale\nShai D. Bronshtein. "Assessment Through Standardized Testing Isn't Recommended for Colleges." At Issue: Standardized Testing. Ed. Roman Espejo. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2008. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. SMITHTOWN HIGH SCHOOL EAST. 23 Mar. 2010 .\n\n\n
Charlotte S

Standardized Testing Is Useful - 0 views

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Negative

shared by Charlotte S on 23 Mar 10 - Cached
  • However, the appropriate use of well-developed standardized tests is valuable toward continuous assessment, development, and improvement of curriculum and classroom instruction. Standardized testing allows schools to quickly adapt to new educational practices and ensures that teachers follow an approved curriculum framework
  • Charlotte S on 23 Mar 10
     
    http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/infomark.do?contentSet=GSRC&docType=GSRC&type=retrieve&tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010478202&userGroupName=smithtown&version=1.0&searchType=BasicSearchForm Stephen G. Sireci. "Standardized Testing Is Useful." At Issue: Standardized Testing. Ed. Roman Espejo. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2008. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. SMITHTOWN HIGH SCHOOL EAST. 23 Mar. 2010 .
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