Standardized Testing

What is standardized testing? Standardized testing is a test given to students and graded the same way for everyone to make sure that it is fair and easily comparable.

Imagine you are a student in grade school. All you want to do is be able to pass the grade you are in but you are relying on one test to determine your fate. How would that make you feel? Is that something you seem fit for not only yourself but for your classmates as well? 

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2.) What are the equity issues with standardized testing? 

Living in our society there are already socio-economic issues that students go through. Specifically those students of color and students who have learning disabilities. According to Choi (2020), students of color and their intelligence already have lower chances of being successful with standardized testing and will most likely have lower test scores. Furthermore, more students than you would expect have some kind of learning disability. Whether that be testing anxiety, ADHD, etc.. For tests such as the standardized test they are supposed to have certain accommodations. 

Long (2023) quotes a teacher, Alissa Holland. Holland further speaks about test anxiety and how some students will further their fear of testing due to only having one chance to take and pass this test. This is no way to be assessing the intelligence of our students. 

1.) What limitations are there with standardized testing? 

Standardized testing is something schools have been using to grade how well students are understanding curriculum. Although it may be easy for some there are others who tend to struggle due to the limitations in a standardized test. According to Fairtest (2023) they do not measure critical thinking or creativity in any subject. These students are supposed to be learning to understand and not every student can easily express how they learn in a test due to how long and how generic they are. Long (2023), also agrees with Fairtest (2023) in the idea that standardized testing does not correctly measure a student's learning and growth through grade school. These tests lack fun and creativity. They are tedious yet so dull and not something that school systems should continue to use. 

3.) What are other assessment options? 

During this research process something called performance-based assessment (PBA) repeatedly showed up. PBA allows teachers to create a test that will show critical thinking, collaboration and creativity in ways that students can actually show they are understanding the curriculum. Long (2023), also says that this is another way for educators to help students be more engaged and to accurately show them specific students' learning gaps. Jimenez and Boser (2023) have mentioned that there are two states that have tried a “through-year” assessment (PBA) so that teachers can detect early who and what their students are struggling with rather than waiting until the end of the year to take these tests and now their students are now longer their students and in another grade or unfortunately are repeating the grade due to failing that test. PBA will allow students to have some sort of control over how they are testing and they can even add their own spunk and creativity to it while doing so. Should this be something that every school system tries at least once or are we going to continue to allow our children to fail due to a test that does not accurately reflect these students' intelligence? 

Question 2: 

What does PBA stand for?

A. Practice-Based Assessment 

B. People Become Adults

C. Performance-Based Assessment 

D. Performance-Bases Asset