Standardized Testing

Assessment is a topic that has been discussed in class and has been included in some of the presentations.  Standardized testing is an issue that may result in decreased learning.  Not every student learns the same way and yet, teacher test everyone in the same way.  For years and years, the trend has been for teachers to stand at the front of the class, teach material, and then test student’s knowledge in chapter tests and final exams.  But is this how we should be teaching?  Today’s students deserve more out of the education process.  There is much more to education than performing well on tests.  We need to realize the individual differences among students and offer alternative methods of assessment, such as group projects, websites, oral tests, or take-home quizzes.  We recently learned about formative assessment in class.  I really like this idea and can see how it is assessment for learning rather than assessment of learning.  I think I will allow students to re-write some assignments so that they can have a chance to use my feedback to learn what they can improve on.  This is a great example of using assessment for the purpose of learning.  One of the negative aspects of standardized testing is that teachers may find themselves teaching to the test rather than focusing on learning.  Exams such as Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) and Provincial exams are examples of standardized tests which may do more damage than good.  They stress students out, they don’t consider individual learning styles, they don’t test for improvement, and teachers may be blamed for poor results even if there are other factors such as being at a low economic status school or having a higher proportion of special needs students in their class.  I think that change has already begun to try to improve learning within the classroom and I look forward to seeing some of these improvements being implemented.