Question: When I was in grade school, I remember my parents being shocked by just how many tests I had to take. I never thought much of it, but now I’m watching my little nephew go through school–and I’m shocked by how many tests he has to take! My sister is upset that her son seems to do nothing in school except be evaluated by countless tests, and I don’t really blame her. My cousin, a teacher, tells me that she thinks kids are tested way too much. What’s with all of these tests? Why would anyone want to put kids through this?
Answer: It’s certainly true that kids take a lot of tests in school these days: one study estimated that a typical student in the US takes more than 20 standardized assessments a year! And people are noticing: 49% of parents say there is too much standardized testing going on in schools.
So why all these tests? Well, assessments like these can serve all sorts of purposes. Some assessments are designed to give teachers a sense of where a child is in his or her learning, so that curriculum can be tailored to that child. Similarly but more broadly, assessments can be used to place students in entirely different classes or academic “tracks”–an issue that has its own whole set of controversies and debates. There are, of course, tests that are used to form a student’s grade, as well as state tests that assure the state authorities that a person is ready to graduate. But since this is done on the state level, college admissions offices need to look at other assessments in order to compare students from different states–which is where the SAT, a test run by the College Board and taken across the country, comes in. Does this mean that, for all these assessments, there are no tests results available to use to compare students across state lines until their late high school years? It did at one time, but that was a problem that state leaders sought to fix with the Common Core State Standards and their related assessments–and, yes, there’s a whole separate controversy surrounding this, too. Assessments pop up in the form of admissions tests for private schools, are proposed in school accountability legislation, and are a common presence in charter schools. As school management organization Choice Schools points out, running a school is tough enough to do to begin with–so educators and administrators (as well as policymakers and lawmakers) crave information, which assessment can provide.
Phew, that’s a lot of assessment–and a lot of complicated related debates! Let’s back up for a moment, though, and look at assessment itself. Is assessment bad for children?
It may be: studies show that all this testing stresses kids out. But we also gain important insight through tests. Some fear that assessments encourage teachers to “teach to the test,” but the assessment teacher trainers at NOCTI are among the many who argue this fear is about bad assessment, not assessment in general: after all, the test is written properly to cover the things a student truly needs to know, then teaching to the test would be a good thing.
Where you stand will depend on your convictions, your politics, and your perspective. But a few facts in this debate are undeniable: we are testing kids a lot, which gives many different stakeholders key pieces of information but also stresses out our students. Where is the balance? Which of these assessments are necessary, and which aren’t? These are still open questions, and you’ll have to decide for yourself where you stand.
“Sometimes the most brilliant and intelligent minds do not shine in standardized tests because they do not have standardized minds.” — Diane Ravitch