Don't Jump On The Standardized Testing Bandwagon

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75, No.2, January/February 1995. Don't Jump On The Standardized. Testing Bandwagon. Twenty reasons not to love testing. By Diane Meaghan and Francois ...
THE ATA Magazine

Vol. 75, No.2, January/February 1995

Don't Jump On The Standardized

Testing Bandwagon

Twenty reasons not to love testing By Diane Meaghan and Francois Casas

Parents and educators across Canada have been subjected to a concened campaign aimed at convincing them that the lack ofadequate testing in our schools is a major shortcoming. Editorials. letters to the editor and a spate of books with alarmist titles call for province-wide and nationwide standardized· testing as indispensable tools to understanding what works and what does not, to letting parents know how schools are doing and how weD their children are perfonning, and to making teachers and school boards more accountable. Ontario is only one of the provinces to jump on the testing bandwagon with an announcement by Education Minister David Cooke that the provin­ cial government will introduce a bat­ tery of province-wide tests in Grades 3, 6, 9 and 12. Meanwhile, a new round of national tests has just been initiated, with 55.000 13- and 16-year­ old students in 450 schools set to have their reading and writing skills tested. While concerns about curricula and evaluation of student learning and performance are legitimate, the belief that increased use of standardized achievement tests is a solution to the ills allegedly afflicting our educational system is misplaced because these tests suffer from a large number of critical deficiencies. If testing was such a pana­ cea, the U.S. would have the best edu­ cation system in the world since it has developed the most advanced testing "technology" and the volume of test­ ing in the United States has increased bn"'Oln,{FehnJ;UV

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at an annual rate of 10 to 20 percent since 1950. And yet, Canadian stu­ dents outperform Americans in most international tests which testing advo­ cates are fond of qUoting. A paTtiallist of the flaws of centrally prepared, administered and graded tests such as are being inaeasingly im­ plemented includes the following: 1. To permit machine scoring, stand­ ardized tests are limited to multiple­ choice items which, in tum, severely limits what can be tested. ror example, you can test voeabuIary skills but not how students use language.

changes are made over the years, which hardly encourages updating of curricula: In one instance, a large board ofeducation in MetropolitanTo­ ronto administered a math pre-test to its students, then used the same items to test them a few months later. The school board used the dramaticrise in the average score as proof ofimproved teaching effectiveness. 4. While advocated as a means to c:any out international comparisons of student learning and performance, these tests are not sensitive to m1tura1 differences and to variations in

... the belief that lnaeased use of standardized achievement tests Is a solution to the ills allegedly afflicting our edueatfonal system Is misplaced because these tests suffer from a large number of aitlcal defidendes. "

2. Even when tests use open-ended curricula for particular ages and questions, there exists a serious risk of grades in different countries. political interference in the prepara­ 5. To achieve a proper dispersion in tion and marking of the tests. Indeed, the scores, questions which are almost Education Minister Cooke himself has always answered correctly or incor­ acknowledged that the existing system rectly tend to be avoided, leading to in which bureaucrats design the tests overtesting of minutiae and can be manipulated to produce politi­ undenesting of important material. cally correct lest results. 6. Standardized tests stress the prod­ 3. To ensure comparability of test uct of learning, not the process. The: scores over time, few substantive measure a student's ability to recall 15

of social context on learning and removing all the joy from reading. Similarly, the most widely used stand­ ardized tests in mathematics overem­ phasize computational and procedural skills while undertesting concepts, leading to an inappropriate emphasis in teaching on procedural knowledge of computation and downgrading of problem-solving and reasoning. A Na­ tional Science Foundation study found science tests are skewed toward the life sciences and away from the physi­ cal sciences, with 75 percent of the questions requiring recall of facts and routine applications and over 90 percent of the questions not de­ manding a knowledge of scientific procedures.

15. It's pointless to suggest standard­ ized test scores measure student learn­ ing or the quality of teaching when these scores are influenced by many factors urn-elated to knowledge, in­ cluding problems at home, lack of in­ terest, health and motivation. 16. Where standardized tests are common, there is a tendency for teachers to teach for the tests rather than for learning. Energy is diverted from teaching and studying to identi­ fying and preparing for items likely to be on the tests, covering topics which would not otherwise be taught and in­ creasing the emphasis on some topics, thereby raising the possibility that an inordinate amount of time, attention and preparation is given to domains

pacting disproportionately on low-income and minor­ ity children. 11.· Standardized tests are "power" tests per­ fonned under the stress of speed rather than tests of knowledge. .'; Learning disabled youngsters with 13. Standardized mathematics tests visual and motor difficulties find it emphasize raw procedural and com­ particularly difficult to transcribe their putational knowledge while downgrad­ ing problem-solving and mathematical thoughts quickly to pape.: 12. Reading tests are often based on reasoning. Similarly, standardized sci­ the view literacy is gained by learning ence tests are skewed toward the life isolated skills (such as word recogni­ sciences and away from the physical tion and spelling) and can be assessed sciences. 14. There exists a serious risk of mis­ by measuring the student's mastery of these skills. Reading comprehension is use in the reporting of individual test tested with short passages which switch scores and in their application to de­ from topic to topic and from narration cisions concerning the education or to exposition, ignoring the influence the employment of our youth.

which do not reflect the desired out­ comes. Standardized testing narrows and fragments the curriculum, limits the nature of thinking and compro­ mises teachers' ideals about good teaching. 17. When test results are seen as the main or even a partial criterion of fu­ ture educational or life choices for stu­ dents, society itself begins treating performance in the tests as the objec­ tive of schooling rather than as an in­ dicator of achievement.

facts, define words, perform routine calculations, not higher learning proc­ esses such as analyzing, synthesizing, forming hypotheses and exploring al­ ternative ways of solving problems. 7. Standardized tests are not a use­ ful diagnostic tool: corrected tests are never returned, excluding the process of feedback and debate which is at the core of learning and education. In­ deed, such tests are anti-educational because teachers play no part in their preparation and consequently have nothing to contribute to the process of educating the students through the use of these tests. 8. Standardized tests rule out the students' independent creativity and criticism by eliminating the need to construct answers for them­ selves. 9. Standardized tests do not enhance accountability but merely shift it from teachers and school authori­ ties to anonymous govern­ ment officials or corporate bureaucrats who cannot be confronted or held account­ able if tests are poorly con­ structed, administered or

marked. 10. Standardized tests in­ variably are biased against socioeconomic. racial and! or ethnic minority groups. negatively affecting chil­ dren's self-esteem and im­

18. Standardized tests make the teacher-student relationship more adversarial, with the teacher viewed by the students as an opponent or a judge rather than as an advocate. 19. Standardized tests generate a va­ riety of test preparation and adminis­ tration practices leading to test SCOTe pollution, defined as factors which in­ crease or decrease test performance without connection to the material covered by the test, including training students in test-taking skills, pro­ moting student motivation through appeals to students, teachers and par­ ents, presenting items similar to those on the test, presenting actual test items before the test, checking that all items have been completed. dismissing 10w­ achieving students on test days, giving hints or answers during the test or al­ tering answer sheets. 20. Results in standardized tests are intimately linked to the specific ques­ tions chosen. Each item in an "objec­ tive" multiple-choice test involves between 100 and 150 subjective deci­ sions made, delegated or neglected Even innocuous changes in the word­ ing of a test item, in its position in re­ lation to others or in the test layout can make dramatic differences in the responses. Provincial ministers of education should heed these warnings and ac­ knowledge the limited role of stand­ ardized testing in the design of an educational policy. While it may be politically tempting to placate the in­ creasingly loud cries for reform by mandating centrally prepared stand­ ardized achievement tests, it is incum­ bent upon educational specialists and school board officials to resist this trend toward finding a quick-fix solu­ tion to the real problems our educa­ tion system is experiencing with what is a wasteful exercise at best, a harm­ ful hoax at worst. r

Diane Meaghan is with Seneca College and North Thrk Board of Education. Fra1lfOi.s Casas is a professor of eeonomUs at the University ofToran.to.