Standardized Testing

Blog 4/5/13 words 506

This week was the Iowa Assessments, which is a standardized test that is required for all students in the state of Iowa. In my opinion these tests are a huge waste of time. The scores for these tests are not like those of the SAT or ACT they do not affect students admittance in to college and they are not graded on these tests. There is no real benefit for students taking these tests except for the t-shirt that they get for getting their personal best, 90^th percentile or 99^th percentile

The concept of the t-shirt incentive is a whole separate issue. It makes kids value their academic success on whether they get a shirt or not. If that is the only reason why kids are trying their best on these tests there is a problem. There is also the issue of the kids that don’t get a shirt, how are they supposed to feel? I understand that administrators are trying to increase student moral with the shirts and making those kids that did the best feel that their work is appreciated. I just think that there could be a lot more time and effort spent on other things.

Time could have been spent teaching content in our classes instead of taking 2 hours out of each day for three days. AP tests are right around the corner and I know that in the two AP classes that I am taking I need all of the time I can get in class. The timing of these tests could have been planned a lot better. I think that the best time for these tests to take place is right after AP testing is done and before finals. That way all of the stressing out about the AP exams is over and it is too early to begin to worry about finals. If it were this way I believe that scores would increase because kids would be more focused and ready to do their best on the Iowa Assessments.

Standardized testing is a problem in itself. How accurate is the information collected about students on one day? Every student has a different level of understanding for each class and it is not fair to be judging them all on the same criteria. It is a lot different for a person in Pre-Calculus to take the test from someone in 4 term 2^nd year algebra. Obviously the person in Pre-Calculus will have more of an understanding of the math concepts presented on the test than the person in 4 terms.

I think that there are other ways to measure one’s intelligence. Data collected one day out of the year is not a very comprehensive view of how well a student is doing in school. That is why the Iowa Assessments and all standardized tests need to be changed. If it were my choice there would no longer be Iowa Assessments at the very least, not having them at the same time as they were this year.