Standardized
testing
I was taught that standardized
tests fail to reflect adequately what children learn. Indeed children know so much more than they
are taught and what is tested may not be the important learning that the
children have done. I always believed
that children do not function well in common test situations, nor do the test
results necessarily reflect children’s true knowledge or skills. The implications of such testing further
erode the curriculum when teachers, wanting their classes to do well on the
test, alter activities to conform to what will be tested. We should begin teaching children to learn
“right” answers rather than to engage in active, critical thinking. Also, rather than making teachers more
accountable, the misuse of standardized testing has led to the adoption of
inappropriate teaching practices as well as admission and retention policies
that are not in the best interest of individual children or the nation as a
whole (Gordon & Browne, 2008).
As leaders work in China to move the country away from
its notoriously rigorous focus on standardized testing, Americans seem to be
heading in the opposite direction. In China, all students must prepare for the
country's massive, multi-day test known as the "gaokao". The student's score on the test determines
whether or not they will go on to college. Unlike the American college
application process, where each applicant's SAT score is considered amidst
several other factors, the "gaokao" is the only factor that
determines a young person's future.
Chinese students spend their entire young lives preparing for the tests.
Yet, as China continues to develop at an astounding pace, many wonder if the
inflexible education system is able to produce the sort of innovators the
country will need to succeed in the future. Question was asked, at a time when
many are pushing the United States toward an education system focused on test
scores, what lessons can be learned from China's system, its shortcomings and the
changes that are being made (China v. America, 2000)?
Reference
Education In China v. America: The Question Of Standardized
Tests. (2000). Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/17/education-in-china-testing-diane-sawyer_n_785016.html
Gordon, A.M. & Browne, K.W. (2008). Beginnings and
Beyond: Foundations in Early Childhood Education. (7th ed.).
Thomson: Delmar Learning.
Hello Janet,
ReplyDeleteI enjoy reading your posts they are so informative and are done (in my opinion) with such compassion. Although I do agree that knowing how a child learns (what learning styles) if this should be the case, to help with how to go about teaching the child however, I think that the testing has gotten way out of control. I especially agree with your statement about children not necessarily function well when given a test, I know I never was. Throughout my entire math elementary testing I failed, in fact I thought that I was very stupid when it came to math (especially) my math test. I even had to go to summer school because of math and English… It was during my summer school session when both my math and English teachers told me that I had an above average learning skill for math and English. Unlike my elementary years, I love math and have taken all the way up to calculus. In other words had I lesson to my test scores I would have continued to think that I had very poor math skills.