Millennial Debate Standardized Testing Debate
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- Standardized tests benefit students
- Tests are properly designed
- A2: Tests Don’t Measure What Students Need to Learn
A2: Tests Measure PoorlyTests are well designed and adequately measure students’ knowledge, skills, and understandingsDr. Herbert Walberg is a senior fellow with The Heartland Institute and chairman of its Board of Directors. He is also a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and a member of the Koret Task Force on K–12 Education, and a professor emeritus and University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research focuses on educational productivity and human accomplishments, August 1, 2011, Stop the War Against Standardize Tests, http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-submission/2011/08/01/stop-war-against-standardized-tests DOA: 10-25-15 Political leaders have also revealed a deep misunderstanding about the purpose and use of standardized testing when they claim tests are too simple or too biased to measure up to the subjective judgments of educators themselves. Such claims are naïve or deliberately misleading. Research and experience show that standardized tests are generally good at measuring students’ knowledge, skills, and understandings because they are objective, fair, efficient, and comprehensive. For these reasons, they are used for decisions about admission to colleges, graduate programs, and professional schools as well as qualification and licensing for many skilled occupations and demanding professions such as law and medicine. Standardized tests benefit studentsDr. Herbert Walberg is a senior fellow with The Heartland Institute and chairman of its Board of Directors. He is also a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and a member of the Koret Task Force on K–12 Education, and a professor emeritus and University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research focuses on educational productivity and human accomplishments, August 1, 2011, Stop the War Against Standardize Tests, http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-submission/2011/08/01/stop-war-against-standardized-tests DOA: 10-25-15 Educators can better help students when they know how a student’s objective performance compares with others, and standardized tests can provide such information at low costs and very little class time. Caroline Hoxby of Stanford University’s Department of Economics and the Hoover Institution has estimated that that the costs of tests are less than 0.1 percent of total spending on K-12 education and amount to an average of less than $6 per student. Comparative studies by John Bishop of Cornell University found that countries requiring students to take nationally standardized tests showed higher scores on international tests than those in countries not requiring such tests. In a second study, Bishop found that U.S. students who anticipated having to pass a standardized test for high school graduation learned more science and math, were more likely to complete homework and talk with their parents about schoolwork, and watched less television than peers who were not required to pass such exams.
Tamara Hiller & Stephanie Johnson, May 5, 2015, Third Way, John Oliver is Wrong About Standardized Testing,, http://www.thirdway.org/third-way-take/john-oliver-is-wrong-on-standardized-testing DOA: 10-25-15 Perhaps one of the biggest claims Oliver made is that the tests being given to students are so poorly designed that they are utterly useless. But what about the fact that most states have recently transitioned over to new tests that look quite different from the fill-in-the-bubble assessments of years past? He completely disregards this. In fact, the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) that he specifically references in the segment was actually phased out of use last year. Now, Florida students take the Florida Standards Assessments, which according to the state’s Department of Education will “include more than multiple choice questions” and “assess students’ higher-order thinking skills.” A similar trend can be seen around the country, as 27 states are implementing new assessments aligned to college and career ready standards. And in many states, students will use computer-adaptive and competency-based assessments that test more than just rote memorization and rudimentary skills. Tests have come a long way, and they are getting better quickly—a fact John Oliver completely ignores. A2: Tests Don’t Measure What Students Need to LearnTests do measure what is importantDean Goodman & Ronald Hambleton, University of Massachusetts @ Amherst, 2005, Defending Standardized Testing, page number at end of card In the past decade, one of the most fundamental shifts in statewide assessments has been the concerted effort to develop assessments that are based on state content standards. Content standards outline what students should know and be able to do in a given subject area. These standards provide a common focus for both instruction and assessment (National Research Council, 1999), offering direction to teachers about what to teach students in the classroom, and to state testing programs about what to assess in statewide assessments. The most recent survey of state assessment programs by Education Week (2003a) reveals an increasing commitment by states to administer criterion-referenced assessments that are designed to measure student mastery of state content standards. Expanded uses of constructed response questions and writing tasks are two ways that states are taking to address their content standards. This is an important trend. In 2002, 42 states administered these types of assessments at the elementary, middle, and high school levels, up from 37 states in 2001 (Education Week, 2003a). In stark contrast, in 1995 only 19 states administered criterion-referenced assessments that were aligned with state standards (Education Week, 1997). With the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), there is an even greater commitment to ensure that large-scale tests or assessments reflect the knowledge and skills expected to be learned by all students in a state. To comply with this federal law, states must adopt "challenging academic content standards and challenging student achievement standards" (NCLB, 2002, Sec. 1111[b][1][A]) and administer state or local assessments that are aligned with these standards (Sec. 1111[b][3][C]). States that cannot demonstrate they have satisfied these requirements will not be eligible for substantial federal funding. (2005-03-23). Defending Standardized Testing (Kindle Locations 2745-2750). Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition. Directory: uploads uploads -> 587 Return function, r i(X) r i(0) r i(1) r i(2) r i(3) 1 0 2 4 6 Thermal Station, I 2 0 1 5 6 3 0 3 5 6 10 uploads -> Department of science and humanities department of mathematics part-a questions and answers uploads -> The Case Against the nypd’s Quota-Driven ‘Broken Windows’ Policing What Is It? uploads -> For want of a nail uploads -> Ownership Models There are two different types of ownership models uploads -> Police Militarization uploads -> City of rising star regular meting thursday, july 14, 2016 uploads -> Township of winfield uploads -> Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act of 2014 uploads -> The Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Program What We Want Now! Download 1.17 Mb. Share with your friends:
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