About Standardized Testing- Fair, or No?


Standardized testing is a practice where all students in a particular school district or state or region are administered test questions that are consistent or standard (across the board) and scored using a consistent predetermined rubric. This means that students in a particular state or school district are tested in a consistent manner regardless of their unique situations or experiences. I think that standardized tests, as far as assessments go, do serve an important use in education for the following reasons. These tests are a fair and robust way to assess the learning and/ or skills of students who have been taught using the same curriculum at specific points in time. They are also a tool for equity. They show when students in a specific school or area do not possess the level of knowledge or skill that their peers in other areas have mastered, so that attention and resources can be channeled to helping those groups of students, thereby ensuring that every student is exposed to similar teaching and learning and could stand an equal chance of success. Standardized tests are used to identify areas that teachers may need improving, and provide them with the support that they need to effectively help their students learn the way that they should or achieve the skill level that they should have to be competitive.

I have written many standardized tests as I progressed in my academic life. In Nigeria, where I had my elementary to college education, national standardized tests are used to assess knowledge and skill to move to the next level. For instance, we take a “Common Entrance” to graduate from primary (elementary) to junior secondary (middle school), and we even had to take a standardized test to be admitted to college. These tests were not the easiest to answer or the most efficient for all learners in Nigeria, however, they serve, among many other functions, to place a standard for what students at every level of education should know. They also provided a somewhat level playing field for students from different backgrounds and cultures in terms of competition.

I am a proponent of individualized learning because every processes information differently and can assimilate different contents in different ways. One may argue that standardized tests do not facilitate deep learning or conceptual understanding as many students, myself included, often prepare for these tests by practicing exam-type questions instead of striving to understand and own the content. Opposed to this argument, I found that practicing for those tests helped me better understand some content while also helping me create distinctions between areas of subjects that were hitherto ambiguous. So, I found that Practicing or preparing for these tests actually does increase knowledge.

While I am for structured testing of students, I also believe such tests are not sufficient gauges for a student’s academic progress over time. As a teacher, the one thing that I like about standardized tests is that it spurs me to ensure that my students are getting the knowledge that their peers will have and that they have the math skill that they should.  

 

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