Final Exam Answer

Krishna K. Bista PSE 6680 Dr. Davidson April 21, 2008

Q. How reasonable is it to judge the quality of individual adult school programs based on how well their students do on standardized tests? What are some arguments used to support and oppose this practice? Standardized tests are designed to objectively measure the academic aptitude of students from varying social backgrounds and with different educational experience. Standardized tests are tests “constructed from the test scores of scientifically selected samples of groups to establish norms” (Armstrong, 2003, p. 269). Several students have to take standardized tests such as GED, SAT/ACT, TOEFL, IELTS, GRE and so on either to pass high school exams or to be accepted into colleges and universities. For many years, these tests are required to assess students learning and understanding of what they actually have learned, and gauge their academic proficiency. The applications of such standardized tests are widely used in high school admissions to university fellowships, from academic classification to job placements. However it is debatable to judge the quality of individual adult school program based on how well their students do on standardized tests. The critics of these tests have given a wide range of arguments to support and oppose this opinion. Some critics claim that the emphasis on high test scores encourages schools to teach only the material likely to be covered in the tests rather than provide a comprehensive education. The most popular belief, in support of these tests, is that these tests provide “good information about

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quality of school programs” (Armstrong, 2003, p. 270). As positive consequences of these tests, it is believed that school teachers and administrators feel less pressure in academic zone because tests help them to categorize students as most outstanding, average and low grader for academic enrollment and scholarship schemes. Since the huge number of schools, colleges and universities in the States use standardized tests to know the relative excellence of schools and academic performance of their students, the academic system has believed that tests are excellent measuring rods to judge the quality of individual adult school programs based on how well their students do on standardized tests. As Weaver has noted (cited in Armstrong, 2003), American students take more than 100 million standardized tests each year. Supporters of standardized tests mention that test scores provide a valid measure of academic aptitude. In this regards, it is also acknowledged that tests are used nowhere else in the world as frequently as they are in the States. Armstrong (2003) has offered a compelling argument that those audiences outside the school places give a ‘tremendous pressure’ on school personnel to work strongly and effectively to mention the high record on students’ tests. Because they believe that the exams offer a reliable way to compare students from a variety of social and educational backgrounds. These supporters take tests as ‘a mechanism’ of evaluating students’ performance fairly in schools, colleges and universities. In addition, when students transfer from one school to another, or from one place to another place, standardized tests are taken as legitimate ways to measure students’ academic performance. Critics of standardized tests, on the other hand, argue that the tests do not account for differences in social and economic backgrounds among test-takers. They also argue that the exams do not accurately assess the scholastic performance of students. Standardized tests are strongly associated with such variables as poverty, education of parents, school community and

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its social status in various particular settings. For example it is assumed that minority students perform very low on test than the majority-group students. Such tests are heavily influenced not only by economic status of students but also by the teacher’s instruction. Low grades in minority students would not be owing to their inability to learn but would be because of poor instruction. Females consistently earn higher grades on average than males in both high school and college, but their average scores on standardized tests are lower (“Standardized Tests”, 2005). One of the professional concerns today in relation to standardized tests is curriculum change. Revised program and its curriculum do not go together with standardized tests. It is also noted that development of such tests is a time-consuming and expensive process. As Ernest Boyer noted (cited in Armstrong, 2003) teachers often toil preparing their students to answer the kinds of multiple choice questions of standardized tests, forcing them to memorize ‘isolated bits of information, rather than to develop their abilities’ to engage in creative works. Are standardized tests creative tests? Would it better to sit all students on the same standardized tests to qualify for school admissions and job placements? Are these tests, as presently written and designed, holistic and a fair assessment of a diverse student body? In facts, these tests fail to answer such questions accurately and adequately. Since enormous numbers of students sit for the same tests the same time, it is not practical and creative to get feedback from the teachers. Moreover, speedy electronic methods of standardized tests give students ‘pressure to perform’. Also such tests fail to evaluate students’ creativity in essay composition or in many test items like multiple choices, true and false. Further, Cohen has noted that students get their test reports very late and that make teachers unable to modify their instructional program in time (cited in Armstrong, 2003).

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Summing up, standardized tests have gained much popularity in the schools and colleges and they are supported by educators and administrators to scale level of students’ academic proficiency in the one hand but meanwhile these tests are failed to honor the diversity and differences of students on the other hand. Given so much priority politically and administratively on standardized tests by the Republican presidential administration to “improve education” what would be the future of standardized testing in American schools? It is, therefore, not easy to evaluate the quality of individual adult school programs based on how well their students do on standardized tests if the influencing factors are considered.

References Armstrong, D.G. (2003). Curriculum today. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc. “Standardized Tests” (2005). Microsoft Encarta 2006 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation.

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