Education and the Analysis of Student Tests: Current Trends and Recommendations for Practice
In both the practical realm of educational provision and in education policies and legislation, the need to effectively and accurately measure the efficacy of various teaching methods and educational program is of paramount concern. There is a legislative mandate that all children in the United States have a right to a free and equal public education, and ethical principles also insist that all students receive the same opportunities for learning and growth. Given the practical constraints of providing public education on such a broad scale, it is also important that most students progress at approximately the same rate, so that instruction can be kept meaningful for all students. While this often translates to teaching towards the bottom of knowledge and skill levels represented in the class, it ought to mean being able to identify struggles and problems and helping to overcome these at a higher rate of learning.
One of the methods -- the key method in the United States and many other countries -- for addressing these and other issues has been the implementation of standardized testing. These tests are administered to all or most students within a population (students/parents usually have the ability to opt out of such testing) and are meant to measure the relative knowledge/skill/ability level of each student in their peer group. While this would certainly help to ensure that a fair and equal education was being achieved for all students if the tests and the system were perfect, unfortunately this is far from the case.
Problems with Standardized Testing: The System
One of the primary issues with the use of standardized tests in the United States educational...
This view is reflected in increasing calls for financial equity among schools, desegregation, mainstreaming, and standardized testing for teachers and students alike; it has been maintained that by providing the same education to all students, schools can equalize social opportunity (Bowman, 1994). This latter position is typically followed up with the use of a particular curriculum designed to support the approach. In this regard, Bowman suggests that, "Knowledge is thought
The shift toward standardized testing has failed to result in a meaningful reduction of high school dropout rates, and students with disabilities continue to be marginalized by the culture of testing in public education (Dynarski et al., 2008). With that said, the needs of students with specific educational challenges are diverse and complex, and the solutions to their needs are not revealed in the results of standardized testing (Crawford &
Educational philosophy that I would most support more than anything would be one which supports the benefit of learning by doing. I believe wholeheartedly in the power of experience being the best teacher. I realize that this might mean that my students or any students might fail repeatedly before they succeed at something, but I've always believed that failure is an excellent teacher. Furthermore, learning by doing might cause students
Student Emotional Issues in K12 Public Schools Student Emotional Issues in K-12 Public Schools When public schools do not prepare themselves to take care of Kindergarten through 12th grade students' emotional problems, they face troublesome implications. Students struggling with emotional problems display symptoms from time to time, whose patterns correspond to, at least, one of the following behaviors: truancy, aggressiveness towards faculty, peers, and parents; academic issues; high suspension/expulsion frequency; poor interactions
Educational Leadership & Student Assessment in Pennsylvania Student assessment has recently become a matter of great controversy in Pennsylvania, as many critics argue that it is not an accurate measure of students' attainment of the state's academic standards. For example, the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) is designed to assess the quality of public schools and make the information known to parents, teachers, school districts, and the general public (Commonwealth of
Unfortunately, there is great controversy in the debate over educational testing. This especially revolves around SAT scores, and other standardized tests that many believe are placing students at a disadvantage. Recently, SAT scores declined significantly, which made many in power to blame schools as providing inefficient educational programs. As a result, many states began increasing the number of tests and their weight in terms of school funding as a way
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