Standardized assessments in education

Standardized Assessment in E-Education

In the field of education many issues rise to the top as those most likely to be discussed with fervor. Above all other issues standardized assessment is the most debated and heated of the several issues at the front of the debates, currently. This is especially true with regard to assessment in e-education, as traditional educators and e-educators, be they from independent entity e-universities or extensions of traditional institutions have strong feelings in favor and against standardized testing, more so now than ever before as e-education comes to the forefront of the debate on accreditation and national reciprocity. Those in favor of standardized testing regard it as essential to the further development of programs and courses and those who are against standardized assessments in e-education argue that it reduces the learner and educator to a prescribed and narrow definition of learning. (Marshak, 2004, (http://www.online-degrees-today.com/02.09.04-EducationNews/EDUnews_testobsessed.shtml)

Within two works on the subject of standardized assessment, one markedly in favor and one markedly against such tools there are many key components that demonstrate contention and continued strife. Yet, it is clear that the issue at hand has more to do with the venue being assessed rather than the tests themselves and their results.

Students at Western Governors University aren't required to take any courses. To earn a degree, they must pass a series of assessment exams. The faculty members don't teach anything, at least not in the traditional sense. Instead, they serve as mentors, figuring out what students already know and what courses they need to take to pass the exams. (Carnevale, 2001, (http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i31/31a04301.htm)

There are certainly additional programs of such design but strict believers in the validity and importance of student interaction with professors and other students in the classroom are understandably critical of educational designs that mirror placement assessments rather than educational offerings. Additionally those same critics find fault in giving the same validity to degrees earned in traditional education environments as to those earned in newer online e-education settings.

All of higher education is moving toward outcomes-based assessments, with online education leading the way, says Peter Ewell, senior associate at the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems. The push for new assessment models in online education comes largely from competition with its older brother, traditional education, says Mr. Ewell. Because distance education is comparatively new, he says, critics often hold it to a higher standard than traditional education when judging quality. It has more to prove, and is trying to use assessments that show its effectiveness as the proof. (Carnevale, 2001, (http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i31/31a04301.htm)

Yet, as many traditional educators fear, the concepts of outcomes-based evaluation, e.g. standardized assessments has been so widely accepted by the education world that traditional systems may be required to assess their own outcomes using the tools designed by e-education newbies.