Standardized Testing

Standardized testing is one of those issues where the speaker either loves it or hates it, depending on their view of education and their child's abilities. Some say testing of this nature doesn't accurately portray a child's knowledge or potential. *shrug*

The reason I'm bringing this up now (I meant to post about it weeks ago, but got distracted) is that my daughter recently had to go through the yearly CSAP (Colorado Student Assessment Program) rigmarole to meet Colorado's homeschooling laws. She has to get tested every odd year so we can keep our homeschool status and keep her out of public school. No testy, no schooly. So, she did her tests and now we're done until next year. I know... I said every odd year, not every year. You see, we make her take them every year to chart her progress. We don't have to do it, but it gives us something to compare.

Which brings me to my point, and to the purpose of standardized tests. (Or rather the original purpose. I don't know what the education establishment thinks they're for any more.) Any standardized test is meant to chart student progress, as well as teacher and curriculum effectiveness. They were meant to give a heads-up if a child wasn't grasping the material, and if an entire group of kids wasn't hitting the mark, then the test showed the teacher/curriculum needed work.

When I was working for a private school corporation, they made the kids take the SATs. Every year. My job with regards to those tests was to take the data, boil it into something coherent, and present it to the president of the company. I worked with the data for entire classes and entire schools, and made some really great graphs that made the information clear. He would look it over and decide which of the teachers wasn't doing their jobs, and then the teacher would have to be accountable for fixing the problem. If the entire school showed a problem, he went to the principle. If the entire system showed a problem, he looked at the test. (Never happened, but that's the progression of responsibility.) If only individual children here and there were doing poorly on the tests, then the kids themselves were looked at.

That's the way standardized tests ought to be used. They're a gauge of more than just the kids, and believe it or not, they really do work when they're used properly.

I admit that if I didn't have to make her take the CSAPs, I wouldn't. If I had my druthers, I'd have her take the SAT (Stanford Achievement Test - not to be confused with Scholastic Aptitude Test, or the more PC version, the Scholastic Assessment Test) or the ITBS (Iowa Test of Basic Skills) both of which are nationally recognized tests that assess a wider range of skills and do it much better, IMO. Unfortunately, I can't give those tests myself, and no school around here offers them. So we're stuck with the CSAP.

And the CSAP has problems. For instance, one of the essays students were asked to write for the 'Writing' portion of the exam this year was something like: If your school required you to volunteer for school credit/graduation, where would you volunteer and why? (Forced volunteerism is a whole other topic for another day, but let's just say I don't like it, and leave it there for now.) Out of a million possible essay topics, many of which could have charted a student's writing progress much better, that they used this one speaks volumes about the test builders.

Another problem I encountered was when I was looking for pre-tests for my daughter to take. I found them, but after she took them and we looked at the answer key, two of the answers on the key were wrong. For example, one of the questions had the student put a bunch of numbers in order from least to greatest (and the numbers were things like ten to the power of negative three, and the like, so it wasn't as easy as it sounds). In the answer key, they had actually put the answer of negative eight after the answer of .25. Last I looked a negative number was always smaller than a positive number.

So needless to say, I'm a little skeptical of the results of this particular test. If their sample tests aren't right, how am I supposed to believe their actual test is right? (Thinking about it now, the idea that the adults creating tests for our children don't know math scare the crap out of me.)

Still, I think overall standardized tests are necessary. I just think the idea of them needs to be re-evaluated. They need to be checked, rechecked and double-checked for accuracy; they need to be scrutinized for possible agendas (which should never be part of education, unless you're planning on inculcating children rather than teaching them); they need to be used to evaluate both the students and the teacher/school.

And as parents, we need to use these tests to gauge our own progress in creating a successful adult.

If you're a homeschooling parent, do your children take any kind of standardized test? How satisfied are you with the one you're taking? If your children attend a public/private/parochial school, how are the standardized tests working out for you?