Often student achievement is measured by performance on standardized tests. However, these tests, based on a narrowly prescribed curriculum and linked to specific grade levels, disregard diversity and are an unjustified way to judge student or teacher success. Students are unfairly expected to perform at a set of standards that are developed by an outside agency.
Standardized tests do not portray an accurate representation of achievement gaps between students because they are developmentally inappropriate, overlook diversity, and do not value all types of intelligence. In order to decrease the achievement gap, we must focus on individualized talent-developing education instead of standardized talent-sorting education.
State standardized tests fail to account for the wide range of differences in test-takers who come from different cultural backgrounds, different levels of proficiency, different learning or thinking styles, different family backgrounds, and different life experiences. And yet, standardized tests treat them as if they were all identical.
According to a 2015 report by the National Educational Association, 70% of the 1500 teachers surveyed claimed that they did not believe that their primary state assessment was developmentally appropriate for their students. A mere 13% of these educators thought that the state standardized test required by “No Child Left Behind” assessed their students’ abilities. As you can see in the graph below, while the vast majority believed that no standardized test was developmentally appropriate, teachers found differences in the level of inappropriateness between types of exams. For example, teachers were most dissatisfied with the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), a computer-based test measuring students’ abilities according to the Common Core standards in math and English.
A possible reason that educators believe standardized tests are inaccurate and do not measure students true capabilities is that standardized tests primarily measure high analytical thinking– that is, the ability to think critically in gathering and analyzing information in order to gain understanding, solve a problem, or make a decision. However, in reality, there are multiple types of intelligence. Standardized tests fail to recognize practical or creative thinking– or “common sense” and “street smarts” which helps individuals discover mechanisms to succeed. According to Dr. Lindsey F. Ott, both practical and creative thinking skills are associated with students with more diverse backgrounds in terms of ethnicity, socio-economic status, or educational background. However, students from this demographic are not given the opportunity to demonstrate these abilities. As perfectly said by Albert Einstein “everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it’s stupid.” If we judge the abilities of students who are drastically different on the same standard, how can anyone ever judge success?
Our education system should not be focused on closing the gaps between standardized tests scores in order to close the achievement gap between students of different races and socio-economic status. In order to promote success, assessments and assignments should reflect students’ talents, abilities, and goals. Rather than emphasizing biased, narrowly-focused standardized tests, our education system should incorporate other measures of achievement such as high school graduation rates, enrollment in advanced placement courses, grade point averages, and college acceptance rates to more accurately measure the achievement gap.
Post By: Katharine Dougherty