Chpt 14 standardized testing

By Tiffany

Isn’t the thought of being judged based on how well all of your students do on a test frightening? I do think there are better ways to see how effective teachers are and
I don’t feel tests are that accurate. As we have discussed, students suffer from test anxiety. I think it is great that the WASL gives them more opportunities to pass, but if you suffer from anxiety it is not necessarily going to change the next time you take the test. In a way, it is punishing those teachers who choose to work at lower status schools that may not share the same knowledge as others based on social or capital culture. My question is how could we change this? If we know that the WASL is not fair for all students, what are our options? I like the idea of letting your student have pretzels on their desk, but I don’t know if that would make every student comfortable. I think this will be an interesting challenge we will all face as teachers; how do we rise above this and give all of our students the same opportunities without putting us at that much of a disadvantage. I want to be an effective teacher, but how do I do that with the pressure of the WASL hanging over my head?

Chapter 14 Response to: Teachers Being Held Accountable

by April

You brought up a good point about every student being different. Another problem I see with these tests is that they don't show progress over time. A teacher may have done a wonderful job helping a student make progress over the course of the year. They may still be below grade level but they might be a grade level or half a grade level higher than they were when they entered the class.

Also, it doesn't take into consideration what the student did or didn't learn in previous years. At one point a teacher complained to me that they couldn't teach their students the grade level material because they were having to make up for the fact that teachers in lower grades weren't teaching material the way they should have (according to this teacher). So, it seems to me that a 4th grade teacher or a 10th grade teacher could be held accountable for the test scores of students that he/she only taught for one year and maybe even made great progress with.

Chapter 14: Standardized Testing

by April

It seems that with all the potential problems of standardized testing, high-stake decisions shouldn't be based on the results of one test. We've been talking a lot about NCLB and the WASL in all of our classes. I understand that schools and teachers should be held accountable for doing their jobs well, but I can't say I agree with using tests to determine that. As our chapter mentioned, teaching to the test becomes easy and suddenly students are only learning basic skills that are tested.

I have also have great concerns that students' WASL scores determine graduation eligibility. I haven't seen any specifics, but I wonder if there are students who are doing fine overall in school but then can't pass the WASL. It's good that students are given multiple chances to pass the test but I still question it. It seems that it would be better for graduation to be based on a variety of assessments to get a broad view of the student's overall achievement.

Obviously, the WASL isn't going away anytime soon. I thought the Guidelines section on page 533 had a helpful tip in taking some of the pressure off students. It says that we should do we can to make students comfortable. I've been given these types of tests by a variety of personalities. I can think of people administering the test who were relaxed, wore a smile and even used some humor. I also remember people who seemed emotionless and strict. The pressure level in each of those situations is very different. As a teacher I hope to be relaxed when testing my students. Someone told me of a teacher who let the kids have a bowl of pretzels on their desk during the WASL. Maybe something like that would help take some of the pressure off.

Chpt. 14: Teachers being held accountable

By Tiffany

The point/counterpoint in this chapter tackled the subject we seem to be discussing frequently in our classes; the subject of standardized testing and high stakes testing. This is obviously an issue all teachers are going to have to face when they have their own classrooms, but should it really determine a teacher’s ability to teach? If we hold every school and every child to the same exact standard, than we are not acknowledging the fact that everyone is different. I see holding teachers accountable for tests scores as punishing those teachers who work with diverse, low SES students. If my career depended on how well students did on the same exact test, I may have an urge to go work in an upper class, white suburban school. Sadly, these are not the kids that necessarily need the extra help.

If you focus all of your attention on getting your students to increase their test score, you will neglect other material they need for a well rounded education. It just amazes me that our society doesn’t take these things into consideration when it is clear that research and studies show the negative sides of testing. We have all read how standardized testing is not representative of the whole population, but rather the students that were raised with the WASP cultural and social capital.

I really was intrigued by the author’s quote of, “The high-stakes accountability process seems to assume that public humiliation is enough to get schools to improve.” This is the only reason I can see why they implement these required tests and why it is the only information they make available. It is not representative of how well students do in class, but rather on one test. By publishing this information and making a point to say a teacher is not doing their job is like saying if everyone knows how your students are doing, than you will be able to push them harder to succeed. I do agree that it is alright for the community to know how the schools are doing, but I don’t think test results should be the only information available. As a future parent, I know I will want to know how my child’s school performs academically, so I can’t say I think it is all wrong. However, like we have read, portfolios, exhibits or presentations could show us a better representative sample of how the school is doing as a whole.

Chpt. 15 Response to: Assessment - Yikes!

By Tiffany

I want to start off by saying; I love your title to this journal! Second, I know that my personal feelings have influenced the way I have graded in the past; how horrible is that? I have recognized this in the past and done what I could to get over it and grade the best I could, but like you said, we are only human. I do have to say that I couldn’t believe the grade differences either. How do you avoid it though? Also, I would agree that feedback is incredibly helpful. I am not necessarily one for constant feedback with every little thing I do, but I think it is important if you want your students to grow and develop. How can we change if we have no idea what went wrong? I agree with your comment about performance anxiety. I would much rather take a test over a presentation any day. I think it all depends on who your student is, everyone is different. No one loves presenting, but I literally get sick, dizzy and rash out. Presenting is not a comfortable situation for me.

Chapter 15 Response to: Testing and Failure

by April

I was glad you talked about diversity in terms of assessment. I was very interested in the example where the teacher looked back and realized that she may have disadvantaged her students in her testing by using examples from a "city" culture where most of her students had probably never experienced anything outside their farming/ranching culture. I would never have thought of this without this example. As you know, I grew up all over the place. I've lived in tiny towns (Petersburg, IN), big cities (Las Vegas, NV) and everything in between. I've lived near mountains, deserts, ocean, farm-land and even glaciers. I MUST be aware that not everyone has had the same life experiences as I have had. This will require much purposeful thought on my part as I prepare not only tests but also instruction. This program has been helpful in teaching the value of self-reflection and knowing one's self so that we can be aware of our personal biases and cultures and how that could inhibit our ability to reach all students. Hopefully by being aware, we will be more successful!

Chapter 15: Assessment - Yikes!

by April

I have to admit that assessment is an area that I've always found to be intimidating. Obviously I did not give grades in preschool but I had to keep written observations and be able to talk to parents at conference time about their child's social/emotional skills, fine/gross motor skills, academic knowledge (letter recognition, counting, etc...) and self-help skills. I was always nervous about being accurate and fair. And I did recognize times when I let personal feelings such as frustrations about a student's behavior get in the way of accurate assessment. Even doing "peer-reviews" in this class has been uncomfortable because I recognize the subjective nature of it.

I was surprised by the extreme differences of grades listed on page 559 for the same essay tests when graded by different people. I assumed there would be some differences but a grade of 64% from one teacher and 98% from another is incredible! I can think of times when I've turned in a paper and thought, "That was not good." I was later surprised by a high grade on it. This again brings out the subjective nature of grading, especially when you are grading someone's writing. I do think using rubrics can be very helpful. I especially liked the idea of having students write their names on the back of their paper so you can grade them anonymously. Of course we'd all like to consider ourselves above personal bias but let's face it, we're human.

It was good to see that clear feedback is valued as well as an opportunity to learn and try again. It's not always easy to figure out exactly why you got the grade you did so detailed feedback is really helpful. I just sent an e-mail to Professor Dunn to say thanks for the specific APA-related feedback. It helps me learn what I'm doing wrong and how exactly to fix it.

Lastly, I just have to comment on using performance-based assessment. I'm not saying this is a bad way to assess. I'm sure it's a great way to assess. However, when I think of performance-based assessment all I can think of are my "juries" in college where I had to perform three (usually foreign language) classical pieces in front of the voice faculty. The thought alone makes me want to vomit. We worry about test-anxiety for our students. For some of us, performance anxiety is much higher!