Possible Solutions for Standardized Testing

Standardized testing remains to be a major controversial issue for the American society today. Exams are given to students at different levels in their educational career and are supposed to measure their academic knowledge, but are these tests really the best way to evaluate students? There have been numerous alternatives suggested to replace or be used in conjunction with standardized testing.

One solution offered by Alfie Kohn, a well-renowned speaker on human behavior, education, and parenting, suggests that teachers would give parents written evaluations of how their child is performing and having frequent conferences available to talk about their child’s performance. Kohn believes that the most effective teachers do not rely solely on standardized tests. Great teachers are able to observe their students and are able to see without the use of exams how well their students understand the concepts being taught. In 1999, Phi Delta Kappa and Gallup poll surveyed the community. Individuals were asked to choose which of four approaches they felt would be the most precise evaluation of a student’s educational development. Using exam scores from standardized testing received the lowest percentage of 27%. Evaluating work that the students have done over a period of time received the highest number of votes at 33%, while the remainder of the votes were divided between letter grades and written evaluations from teachers after observing each student (Pollard, J, 1999).

Kohn suggests that if standardized testing is continued to be used, there needs to be something done to make sure that it is not as damaging to children. One way this can be done is by making sure that the tests have no time limit and do not include multiple c...

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...or standardized testing. Finding the right one is the burden that our society faces today. With the fifty states in this country there are fifty opportunities to find a valuable solution that may solve the issues that face standardized testing.

References

Maki, P.L. (2009). Moving beyond a national habit in the call for accountability. Peer Review, 11(1), 13-17.

Peterson, B, Neill, M. (2014). Alternatives to standardized tests. Rethinking Schools. Retrieved from http://www.rethinkingschools.org/restrict.asp?path=archive/13_03/assess.shtml.

Peter D. Hart Research Associates. (2008). How should college assess and improve student learning? Eric.ed.gov. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED499718.

Pollard, J. (1999). If not standardized tests, then what? StandardizedTesting.net. Retrieved from http://www.standardizedtesting.net/standardized.htm.