For centuries, assessments have been used to determine student knowledge level and understanding. In recent years, testing has become a major topic of debate; some believe testing students is the best way to measure student growth and performance, as well as teacher effectiveness. From the other perspective, some believe that increased standardized testing lacks validity and reliability. Quite often, other elements are not considered such as students with learning disabilities, students with varying socioeconomic status and race, and students testing in their second language. Assessments taken by students with a different first language encounter several issues in addition to language tests such as the TOEFL test or placement tests. It is questioned …show more content…
Validity applies to whether a test is measuring what it is supposed to measure, meaning a test for reading comprehension isn’t actually measuring listening abilities. There are three different forms of validity that further address the assessment: face validity, content validity, and criterion-related validity. Face validity refers to whether the test appears like that type of assessment should, content validity makes sure the questions apply, and criterion-related validity compares the test with outside criteria. Major standardized tests such as the TOEFL and IELTS are often considered valid, but many disagree as there can always be issues when building the test. Reliability is another contested element of assessment. Reliability assumes that a test will produce the same scores when given to the same group of people. With standardized test, reliability is more difficult to ensure because test questions can be biased, testing conditions can vary, and the students’ mental condition can be different. These elements can skew results, which is why many are frowning upon standardized assessments and looking further into test development or other non-standardized testing …show more content…
Test developers have to be sure that test questions do not contain any type of bias. This can be extra difficult when considering those who do not have English as a first language. While some questions and answers could seem fairly straightforward, many can pose a problem to those from other countries that have differing traditions, customs, and values. Traditionally, assessment creators have followed a certain structure to help them create the materials. This included writing the skill, writing the specification, writing the item, assembling the test, and piloting the test while gaining critical feedback throughout the process (Coombe et al. 2012). While straightforward, several problems arose when trying to use this method for language testing. One single test specification can produce multiple questions on multiple assessments, but the writers are often restricted to a certain type or format of question. When looking at language learners, this model did not accurately represent the desired outcome of language programs. It is questioned whether the test items accurately reflect the desired objective from the test creator and the language teacher. Test security also becomes an issue. It creates a catch-22 in that to make the test items more accurate more people should provide feedback, but the more people that view the test, the less secure it becomes. It is
The lack of appropriate assessment strategies unfairly puts cultural and language diverse students at a disadvantage. These types of tests are geared towards assessing the majority of the population, not the minority. This poses a serious problem when trying to correctly identify students who may have learning or behavioral problems (Ralabate, & Klotz, 2007).
Validity refers to ability of an instrument to measure the test scores appropriately, meaningfully, and usefully (Polit& Beck, 2010). The instrument has been developed to serve three major functions: (1) to represent a specific universe of content, (2) to represent measurement of specific psychological attributes, (3) to represent the establishing of a relationship with a particular criterion. There are three types of validity; each type represents a response to one of three functions
Although standardized testing has been proven to be ineffective, the creators of the tests are still humans of different races. As a creator of the tests much be created to represent all races and ethnic backrounds. When considering the contents of the tests, people should be looked at as an individual and not placed uder a category with their race.
Throughout the United States standardized testing is a popular way that educators measure a student’s academic ability. Although it may seem like a good idea to give a bunch of students the same test and see how each one does, it is not that simple. The results do not represent how smart a student is or a student's potential to do great things in the real world. In taking a standardized test one student may have a greater advantage over another for many reasons. Reasons that are not shown in the standardized test score.
...ry curricular diversity, test developers have to create a one size fits all test. These test developers however, can’t really pull it off. This leads to some questions in a standardized test that are not necessarily aligned with the curriculum in a particular setting. An important study done in 1993 in Michigan regarding this issue on standardized tests concluded that 50 to 80 percent of what was measured on standardized tests was not covered in the textbooks for that particular curriculum. Based on this study, it can be concluded that if the content of standardized tests is not addressed in the textbooks, topics that are covered on the test may not have been covered in that particular classroom setting This is an unfair flaw in test design which can result in lower test scores not enabling the tests to accurately measure the students’ learning achievement.
-The test consists of multiple choice questions on content area. Written responses are also used. Labs are used
...er. David Koretz, a professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education states, “What I would like is for people to understand what tests can and cannot do. I’m not arguing that we should stop testing – I think it’s valuable – but we need to temper our expectations of what tests can do. There are limits to the meaning we can derive from test scores. Tests are not designed to summarize all that students and schools can do.” (Fusaro 2009).
Standardized testing has become a dominant element in the education world. It is now used not only to judge a student’s knowledge but to judge the effectiveness of a school system’s teaching. Standardized testing is not an accurate or efficient way to judge a student’s intelligence or a school system’s instructional abilities.
According to Fyona Rose, “Not only do these tests belittle students' and teachers' hard work, they also leave them with negative feelings toward school and drain their love of learning” (Rose, 2015). This means that standardized testing can ruin the enjoyment of learning for both students and teachers. The reason standardized testing still happens is because it has become a standard for schools each year. But if the standard is bad something should be changed. Many who do not like standardized testing to do not believe that testing should be done away with, but rather be changed to accommodate the growing needs of society as a
Standardized testing is not an effective way to test the skills and abilities of today’s students. Standardized tests do not reveal what a student actually understands and learns, but instead only prove how well a student can do on a generic test. Schools have an obligation to prepare students for life, and with the power standardized tests have today, students are being cheated out of a proper, valuable education and forced to prepare and improve their test skills. Too much time, energy, and pressure to succeed are being devoted to standardized tests. Standardized testing, as it is being used presently, is a flawed way of testing the skills of today’s students.
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.
Reliability (extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternate forms of the test or on retesting)- Comparing test scores to those of the standardizing group still won't tell us much about the individual unless the test has reliability. Validity is the most important requirement of all. A test must actually measure what it is intended to measure. Content validity-the extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest and Predictive validity- the success with which a test predicts behavior it is designed to predict.
Cohen et al. (2010) wrote that assessment can be a major contributor to raising standards in schools in terms of teaching, learning and student achievement. In addition, if assessment is properly handled with consistency, reliability, validity and rigour, it can have a possitive effect on learning and can improve students' own understanding of how can they learn more effectively and improve.
This is essential because if the test questions require a high level of English proficiency, this will likely reduce the scores of ELLs and in some cases the general English speaking population. To avoid these happenings, the author mentions several precautions that should be taken when designing testing items such as matching the task to the purpose, defining expectations, writing appropriate directions, using accessible language, presentation and fairness and sensitivity. Within this excerpt, the author pinpoints specific strengths and weaknesses of ELLs that testing creators should take into account when designing testing items. An example of a strength of an EL student would be using a school based content when fictional context is necessary because it is considered a simple context that will be familiar to as wide a range students as possible. An example of a weakness of an EL student would be using a home-based context when a fictional context is necessary.
A well created test can measure learning and diagnose a student’s weakness (Merrow, 4). In testing, the idea is for the student to get the correct answer on information they know and incorrect answers on the information they do not. However, a testing error may occur. A testing error is when a student gets an answer correct of information they did not actually know or an answer incorrect, they may have actually known (Gellman, 30)The people who create these tests want straightforward measures. However, test designers do not design these tests to measure what a student can do academically (Fusaro, 1). Large testing companies produce tests and sell them all over the country. This causes the test to be not specialized for the school or county and students do not do as well as they could have if the test was specialized (Popham, 4).three possible ways of testing a student’s knowledge exists: multiple choices, answer in essay form, or they are asked to perform a task and then graded on the performance (Merrow, 5). Some tests are designed to assess an individual’s performance, like an