Testing and Assessment

In my opinion, testing has become something that is overkill, especially in the state of MD. I believe children should be assessed… but in a way that is low key and not stressful. At my school, we have to assess children on their reading, writing, and math levels. This past year instead of benchmark assessments (which were given at the end of the marking period or specific points in the year) we had to place students in front of a computer for the MAPS test. This computerized test assessed students for over an hour. Luckily, they did split up the math and ELA, however some students spent an hour or more on the computer answering questions. The student’s scores were then ranked, and as they answered more questions correctly, they received more difficult questions. Some of my students ended up in tears because they were receiving multiplication and division questions and they were on in the first grade! I think that some assessing is beneficial. I like to assess students every so often to see how they are progressing and what they have learned or need more practice on; however I do not think that constantly assessing tells us much of anything. I also believe that because every child learns in a different way and at a different pace, we need to find a way of assessing that focuses on and shows their progress, and what they’ve learned, and not completely about what they don’t know. Or, find a way of assessing that doesn’t make students feel like failures or feel like they’re behind.

Testing and assessing in England is much like the United States. England is known for its student’s being the “most tested in the world” (Hargreaves, Shirley 2008).  Educators are held accountable for the students’ scores on the standardized tests.  In the United States, when curriculum is not clear, the tests become the curriculum and you see more “teaching to the test” rather than teaching what is in the curriculum. England, on the other hand, has a national curriculum that “serves as the basis for its tests” (Rotberg, 2006). These tests are given at various points throughout the students’ schooling and are used to rank the schools. It was interesting to read that England is similar in some aspects to the United States educational system. I would like to learn more about what is being done to change the testing and make education better in England.

References

Hargreaves, A., & Shirley, D. (2008). The Fourth Way of Change. Educational Leadership, 66(2), 56-61.

Rotberg, I. (2006). Educational leadership. Assessment Around the World, 3(64), pp. 58-63. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/template.MAXIMIZE/menuitem.459dee008f99653f