STANDARDIZED TESTS
DEFINITION
Standardized tests are of those tests that are elaborated with the same questions to everyone. They are usually made out of multiple choice items, but they can also included other type of questions as true or false, short answers, etc. One individual test or small amounts of them can be compared to large populations, so the data obtained from them are relatively easy to manipulate.
PROS- CONS
Standardized
testing cannot be seen only as negative. I believe that standardized
tests also provides us with some valuable information that can help
not only the teachers, but also the system itself to make decisions
about different situations.
Two positive
consequences of
standardized test are:
*Teachers
can better see the performance of their students because they can
measure the results through statistics, which is easy to do when you
have a lot of information, and this type of exams are well known
because they give a lot of data.
*Since
only one exam is elaborated, and it´s equally applied to all
students, they are easier to grade and participants can get the
results sooner. At the same time, all the students are tested without
distinction from one another.
Two negative
consequences would
be:
*The
diversity of students who acquire knowledge in different ways is not
taken into account, besides that, nor creativity can be evaluated in
this type of exams, neither fluency.
*
It is often common to see that these type of exams do not fit the
reality of the participant who takes it. They are not adapted to
their needs, characteristics and virtues.
ARE THEY EFFECTIVE?
"It all depends on the purpose."*
If we want to compare populations or know where exactly our students are, I believe they are effective in that matter.
DO THEY AFFECT MY TEACHING?
Standardized testing can impact my teaching only if I focus too much on preparing my students to do well on them. One analogy that I can make is when you prepare a student to present a poem for an special occasion. You spend long hours helping him/her to learn it, to master the mimics etc etc and after the “special event” is over, you can ask the student and he does not even remember the beginning of it; or they remember pieces of it because it turned out to be a bad experience for him because he forgot it in the middle of the presentation.
*Professor Ana Palencia.
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