Case: Issues concerning standardized tests

Case Introduction/Commentary

To test or not to test, that is the question. Standardized testing has been used to assess student achievement and intelligence since Binet developed the first test in the early 1900's. In more recent years, we have seen standardized tests used by schools, districts, and states to provide information about how students are doing as well as information about the effectiveness of teachers and schools. Using test results for this purpose has resulted in teachers, schools, and districts feeling additional pressure to do well. The following case provides an example of how a school that devoted much time and emphasis to standardized testing impacted the teacher in the classroom.

Case from Preservice Teacher

Standardized tests should be a determining factor in students' educational success, but should not be the governing factor in determining all learning activities. Teachers who are forced into using standardized tests often have to reduce the academic integrity of their classrooms.

My observations took place in a third grade classroom in Indiana. During late September and early October, a state standardized test called the ISTEP+ is administered to all third, sixth, eighth, and tenth grade students. My observations in the classroom consisted largely of watching the teacher prepare her students for testing. I spent around 10 hours per week observing in the classroom. Of those hours, I would estimate that the teacher spent at least 6 hours per week preparing the students for the test. The preparation was varied. Some days the teacher showed the students how to fill in the bubbles on an answer sheet. Other days she showed them questions from old tests and asked them to come up with an answer.

After watching this for several weeks, I decided to ask my teacher why she spent so much time on test preparation. She told me that she did so much test preparation because the administrators at her school and district expected her to. She said that the principal had received phone calls from angry parents the year before wondering why their children had scored so poorly. Also, she informed me that supplemental money for the district was based upon test scores so she was expected to raise her scores. After telling me why she did so much preparation, she told me how frustrated she was that she could not teach skills that she felt the students needed because the district's curriculum had become so narrowly focused on the ISTEP+. She said that the district's emphasis on standardized testing robbed her students of opportunities for discovery learning activities and time devoted to investigating topics that the students were interested in.

Case Questions

1. What is your initial reaction to the observations outlined in this case? Do you think that test preparation is a good use of class time?
   
   
2. Should test scores be used to measure teacher, school, and district effectiveness? Why or why not? What are some alternative measures of effectiveness?
   
   
3. In many ways the example above approaches the subject of teaching to the test. What are some ways that the teacher can teach the content of the test without teaching to the test?
   
   
4. What would you do in this situation? Would you teach to the test, about the test, or neither? Explain your answer.