Testing and Where It Can Go Wrong

Ok, let's discuss most people's least favorite topic. Testing. Talk about stress! Talk about passion! But let me back up a little bit here. I have a fair amount of expertise in this area. Why you may ask? Well there are several reasons for that. First, I have over 25 years of dealing with standardized testing with my students. Second, I have half again that many years of being tested myself, in way too many areas. Third, my original doctoral dissertation focused on standardized testing. After 3 years of research, I opted to change foci for a panoply of reasons, mainly to save what was left of my sanity. Fourth, my grandfather, not the engineering professor grandfather, but the University president grandfather, was the original author of many standardized tests, including Iowa Silent Reading, and initial iterations of ACTs and SATs.

Understandably, it's hard to know where to begin with this discussion. There are so many thoughts that go in so many different directions. So I think for the purposes of this introduction, I'll go an inch deep, and 1/2 mile wide!

As a public school teacher, I watched annually as students - and their parents stressed out wildly as testing seasons approached. I honestly believe this is the happiest time of year for those with stock in antidepressant medications.

But validity and reliability of test scores? Humpf.

I'll be happy to tackle any argument touting accuracy of scores as compared to knowledge acquired! I probably oughta make this a whole section down the road.

During my years of research in this area, I had countless students and children tell me they had been tested since they were knee-high to a grasshopper... ok, maybe they didn't use that colloquialism, but you get my drift...and therefore were so burned out on testing, they no longer cared how they did.

Strong students would freeze up during testing, thus indicating that they didn't have the required knowledge.

Students who struggled often guessed well, again producing inaccurate scores.

Still others had serious or troublesome issues going on at home, and had a hard time focusing.

And many students simply cannot excel in rigid, standardized testing environments!

In fact, our son Erik took the ACT before entering his senior year in high school. He had never been subjected to traditional standardized tests. He didn't have to, given our home-school model.

Anyway, he did remarkably well on the ACT. It was new to him, and hence, not daunting. After his senior year, however, he took it again, and actually scored significantly lower. Could it be posited that his school experience actually thwarted his learning path?

And just for the record, because I know this to be a fact from THE primary source, high stakes tests were never intended to be sole determiners of evidence of learning, nor of future learning potential. I have Bapa's original testing manuscripts on the old onion skin paper on which he typed. I also have the books he wrote regarding, and titled, Standards and Measurements. Every single one of them highlights a key disclaimer; that being that tests of any sort should be an indication of where gaps in learning might be, and that they should be considered only a piece of the puzzle of evaluation and analysis, not the be-all end-all.

If you are interested in the home-school model that avoided such high stakes testing and still encouraged and tracked achievement, schedule your free consult now and we can see what it would take to bring success!