Alberta's Provincial Achievement Testing - Analysis and Critique Achievement tests can generally be considered to be a way for the education system to gain a better understanding of how students accumulate information and of how effective teaching methods are. Also, these respective tests aim to encourage students to get actively involved in the learning process and to demonstrate their abilities. Alberta's educational system acknowledges limitations associated with achievement tests and thus collaborates with provincial programs of study. Through taking on such attitudes, educational institutes are able to have a more complex comprehension of how students reach to achievement tests and of how they can improve these respective tests. Even with the fact that the achievement tests proved to be successful in many ways, it is still difficult to determine whether or not they have an overall positive effect on Alberta's education system. Most controversies are owed to many teachers being pressured into adopting teaching strategies that are limited and that mainly provide students with information they need in order to answer questions correctly.

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Although they provide a unilateral perspective regarding students and their experience with the education system, achievement tests are very important because of the way that they manage to reflect an individual's struggles as he or she concentrates on demonstrating his or her abilities while being compared with a certain standard. By introducing this respective standard, educational institutes make it possible for students to understand what is expected of them.

Although there are a wide range of tools that can be used with the purpose of seeing the bigger picture regarding students and educational institutes in Alberta, none of these respective techniques are as thorough as the achievement testing system. "The Learner Assessment Branch is a division of Alberta Education responsible for external tests and examinations. Its mission is to provide high-quality assessments of student achievement in support of improving instruction, and ensuring high standards of achievement." (Vlaardingerbroek & Taylor 2009, p. 85)

One of the principal benefits of achievement tests is the fact that it brings together teachers, students, and parents. These three groups of people are encouraged to do their best in order to achieve success. In this situation success can be considered to be largely the same from each group's perspective. Teachers, students, and parents play an active role in achieving success and it would be in each group's personal interest to focus on creating environments in which students can accumulate information effectively.

The Alberta education system acknowledges the fact that not all students are equal and thus provides each individual with the opportunity to learn in accordance with their abilities. Special needs students in particular are presented with a wide range of resources that can assist them as they concentrate on keeping up with other students. "Test accommodations may include Braille or largeprint formats, sign language, use of a reader or scribe, additional writing time, CD format, and taped responses." (Alberta Provincial Achievement Testing, p. 5)

Both teachers and parents play important roles in shaping a student's understanding of the achievement testing system. If these two groups focus on enabling students to get actively engaged in the learning process, students themselves are more probable to actually experience success. Even with the fact that the achievement tests are essentially different from conventional tests, the Alberta education system aims to change people's perception of these respective tests. Knowing that people often tend to perform poorly as a result of being subjected to a great deal of stress while taking an exam, the education board concentrates on making it possible for individuals to realize that these tests are practically similar to any other tests they take, considering that they involve information from normal curricula and that they require relatively normal amounts of learning. "Alberta Education encourages teachers to mark achievement tests using the scoring guides and exemplars that are provided to them each year." (Alberta Provincial Achievement Testing) Teachers are thus well-acquainted with the attitudes they need to take with regard to the tests and with the fact that it is their mission to prevent students and parents from being stressed as a consequence of interacting with the tests.

Although there are some basic ideas in the achievement testing system that do not change from year to year, many questions are introduced every year while older questions are being removed. This is intended to keep curricula fresh and to assist teachers as they try to keep up with various educational reforms....

"Each year, test questions are written by teachers of that particular subject area, and then personnel from Alberta Education choose the questions to be used on that year's tests." (Thomas 2008, p. 27) The personnel in charge of selecting questions normally try to consider instances involving average students and their likely reaction to coming across questions. In cases when they believe that it would take an exceptional student to answer a question correctly they refrain from selecting too many questions like these.
Although Alberta's achievement testing system has been around for several decades, there is still much controversy regarding it. Most divisive discussion concerning the system are owed to the way that it affects native individuals. The First Nations, Metis, and Inuit School-Community Learning Environment Project was created with the purpose of helping native students improve their understanding of diverse curricula and to assist them as they focused on processing information that could be somewhat different from ideas characteristic to their cultural values. One of the project's primary goals "was to increase the achievement level of First Nations, Metis, and Inuit students on the Provincial Achievement Tests." (Thomas 2008, p. 27)

A study performed with the purpose of determining the effects that the tests had on both students and teachers revealed that many of these individuals suffered as a consequence of having to act in accordance with what had been expected of them. Peter Calder, the person who released the study, was a University of Alberta professor at the time when the information was made public. The study involved several themes meant to analyze different perspectives concerning the tests. A survey of grade 6 in particular revealed that numerous teachers considered the tests to be unfair toward students. "Teachers believe that the tests force them to narrow their teaching practices and create stress for students." (Achievement testing fails independent review)

Many teachers need to change their take on schooling in order to be able to properly instruct students. This means that they have to do everything in their power in order to have students accumulate particular types of information. In a great deal of cases teachers are almost forced to abandon teaching techniques that proved to be especially effective because these respective strategies were probable to see limited results during testing sessions. Teachers were practically left with no alternative but to express more interest in the way that students performed during tests than in the way that they developed.

During many tests schools, teachers, and students end up being a part of a large-scale comparison process. This makes everyone feel like they are pressured and that they should be concerned in their personal well-being more than they should be concerned in their roles. As a consequence, teachers can focus on providing limited information to students while students themselves risk ignoring all other types of information that would be likely to be fruitful for them.

One of the main issues with the achievement testing system is the fact that many individuals involved in the education system have a limited understanding of the exact purpose of these respective tests. "Initially designed for provincial monitoring, the tests have evolved to produce individual information about the student, to obtain information to improve instruction and to serve as a student's final examination." (Achievement testing fails independent review)

Conclusion

Even with the fact that it would be difficult to disregard Alberta's achievement's tests altogether, it would be safe to say that they can have a harmful effect on the way that individuals develop. Teachers come to realize that they need to follow a certain set of rules in order for their work to be appreciated, regardless of the fact that this means that in some cases they need to focus on bombarding students with information without expressing any interest in the way that those pupils react to the process. In their turn, students learn that it would be best for them to ignore other aspects of the schooling process in order to be able to accumulate information that is likely to be found in questions part of the achievement testing.

In spite of their divisiveness, the tests nonetheless provided Alberta's authorities to learn more about the level to which children are prepared in schools. Its relationship with students thus improved when considering the fact that they are provided with a specific set of attitudes they need to take with regard to learning in general. Although it would be difficult to determine if the current system of education has a positive influence on students' development, it is nonetheless significant because of the ways that it makes it possible…