Assessment Strategies K 12 Nationally

¶ … President X of Education: Even proponents of high-stakes standardized testing for grades K-12 have argued that such tests should be only one measure amongst many to validate the effectiveness of a school or student. Yet the emphasis placed upon such tests in determining school ratings and the increasing proportion of the day devoted to preparing for such exams has inevitably fostered teaching to the test rather than teaching higher-level concepts.

There are concerns as well that students are being placed largely due to their scores based solely on a single result on a high-stakes state test (Hamilton, Halverson, Jackson, Mandinach, Supovitz, & Wayman16). Furthermore, the pressure on many teachers to demonstrate that students are performing well as a collective group often causes them to focus unduly upon 'bubble' students (students who are just below the cutoff) rather than raising the academic performance of the class as a while (Hamilton, et al., 16). Education, in other words, has become a numbers game.

There are grave concerns about the extent to which standardized tests really measure student achievement, particularly given the fact that all states have the leeway to set their own standards: thus proficiency in one state may not be the same as proficiency in another state. But having a single, unified test is not the answer given that the U.S. system of education is based on a system of localized control and students cannot be evaluated based upon content they have not been taught.

A highly standardized curriculum would eliminate magnet schools with specialized focuses like science and the performing arts and many schools with many students facing socio-economic challenges would struggle to achieve parity to such an extent the standards would not be meaningful. Furthermore, additional testing or testing with even higher stakes in the form of a national test does not address the central problem of the usual multiple-choice format testing in general, which is the fact that it discourages critical thinking skills.

On the other hand, using subjective grading formats such as an essay can be extremely subjective and even then create a relatively formulaic structure for students to follow when writing. Ideally, standardized, cumulative tests should be used as guides for deficits and strengths exhibited by students as a whole and the general population but should be used to restructure the curriculum if necessary, not for punitive actions against students.

Of far greater value is the use of formative assessment within classrooms, specifically those which encourage students to engage with primary source documents, compose original thoughts, solve problems without predetermined answers, and hands-on work such as science experiments (Breakstone, Smith, & Wineburg). Once again, these are skills which cannot be easily standardized and are best composed by teachers in dialogue with administrators on a local basis.

According to the recommendations of the American Psychological Association in their guide to "Appropriate use of high-stakes testing in our nation's schools," when standardized tests are used for generalized assessment, they must be monitored for fairness, particularly in regards to race, gender, and socio-economic status, and the content should be directly linked to the intentions of the curriculum.