Standardized assessment tools and their applications

¶ … Standardized Assessment Tools: Appropriate for English Language Learners and Young Children?

Standardized assessment tools as measures of academic progress have become the common paradigm for tracking student improvement in classrooms across America. This paper will discuss the concept of standardized testing by viewing the issue through two sets of questions: 1. Is standardized testing appropriate for use with English Language Learners; and 2. Is standardized testing appropriate for use with young children? In conducting this essay, this paper will address the history of standardized testing in America. An overview of what standardized testing encompasses will be offered, as well as a critique of whether or not this particular concept is, prima facie, acceptable and appropriate on its own merits, as well as being an acceptable means test of accountability for the populations of English Language Learners and young children as a whole. A conclusion will be given, in which the main elements of the essay will be summarized. Finally, a comment will be respectfully submitted as to the efficacy of the concept of standardized testing for the demographic groups discussed herein.

History of Standardized Testing in America

Grounded in the foundations of ancient Greek and Chinese education, the concept of standardized testing has early beginnings with Greek "dialogue" in oral question and answer form, and Chinese 7th century written civil service exams. Not new in human history, the idea of testing as means of measurement crossed cultures and milieus. The influence of these early beginnings is seen in early America, with testing beginning with teacher Horace Mann in 1845, moving onto pre-1950's multiple choice tests, college entrance exams including the SAT in 1926, and following the Sputnik launch, public schools in the United States were required to have standardized testing to measure if children were "measuring up" to the Russians. In 1965 the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was passed, to ensure that public schools receiving federal monies were achieving their goals. In 1969, the National Assessment of Educational Progress was launched, which was to assess the educational progress of Americans as a whole (Black).

Standardized Testing: Appropriate?

A critique of standardized testing is that it forces educators to 'teach to the test', ignoring performance-based measures based on merit. While standardized tests are useful when elucidating a problem, they are less helpful when used to make large decisions for large groups of people. It is especially problematic, when standardized tests are biased against the groups they are meant to measure (Haladyna).

English Language Learners and Standardized Testing

The diversity of America's classrooms makes standardized testing challenging for those students whose first language is not English. Not only do they face the challenge of learning a new language, but also they must learn the normative culture branding that defines the 'how and why' of American school subjects and related measures of progress. Assessment results on this particular population shape educators' attitudes about the skills and abilities of this subset of students, and hence may not capture the reality of all the students know or are capable of. Moreover, this inherent failing in attempting to capture the progress of Early Language Learners may mean that they may not have access to opportunities to higher education, because standardized tests are not measuring the actual knowledge of these students (Lachat).

Young Children and Standardized Testing

Standardized testing in young children focuses on gathering information in three program areas: information sharing and communication with parents, identification of special needs, and program evaluation and accountability (Hills). Problems, however, in testing young children are evident in the concerns that young children are easily distracted, that their social and emotional development is not mature, and that the children have no personal stake in being assessed. The educator faces a very tough issue when trying to capture relevant and meaningful information when faced with these real obstacles. A more realistic and kinder approach to gather information on this population group, is performance based, developmentally-appropriate testing. This type of 'testing' involves periodic assessment, over time, in order to obtain meaningful data. Moreover, this type of approach removes the child from an artificial situation that is more geared to satisfy the needs of the educators and policy makers than the children in question (Bredekamp).

Conclusion