The Standardized Testing Debate
by Katy Abel
Everybody makes mistakes, including those who score standardized tests! In New York a few years back, thousands of students were even denied a summer vacation because of misread test scores. Are we relying too heavily on flawed tests to make decisions about our kids' education? Here's what the experts have to say.
Why Standardized Testing Works
PAUL REVILLE (proponent of standardized testing) Lecturer at Harvard Graduate School of Education, Chairman of the Massachusetts Education Reform Review Commission
Q. Should parents -- not only those in New York, but elsewhere -- have second thoughts about standardized tests based on such a colossal error?
A. My reaction to that is to ask, because someone trips and falls on the way to the grocery store, should we stop going to the grocery store? People do need to be cautious, but we do need to keep testing.
Q. Are you concerned about relying too heavily on test results to measure a child's school performance?
A. We need to be making sure there are checks and balances. Test results shouldn't be used exclusively to draw the line. But the question of occasional errors shouldn't deter us from the goal of raising standards; at the same time we're in an interim, transitional period (moving from social promotion to test-based requirements for promotion.)
Q. So you're saying we need to proceed with caution.
A. If we're not careful, we're going to have a train wreck. If the failure rates (on standardized tests) are astronomical, the political structure won't tolerate it, and then the exams and standards get scuttled. That could also happen if you throw out the system on the basis of testing errors.
Q. But what about the kids in New York who lost their summer vacation?
A. I don't get too upset. It's not a punishment -- it's an extension of goods and services by the government. But our culture tends to see education as punishment.
The Problems with Standardized Testing
MONTY NEIL (Critic of standardized testing) executive director of FairTest National Center for Fair & Open Testing
Q. What's your reaction to the news that thousands of New York City schoolchildren were denied a summer vacation because somebody read their test scores wrong?
A. It's simply outrageous. They didn't care about the consequences for kids. It's a clear misuse of tests.
Q. How so?
A. The misuse comes when testing is in effect the sole criteria. In Chicago right now it doesn't matter what your attendance and grades are. Testing alone determines promotion. And even the people who make the tests say that's a test misuse. But standards get ignored when there's money to be made.
Q. Still, I imagine most parents feel that for better or worse, their kids are going to have to take the test and they want them to do well.
A. In Wisconsin, parents got a high-stakes test removed. The legislature had passed a law that tied test results to graduation. Parents rebelled, and organized a resistance with the support of local educators and business leaders.
Q. Could what happened in New York happen in other states?
A. It could and it has. In Washington, Riverside Publishing (a testing contractor) inaccurately scored 410,000 student essays on a state test.
Q. How should parents view standardized testing?
A.What people forget is that a test score is just an estimate. And the error rate on most tests is pretty sizeable. Also keep in mind that curiosity, creativity, and perseverance aren't measured. Writing on tests is pretty formulaic. I know published authors with PhD's who've failed writing tests for teachers.
