By Randy Gomez
As a senior currently applying to colleges with hostile admissions requiring close to perfect ACT or SAT scores, it dumbfounded me that many colleges believe that this is an actual way to evaluate a student's critical thinking skills to make them an eligible candidate for college. I believe this a ridiculous way to measure a student's eligibility for college as for college and beyond, a multiple choice question quiz can’t assess one’s true abilities properly.
Having taken the SAT and the PSAT three times, I feel like I can say that these kinds of standardized tests are more about studying for the exam, not a particular skill that a student must have to do well. Specifically, students can pretty much brute force their way to solving many of these problems, not by understanding the fundamental concept being shown but by just memorizing how to solve a problem.
Another issue with standardized testing is that many researchers attempt to use it as a way to test a teacher's evaluation. However, this is really difficult to do as every student learns at a different pace.
According to scholars on EPI. ORG “value added modeling estimates have proven to be unstable across statistical models as differences can vary depending on the characteristics of students to particular teachers to a particular year which only represents a small sample of a student body.” which demonstrates a teacher's ability to teach can’t easily be figured out by how students do on one test. To elaborate on this, value-added modeling was intended to look at teachers' effectiveness in influencing students using standardized testing results.
The problem with this was that a teacher's effectiveness varies across the years, meaning it’s difficult to evaluate a teacher's effectiveness at a given point in time. Let alone attempt to define their effectiveness at different points in time.
Other factors include the fact that many students are already more advanced than others, and the level of motivation of a student can reflect how well they learn a specific subject. Additionally, some teachers may not be fit for a specific kind of student.
In my personal experience, I thought my past AP calculus teacher was one of the best teachers I’ve ever had, whilst many disagree with me, saying it’s not that he’s the problem. It’s just his teaching method that doesn’t sit with them.
While I do believe standardized testing is a horrific way to measure a student's preparedness for college, many scholars at Education Advanced believe it establishes a universal standard of education and shows the progression of students throughout their years of taking these tests. I acknowledge the fact that these tests may show the progression of students, but they don’t take into account the resources or particular circumstances of students surrounding these tests.
Such as the resources many students have offered them, such as private tutors or even books. In addition, students could have a rough day on the day it happened to be test day and perform worse than they should have.
However, despite all my criticism of standardized tests, there is a solution to them. I believe this solution is replacing them with performance-based assessments.
A performance-based assessment would allow students to demonstrate what they learned inside the classroom and perform it outside the classroom in a way that demonstrates their understanding of a concept. This would show the difference between students who can do well on a multiple choice and those who can apply their knowledge to day to day situations.
According to scholars at Nea.org, “ PBA would require students to curate portfolio; develop analytical skills, or complete an original research paper,” hence allowing for “differentiated instruction for different learning styles,” says Molly Malinowski, a first-grade teacher at Lynch Elementary school.
If students could display their application of a concept they are passionate about in any way they want, they’ll be able to learn the material the way they want, as well as teach what they know in their own unique way. This I believe, is a huge step from standardized testing as it’s more practical in terms of encouraging students to demonstrate what they know through engaging experiences.
There’s hope this reign of doom of standardized testing may come to an end within the coming years as many colleges such as Stanford and Colorado college are making it optional whilst not penalizing students for not submitting them. In other words, let's standardize, no standardized testing.
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