Standardized Testing:
The Debate, Alternatives, & Effective Uses
Amy Williams
EDEC 7137
Advocacy in Early Childhood Education
Dr. Ekaterina Strekalova-Hughes
Definition
 A standardized test is any form of test that (1) requires all test
takers to answer the same questions, or a selection of questions
from common bank of questions, in the same way, and that (2) is
scored in a “standard” or consistent manner, which makes it
possible to compare the relative performance of individual students
or groups of students
 In addition to the familiar multiple-choice format, standardized tests
can include true-false questions, short-answer questions, essay
questions, or a mix of question types.
*definition taken from www.edglossary.org
Intended Uses
 determine a young child’s readiness for kindergarten
 to identify students who need special-education services
 or specialized academic support
 to place students in different academic programs or course
levels
 to award diplomas and other educational certificates
 to retain or promote at certain grade levels
Examples

Achievement tests
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measure the knowledge and skills students learned in school
determine the academic progress they have made over a period of time
evaluate the effectiveness of a schools and teachers
identify the appropriate academic placement for a student

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courses or programs
academic support
Aptitude tests
 attempt to predict a student’s ability to succeed
 forecast or predict how well students will do in a future educational or career setting.

College Admission tests
 process of deciding which students will be admitted to a collegiate program
 used as indicators of intellectual and academic potential

International Comparison tests
 administered periodically to representative samples of students in a number of countries
 purposes of monitoring achievement trends in individual countries
 comparing educational performance across countries

Psychological tests
 used to measure a person’s cognitive abilities and mental, emotional, developmental, and social characteristics
 trained professionals, such as school psychologists, typically administer the tests, which may require students to
perform a series of tasks or solve a set of problems.
 often used to identify students with learning disabilities or other special needs that would qualify them for
specialized services.
Reform

Accountability
 designed to hold schools and educators accountable for educational results and student performance
 test scores are used as a measure of effectiveness
 low scores may trigger a variety of consequences for schools and teachers

Student Achievement
 have students learned what they are expected to learn
 have students met state learning standards

Student Gaps
 to identify gaps in student learning and academic progress
 test scores may be used, along with other information about students, to diagnose learning needs

Sub-Groups
 to identify achievement gaps among different student groups, including students of color, students who are not
proficient in English, students from low-income households, and students with physical or learning disabilities.
 exposing and highlighting achievement gaps may be seen as an essential first step in the effort to educate all
students well, which can lead to greater public awareness and changes in educational policies and programs

Effective Policies
 to determine whether educational policies are working as intended
 elected officials and education policy makers may rely on standardized-test results to determine whether their
laws and policies are working or not, or to compare educational performance from school to school or state to
state
 elected officials may also use the results to persuade the public and other elected officials that their policies are
in the best interest of children and society
Debate
 Do the scores provide accurate, objective, and useful evidence of school,
teacher, or student performance?
 numerical scores on a test are misleading indicators,
 standardized tests can only evaluate a narrow range of achievement using
limited methods
 Do the tests have inherent biases that may disadvantage certain groups,
such as students of color, students who are unfamiliar with American
cultural conventions, students who are not proficient in English, or
students with disabilities that may affect their performance?
 It is said that standardized tests “fair” to all students because every student takes
the same test and is evaluated in the same way
 Is the pervasive overuse of testing actually taking up valuable instructional
time that could be better spent teaching students more content and skills?
 the use of standardized tests is not providing valuable information that
educators and school leaders can use to improve instructional quality
Debate (cont’d)
 Do math and reading test scores, for example, provide a full and
accurate picture of school, teacher, and student performance?
 One day, one test, one time frame
 Does the narrow range of academic content evaluated by
standardized tests cause teachers to focus too much on test
preparation and a few academic subjects (a practice known as
“teaching to the test”)
 Too much time is being spent on testing/testing preparation
 Do they create conditions that undermine effective education, such
as cheating, unhealthy forms of competition, or unjustly negative
perceptions of public schooling?
 Are standardized-test scores, which could potentially be misleading
or inaccurate, too limited an instrument to use as a basis for such
consequential decisions?
What Research Says…
 Teaching often relies on summative, standardized testing rather than
meaningful learning moments (Bennett & Cunningham, 2009).
 Assessment “drives learning” (Bennett & Cunningham, 2009)
 However, summative assessment becomes the focus rather than
formative assessment that can truly direct learning (i.e. differentiation)
 Assessment must be “useful” or “fit for purpose”
 When the perception is different than the intention of which it was
developed, strong negative feelings can arise (East, 2015).
 “Superficial coverage of subject matter and emphasis on basic skills
seldom add up to more complex learning; the focus is on the
outcomes and evaluation” (Kontovourki & Campis, 2010).
 With the high level of accountability on high-stakes testing, teachers
and schools are striving to ensure the students perform well on the
test; what gets tested, gets the most attention (Kontovourki &
Campis, 2010).
What Research Says…(cont’d)
 The controversy surrounding standardized testing is heavily based
upon whether or not the high-stakes test should be the sole
determining factor for retaining/promoting students as well
rewarding teachers and schools with money and ratings (Magee &
Jones, 2012).
 Students are “unique” (Magee & Jones, 2012)
 Assessing student knowledge should not be based upon one test
 Personnel have little to no training in the area of interpreting test
results and the use of test results (Marso & Pigge, 1992).
 Administrators often do not distribute or review results with their
teachers
 Standardized testing results are not feasible in making classroom
decisions (Marso & Pigge, 1992).
 Results are often not available until many weeks after the tests are
administered
What Research Says…(cont’d)
 There are several benefits to standardized testing (Rogers, 2014)
 Common assessment
 Providing results to students (providing they understand) can have a
positive effect on student achievement
 Assist in identifying needs for professional development
 Preparation for test reduces instructional time and can often lead to
reducing higher-order thinking skills and replacing them with lowerorder thinking skills (Rogers, 2014).
 Educators need the following
 “reliable diagnostic information” – ability to interpret results
 Assessment needs to be multi-dimensional – measures more than just
how well a student performed that day on a single test
 More time to interpret the results
 More training on using the results in a meaningful way
What Research Says…(cont’d)
 Teachers can prepare students for a test, get high scores, but not
provide a high quality education (Rose, 2015).
 Success cannot be determined solely by a test score. If so, we would
miss the intellectual achievements that aren’t able to be quantified
(Rose, 2015).
 High-stakes tests are causing teachers to focus solely on math and
reading and less on the other subject areas
 Standardized testing was established in the early 20th century as a
way to hold educators accountable for what they were teaching
(Ryan, 2014)
 It was a way to appease the community and stakeholders
 42% of entering freshman are under-prepared for college level
academic work (Saxon & Morante, 2014).
What Research Says…(cont’d)
 Open enrollment causes lower standards set forth by college
professors (Saxon & Morante, 2014).
 Instructional methods/expectations
 Other factors such as lifestyle and demographics factor into the
“readiness factor” (Saxon & Morante, 2014).
 Assessment is intended to find out if curriculum was taught properly
(Wiliam, 2010).
 Can it really be determined that a student “learned” through a single test
score
 General understanding: the higher the test score, the higher the
achievement (Wiliam, 2010)
Recommendations
 Oral Assessments
 Lower student anxiety, gives multiple opportunities for assessment,
increases “risk-taking” and creativity
 Embed within normal classroom work and high-stakes testing
 Focus less on content of tests; More on format and use of
vocabulary
 Focus more on test-taking skills
 Becoming “test-wise”
 However, don’t stop what you are teaching and teach test-prep only
 Teach test-taking skills within your current content
 Work on changing beliefs of individuals
 Knowledge and beliefs comes from world-views more so than
experiences with testing
Recommendations
 Extensive Training
 Proper training needs to occur within districts and individual schools
on how to interpret the results and how to properly use them within
the school and classrooms
 Assessment schedule
 Create a different schedule so the teachers can get the results back in
time and with enough time to interpret and make adjustments to their
curriculum and approach
 Adjust spending areas
 Spend more money on high-quality professional development and less
on test development
 Provide low-income schools with resources such as social worker
and school nurse
 Provide resources that can off-set some of the issues students deal with
due to low-SES status
Recommendations
 Work with high-schools in an effort to prepare students for higher-
rigor
 Placement tests
 Consider lifestyle factors prior to admission/rejection
 Improve the test
 Reduce the number of standards
 Complexity of the testing language
References
Bennett, K.R, & Cunningham, A.C. (2009). Teaching formative assessment strategies to preservice
teachers: Exploring the use of handheld computing to facilitate the action research process.
Journal of Computing in Teacher Education, 25(3), 99-105.
East, M. (2014). Coming to terms with innovative high-stakes assessment practice: Teachers’ viewpoints
on assessment reform. Language Testing, 32(1), 101-120.
Kontovourki, S. & Campis, C. (2010). Meaningful practice: Test prep in a third-grade public school
classroom. The Reading Teacher, 64(4), 236-245.
Magee, R.G., & Jones, B.D. (2012). An instrument to assess beliefs about standardized testing:
Measuring the influence of epistemology on the endorsement of standardized testing.
Australian Journal of Educational & Developmental Psychology, 12, 71-82.
Marso, R.N., & Pigge, F.L. (1992). Classroom teacher’s perceptions of the extent and effectiveness of
their schools’ uses of standardized test results.
Rogers, W.T. (2014). Improving the utility of large-scale assessments in Canada. Canadian Journal of
Education, 27(3), 6-22.
Rose, M. (2015). School reform fails the test. American Scholar, 84(1), 18-30.
Ryan, A.M. (2011). From child study to efficiency: District administrators and the use of testing in the
Chicago public schools, 1899 to 1928. Paedagogica Historica, 47(3), 341-354.
Saxon, D.P., & Morante, E.A. (2014). Effective student assessment and placement: Challenges and
recommendations. Journal of Developmental Education, 47(3), 24-31.
Wiliam, D. (2010). Standardized testing and school accountability. Educational Psychologist, 45(2), 107122.