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Standardized tests
Standardized tests
Standardized tests or exams are evaluation instruments that measure the particular strengths and weaknesses of students, detect population groups in need of educational improvement, identify factors that impact student performance, and observe changes or progress in the educational level.
These types of tests, which are generally presented in booklets that are carried out around the world, are promoted by national, regional, and international organizations. Which seek to evaluate for the benefit of both the individual and society, by identifying areas for improvement that allow establishing effective solutions to increase the quality of teaching.
This type of test will always be done in general areas where you want to get a criterion or a statistic about a certain group, it is generalized with this objective so that in the end you can work on improving the situation or educational level detected.
This type of evaluation is done when certain general aspects are measured in a general panorama of a society, but we cannot use standardized tests when our objectives are aligned to specific results.
Some strengths of these tests may be that these assessment instruments can be applied to a part of the population or to the entire population, they integrate questions that assess knowledge, skills, competencies, and attitudes, they offer an overview of the level and quality of educational systems, allow to identify the areas of improvement and the challenges presented by the school communities, to promote academic development.
But we must that like everything there are certain weaknesses in this type of evidence among them are; Efficiency in the qualification of the tests are prioritized and not the specific content of these, it would not be taking into account that, in the results, school variables are not inverted but also variables of origin of the students, standardized evaluations have among their harmful effects that demoralize the teacher, weakens him, makes him lose his self-esteem and confronts him with parents and public opinion, blaming him for the poor quality of education. It reinforces the culture where numerical results are privileged, affective, and sociocultural processes that are at the base of learning are not considered and represent a structural problem of educational policy.
Gonzales, M. (2019, November 29). Standardized tests. I look at you Retrieved March 3, 2022, from https://www.miros.ec/blog/2018/11/29/programas-estandarizadas-ventajas-y-desventajas/melvis/
A detailed but simple write-up about standardized testing. No child left behind policy however contradict with real world practices. Undoubtedly, like many other systems, standardized tests are likely to evolve and need to align with the real demand tbat what kind of learners we actually want as by - product.
Thank you for writing a post about standardized tests. I learned recently about the impacts of the No Child Left Behind policy and how it oriented teaching around standardized tests in the United States. The purpose was to catch everyone up, but critics say that it actually created a low standard to achieve and limited teachers' skills in educating students. You mentioned how these tests put teachers in a position where they are blamed for the low quality of education, and I think that is interesting that the tests, which were meant to evaluate knowledge acquisition, actually impacted the quality and level of the knowledge transferred.
I must admit that your post inspired me to think about the different system boundaries that are the object of assessment in my update (i.e. case c).
Excellent points, especially around demoralizing individuals and effecting their self-esteem and the impact of sociocultural processes. I would also add that we need to make sure that socio-economic impacts have been addressed in teaching to ensure equity in learning and test results.