Accountability Is The Process Of Evaluating School Performances On The Basis Of Student Performance

In 2200 B.C. Chinese, civil servants were assessed using some of the earliest forms of standardized testing. Men would be tested on everything from archery to rites and ceremonies. The archery test would consist of shooting three arrows into a target and would be graded based on how many landed. Three arrows would equate to an excellent grade, two was good and one was passable. Standardized tests have evolved since the 2200s. Today, standardized testing is used as the main form of assessment for students in the American school system. Children as young as four years old are required to take standardized tests when entering school. Is standardized testing the best tool for assessing student development and teacher competency? There are some that would argue that standardized testing has its place, but there is an overwhelming majority that would disagree. From California to New York, there is evidence against high stakes standardized testing. Students and teachers alike buckle under the weight of these tests. Who could blame them when the tests determine, not only who is eligible to graduate high school but also which schools will receive the funding they need? Standardized tests may have had their place in the American school system fifty years ago, but today they are outdated, unreliable, and should be abolished as the main form of assessment in the public-school system.

Introduced during the 1990’s, accountability is a newer term inside the education world. By definition, accountability holds, not only teachers, but districts, educators, and also students accountable for any results ("Accountability", 2004). Accountability hasn’t always been prominent inside our education. In fact, it wasn’t until the 1990’s when lawmakers began to flirt with the idea. Though accountability became increasingly popular during the end of the previous century, it does possess several roots which began in the 1950’s.

“No issue in the U.S. Education is more controversial than (standardized) testing. Some people view it as the linchpin of serious reform and improvement, others as a menace to quality teaching and learning” (Phelps). A tool that educators use to learn about students and their learning capabilities is the standardized test. Standardized tests are designed to give a common measure of a student’s performance. Popular tests include the SAT, IQ tests, Regents Exams, and the ACT. “Three kinds of standardized tests are used frequently in schools: achievement, diagnostic, and aptitude” (Woolfolk 550). Achievement tests can be used to help a teacher assess a student’s strengths and weaknesses in a

After reading your post, you made me reflect back to my school counseling program where the many uses that school counselors recognize by utilizing standardized test results to analyzing measures that include the following: academic placement, promotion/graduation, and retention because these standardized test results are very important measures that help determine if a school district will receive state or local funding whether it be reduced, increased, or eliminated. In addition, standardized tests help determine if curriculums need to be revised to help those troubled areas to increasing performance and making sure that students with special needs are being provided with the appropriate accommodations. Not only teachers utilized data with

SAT and ACT are just two of the standardized testing implemented in our educational system today. The score obtained from standardized testing serves is valid predictors of the success of the students as they pursue higher level of education. As with other standardized testing, data are generated that will hold teachers and school accountable. If the score is low, it’s because there is a need to modify the curriculum or the teacher is not doing their job as educators. But what if

There is orthodoxy in our education system that standardized testing is important for education. There is a belief that standardized testing is important student outcomes. The educational establishment believes that we should use standardized test to evaluate students and teachers. They believe that we should fire bad and incompetent teachers. . These bureaucrats believe that students need to evaluated based on standardized test. They believe there should be more accountability in our education system.

There is no evidence that support that teachers will be more motivated to improve student learning if they were evaluated for increase test scores but by basing teacher evaluations on inadequate standardized tests is a recipe for flawed evaluations. The problem with standardized testing is that they are narrow and have limited indicators of student learning. These standardized tests leave out a wide range of important knowledge and skills.

One of the two purposes of standardized tests is to ensure the accountability of the teacher’s teaching. The students’ grades supposedly reflect on how well the teacher teaches. Consequently, teachers create a curriculum to excel on the test, instead of creating tests to excel the curriculum. We cannot have

"Educators must stop lamenting the challenges of accountability and start making improvements."(Beyond the Rock and the Hard Place, Craig Jerald)

“There are better methods to measure student achievement and ability. These ways include good teacher observation, documentation of student work, and performance -based assessment, all of which involve the direct evaluation of real learning tasks, provide useful material for teachers, parents, and the public (Fairtest 1) .” Many states that do other alternatives like Finland, use these abilities instead of standardized testing . “A May 26, 2011, National Research Council report found no evidence test-based incentive programs are working: Despite using them for several decades, policymakers and educators do not yet know how to use test-based incentives to consistently generate positive effects on achievement and to improve education” (ProCon) . Standardized tests are an inaccurate measure of student performance. “A 2001 study published by the Brookings Institution found that 50-80% of year-over-year test score improvements were temporary and ¨caused by fluctuations that had nothing to do with long term-term changes in learning... (ProCon).”

Standardized testing has been used in the American higher education platforms to assess student achievement at individual,classroom,instructor,school,region, district,state and national levels.The results obtained from standardized tests have provided all parties with information regarding the direction of education and provide catalysts for improvement.Arguments concerning the merits of standardized assessments as a measure of college and university effectiveness have been around since time immemorial.Amidst these arguments,a number of policy makers and professionals in the field of education most importantly agree that standardized assessment should not be the only instrument for measuring student learning outcomes that institutions

Description: I would like to see how standardized testing affects a student’s achievement in the education system today. My main research question is: Does standardized testing improve student achievement in today’s education system and does it measure all portions of what makes education meaningful? My working thesis is that standardized testing has been a part

As a teacher and parent, I have questioned the use of stat standardized test in our school today. With the information provided from the course School and Classroom Assess, I have discovered through discussions, assignments, and reading materials that others feel that there are some pros and cons to standardized test; yet we understand that standardized test serves a purpose which is beneficial to teachers, parents, and students. Standardized test is most commonly used to measure student achievement.

Standardized testing improves the quality of education and learning that the students receive (Herman and Golan). By requiring schools to use standardized testing, it can hold each member of the education process responsible for how the students perform. This requires teachers the have the effectively teach the students the material needed to be successful in the course or grade. Standardized testing allows the education system to see how students at a particular school, county or state are performing so that adjustments in certain areas can be made if necessary. According to Roberta Munoz, by using standardized testing, teachers can look at their classes’ performance and create lessons to help improve in areas of need or they can also look to see which individual students need more help to allow more focus on those students. Ultimately, standardized testing hold schools systems and teacher accountable for the students’ performance and create a way to see the strengths and weaknesses of the students as a whole.

According to Peri (2007), "Accountability systems must include measures of processes, such as information on organizational and instructional practice, in addition to measures of outcomes if the goal is to help improve schools."