If I Were Leroy

One of the main controversial disputes regarding education is if test taking is actually a beneficial form of a learning technique for students. Within the context of Henry L. Roediger III’s article, How Tests Make Us Smarter, Roediger goes into depth upon how giving students “low-stakes quizzes” could help improve their memory as well as consistent and spread out practice. Psychology In Action, written by both Karen Huffman and Katherine Dowdell, also restates similar learning techniques within their first chapter.

Tests are another method of assessing learners needs: mid-way through the course I gave my learners a short quiz on the topics covered so far, showing examples which gave the learners something to compare their own answers to. I also read out the questions, ensuring that they understood what was asked of them. This enabled me to assess their progress and determine if any of the learners were struggling, however if the learners had conferred during the test then my assessment could have been false.

These tests tend to cause the student’s too much stress and puts pressure on them to obtain a certain score on these test that are required on a yearly basis. Teachers also set aside too much time to teach strategies for taking the test and lecturing on how to eliminate some choices. According to Kathy Frandle this is “A huge waste of instruction time” (Fridy). Furthermore, the unneeded stress generally leads to a state of anxiety and it is “setting too many of them up for devastating failure and, consequently, lowered self esteem (Perrone).

Similarly, many teachers, statewide, feel that these exams that no significant value towards a student’s overall intelligence. According to a survey by both the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Scholastic, of more than ten-thousand public school teachers, this report has found that teachers

I also believe that is important to use different types of assessments throughout the years. Students should be familiar with both selected and constructed response tests. These types of tests have different purposes in the classroom, and so both should be used. Selected response questions are useful in subjects that require the recollection of information, such as history and science. Constructed response tests are useful for subjects where the concepts could be a little more vague and in which there could be multiple answers, such as English. However, I believe that it is important for students to be familiar with both versions, as they will encounter both types throughout their entire academic career. It is important that teachers begin exposing their students to various assessment formats as early as possible, so that students become comfortable with different formats. This will ensure that students do not fail a test, simply because they did not understand the formatting of the test.

Some of these variables might negatively affect a student's ability to answer the specific multiple-choice questions on a standardized test, but the learning potential lies within the student, not the multiple-choice question. The makers of the test cannot encompass all the variables of the students in the multiple-choice questions, nor should they have to try. The multiple-choice questions should be replaced with essay questions that allow for a diverse response from students of many backgrounds, not one "standard" response from a uniform background. Supporters of standardized testing might argue that a test cannot encompass all the variables of the student population, but essay questions encourage diversity, not uniformity, in the students.

Assessments should contribute to a student’s education and learning by including students in the learning process educators are able to assist and extend students learning (SCSA, 2014).

If we continue to allow standardized testing in school, we are putting pressure on the students that does not need to be there.

First, comes the design. People supporting the standardized testing claim that it is perfectly created and meets all the criteria for objectiveness. They believe that multiple-choice tests are good because they are graded by machines and therefore “are not subject to human subjectivity or bias.” (Phelps, 2002) What these people seem to overlook is the importance of individuality. Multiple-choice questions

Some students may be bad at taking multiple-choice tests, but have a clear understanding of the material learned. A student may get nervous before tests, and their mind may go blank. A single testing style should not determine the quality of a student. Similarly, test scores should be one of the factors examined, not the sole deciding factor of a school’s success because “schools are dynamic and complex, and to determine the quality of a school, one must look beyond the test scores” (Gentry). If we are to keep standardized government testing, it should be conducted in a variety of ways—not just multiple-choice tests.

Unfortunately in modern time, students are more concerned to pass a test, than actually learning the material. It’s inconsiderate for schools to feel that throwing test after test will predict and showcase a student’s intelligence. “Most current U.S. standardized tests include only multiple-choice questions and provide no way for students to explain their thinking, says Swartz, of the National Center for Teaching Thinking. “So if a student answers (d) and that's correct, it still raises the question, ‘Is he

The article “More Testing More Learning,” by Patrick O’Malley, discusses that students get anxious about a big test and how more frequent test can reduce that. More tests help decrease anxiety by forcing students to study more often, therefore, they learn the material. Professors, however, don’t always like to give more quizzes because essay questions take a long time to grade. O’Malley eliminates that excuse with providing some solutions as well as a few alternative quiz question styles.

As an educator it is very important that a teacher uses different methods to teach the variety of different learning styles, and it is also important that the teacher uses a variety of assessment procedures. People don’t learn the same, and people don’t test the same either. I personally, am horrible when it comes to taking multiple choice and problem solving type assessments. I do better with essay and writing assessments, presentations, and teaching back what I have learned. With the understanding of how I can best be assessed myself, it will be important when I am the teacher that I use many methods to assess and grade my students work.

My first reason is from an interview with a high school English teacher; Ronal Lindley said that “The problem with tests are that kids don’t read the boom because it’s the right thing to do, they do it to pass the test”(Lindley). This means that students do not

Informal assessment allows students to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways which can benefit all students. It can include group or individual projects, presentations, essays, experiments, or demonstrations. Each of these can allow for “knowledge that transfers from one situation to another [which] is based on students’ abilities to understand central principles, see connections and make distinctions, and be strategic in attacking problems and analyzing information” (Darling-Hammond, p. 285). A variety of assessment methods allow for this to happen and for students to use their personal strengths to demonstrate understanding of the information. “Research into students’ preferences for alternative assessments shows that the assessments that have been positively evaluated by students were more authentic and thus made learning more realistic and powerful” (as cited in Brown, Irving, Peterson, and Hirschfeld, 2009, p. 99). Students should be able to think creatively and take hold of their own education and learning because they must ideally be prepared for a rapidly changing society where they must be able to adapt and formulate their own solutions. Teachers are able to provide feedback to the children so they know what was done effectively and what needs to be modified. Rather than teachers pressuring students to show understanding through a single examination, they will have opportunities to confidently demonstrate knowledge with less