Similarities And Differences Between Psychology, Educational, And Other Fields Used Standardized Testing

Content validity is achieved when the content of the assessment matches the educational objectives. Criterion validity is demonstrated by the ability of the test to relate to external requirements. Construct validity takes into account the educational variables, such as the native language of the students, to predict the test outcomes. Reliable assessments have consistent results; Reliability refers to the consistency of a measure. A test is considered reliable if we get the same result repeatedly.

Even though these tests are time consuming they judge the education of students'. Standardized tests should not be used to judge the education of a student. The students’ scores on

Texas takes the STAAR, Alabama the ARMT, and Hawaii the HSA. Each state in the U.S. has a standardized test required of every student. From the ACT and SAT to the STAAR tests, standardized testing has become common practice for almost every student. The earliest records of standardized testing are when in China, anyone wanting to get a job in government had to fill out their knowledge of Confucian philosophy and poetry in examination. As more and more kids began to go to school during the Industrial Revolution, standardized testing spread as a way to quickly and easily test a large number of students. But not everyone agrees with the tests, stating that they are unreliable, and that the stakes are too high. Standardized tests cause immense amount of stress for not only students, but teachers as well. And the tests might not even be effective, causing more anxiety than it's worth.

When people think of the education system, most can say that there are some problems, though they might not be able to pinpoint what needs to change first. If you ask most teachers, they will say that the first thing that needs to be changed in the schooling system to help the students more is the standardized testing. They will say that while it can be helpful it has a lot of faults and needs to be updated or changed to help its students. Standardized testing has often been a topic for discussion, between parents and people in the schooling system. It seems that a lot of people either hate standardized testing for not giving every child a chance to succeed, or love it for being a fair way to test whether a child knows what they need to know at their age. There have been many articles, books, and documentary’s debating on whether or not standardized testing is doing more harm then good. There was a comic made that shows the brutality and bluntness of what standardized testing is really like. Standardized Testing causes too much stress by putting unfair expectations on teens and doesn’t give every single student the chance to succeed.

standardized tests is that they lack a level of comprehension and are incapable of succeeding in the educational system. This belief is especially prevalent in regards to high stakes tests such as college entrance and high school graduation exams because the focus is on the test score. The perception is that these scores are the sole indicator of the student’s knowledge of a subject and their ability to succeed at a higher level of education. Therefore,

One of the biggest topics in the educational world is standardized tests. All fifty states have their own standards following the common core curriculum. There are many positives and negatives that go with the standardized tests. A standardized test is any type of “examination that's administered and scored in a predetermined, standard manner” (Popham, 1999). These standardized tests are either aptitude tests or achievement tests. Schools use achievement tests to compare students.

Imagine a test capable of making or breaking a student's chances of getting into his or her dream college. Imagine a test score that can be easily influenced, but only through thousands of dollars worth of coaching. Now imagine that same test but biased towards certain crowds of students while also being incapable of accurately predicting their futures. Is this the test you want for colleges to use in order to distinguish students? This is the SAT—famous for the unnecessary pressure it presents to students as well as the unfair disadvantages it presents to many others. Since these SAT scores are extremely artificial, SAT tests are not an accurate predictor for future success.

Living in the United States the emphasis on testing is extremely high. Testing has been around for years , however has increased to an all-time high since 2002 when the Bush administration brought about the No Child Left Behind Act and mandated standardized testing in all 50 states. Since initiation of these annual tests, the degree of student success the US has shown compared to other countries has declined. With the No Child Left Behind Act all students, as in 100% of students, were supposed to be at or above grade level in testing as of 2014. However, the US is two years out and its students are nowhere close to that 100% goal.

It is made up of four major parts: standards for particular applications, technical standards for test construction and evaluation, professional standards for test use, and standards for administrative procedures. A test that is technically adequate meets the criteria for validity, reliability, and norms. Validity is “the appropriateness, meaningfulness, and usefulness of the specific inferences” that can be made from the test results. (American Psychological Association 9) Validity is the degree to which a test measures what it is intended to measure. Reliability is the extent to which the test results are dependable and consistent. Unrelated to the purpose of the test, errors in measurement can be viewed through inconsistencies in the performance, motivation, or interests of students being tested. Norms can be shown in age or grade equivalence, standard scores, and percentiles. They are generally shown in charts showing the performance groups of students who have taken the test. Norms show the comparison of the performance of new groups of test takers with the samples of students on whom the test was standardized. Goodwin and Driscoll (59-60) note that standardized tests have the following qualities: They provide a “systematic procedure for describing behaviors, whether in terms of numbers or categories.” They have an established format and set materials. Also, they present the same tasks and

For any measure to be valuable in psychological research, it needs to be both valid and reliable (Goodwin, 2008: 128). Research is reliable when more researchers have found the same results, or, within for instance behavioural research, when the same behaviour occurs at several measurements (Goodwin, 2008: 124). There are different types of validity. Firstly, there is construct validity, which measures whether an operationalisation of a construct actually measures what it is supposed to measure. Secondly, criterion validity determines whether a certain phenomenon is related to another phenomenon, and can accurately determine future developments. Lastly, content validity determines whether a test measures all aspects of the construct that is being measured (Goodwin, 2008: 125-126).

Testing is just one part of the assessment process. The assessment process includes not only the tests given, but the interviews, observations, and other records as well. School psychologist understand the difference between medical and ecological models when it comes to psychological assessment. In the past, the medical model was accepted alone to help explain the issues students might be faced with. However, the ecological model is now welcoming the possibility of other factors to influence the behavior presented by the child (Jacob, Decker, & Hartshorne, 2011).

Standardized testing entails mostly true/false, fill in the blank, or multiple choice questioning. In 1991, Douglas Archbald stated that with the increase of standardized testing; student achievement and school quality has not visibly increased.  One of the original goals of standardized testing was to increase student and teacher performance, which has not been supported. Standardized testing requires the student to only use lower order thinking such as rote memory and regurgitation of useless facts. The majority of the testing includes memorization of other’s knowledge and does not encourage higher order thinking such as analysis, synthesis, and application of the materials (Archbald, 1991; Capella, 2011; Dennis & O’Haire, 2010; Elliott, 1991). Standardized testing is normative, meaning it compares students to one another. This could lead to a decrease in student self-esteem and teacher morale. In addition, results of standardized testing do not take into account application to real world settings or future careers. Standardized testing does not encourage collaboration, integration of knowledge, or application of said knowledge. The weaknesses of standardized testing lead to a movement to find an alternative; authentic assessment (Archbald, 1991; Dennis & O’Haire, 2010; Elliott,

Today, it can be observed that society has shifted education drastically from the time schools were constituted, to now. Throughout history, schools have gone from private, where only the elite can attend, to public schools where virtually anyone can attend. One of the factors that goes along with education is standardized testing. Frederick J. Kelly, father of the standardized test, once said, “These tests are too crude to be used, and should be abandoned.” Not only has this shift occurred within education itself, but it has occurred within the testing concepts found within standardized testing so much so that the founder of these tests has chosen to give up on it.

Students not only get educated in schools, they can learn many things from other people too. From functionalist perspective, the school has two function: manifest and latent. The tests can only measure how well students are able to memorize or understand the lesson that they learn from their teacher. Students who fail the standardize test may be diagnosed with learning disabilities or disorders instead of recognized for the skills they have. According to late education researcher Gerald W. Bracey, PhD, qualities that standardized tests cannot measure include "creativity, critical thinking, curiosity, endurance, self-awareness, self-discipline, leadership, civic-mindedness, courage, compassion, resourcefulness." (Valerie 3). The knowledge of the students is important, however, the other attributes, such as creativity, leadership, team work and more, that the test fail to recognize are also important for the students. Students will acquire these attributes at some point. Not all learning happen in classroom, students might achieve something outside of their classroom. Moreover, the test makes students become shallow thinker who seek quick, easy, and obvious answer. Students may guess or don’t even try to solve hard questions on the test. This test score cannot measure student’s

Standardized tests were created during the First World War as a tool to measure the “intellect, ability, and potential” of the soldiers in the army (Turgut 64-65). From World War I to the launch of Sputnik I by the Soviet Union, standardized tests were used to enable development and have aided in progress of a country. Standardized tests have also been introduced into the education system to measure the student’s intelligence in a subject.