What Are The Critiques Of The SOL Test?

There is so much to consider when talking about assessments. There are all kinds of different types of assessments. There are assessments that happen on a daily basis in the classroom and then there are the tests that everyone knows about; the state mandated assessments, map test, and some know about DIBLES tests. These are the types of tests that parents, teachers, and administrators debate about. The debate is whether or not these test are doing students any good or harming them. It is good to have data on student and school’s progress, it keeps everyone accountable however, some believe that schools are testing too much. That all this time focused on testing is actually taking away from learning time. Each type of assessment has it’s own set of challenges.

Each state teaches their students different material at different rates and this is why some states place pressure of testing companies to “dumb-down” the test (Margie). Each state’s tests are created by the state; therefore, they can make the test as easy as possible to make everyone succeed on it. Some states have districts in poverty and cannot afford the best textbooks or technologies; therefore, their students do not reach their potential. When these districts have scores that are too low they do not receive federal grants; therefore, this puts them into a further bind.

A challenge students face is the SOL test because the test can be tricky, they might not have time to study, and they might have after school activities to do. The SOL test is a very tricky test, it has everything you learned that whole year. Some kids might not be able to study because they have chores to do, some chores can take all night. Kids also play after school activities such as sports and clubs like drama. Not all kids can study for the SOL.

“…only twenty-two percent of those surveyed said increased testing had helped the performance of their local schools compared with twenty-eight in 2007” (“Public Skeptical of Standardized Testing.”). Furthermore the poll indicated an eleven percent increase, compared to last year, towards the favor of discontinuing the usage of students’ test results for teacher evaluations. William Bushaw, executive director of PDK International and co-director of PDK/Gallup Poll also stated, “Americans’ mistrust of standardized tests and their lack of confidence and understanding around new education standards is one the most surprising developments we’ve found in years” (“Public Skeptical of Standardized Testing.”). All in all, not only are these tests a concern for students, who are forced to sit through them, hoping to get a decent enough score to place into a class, receive their diploma, or even get accepted to the college of their dreams, but they are a concern for parents as well, who only want the best for their children and to see them succeed.

The SOL’s are statewide tests for 1st through 12th graders. Students are only required to pass the SOL’s from 3rd grade and beyond. SOL’s are used to represent the school’s knowledge and forces accountability on teachers. They can also be used to track a student's progress over the years and see what subject they are best in. These SOL's measure the minimum students should know by the end of the course. SOL’s test knowledge in math, science, history, and English. To

Houston which is ranked number one largest school district has 203,354 students enrolled. (Michels .2013) Statistically, Houston should have a greater propensity percentage for low performing test scores but they are not. Here lies the question why are we out performed by other districts if not by number of students enrolled then what? The main problem exists in the first place because of the standardized tests. Because we are a large district there are problems with the funding and getting good teachers to teach at the schools in Dallas. If we are constantly changing the test format and we keep getting lower scores who would want to work for Dallas ISD. By changing the format of tests students take they have to reassess their objectives in each respective grade level. Teachers are often forced to teach for the tests rather than their subject. It used to be that we were only graded by our teachers and how they taught their classes. We only had to make sure that we knew the subject matter as taught by the teacher. Then standardized testing came into play which made it fair for all the students because teachers had a power over student’s grades. A system of checks and balances came into play and standardized testing became the norm. Then there were more and more changes in testing and still today teachers focus more on what the test will be about rather than subject

Teachers strive for their students to score well because the score also reflects on their teaching. Teachers seem to no longer teach for students to learn material and retain knowledge but to “ace” tests. Some learn to teach according to the test. Students learn the information that is going to be on the test but do not necessarily fully understand the material they are learning. There are certain standards that have to be met with each test. In most states part of the scores reflect the

Standardized tests are often unfair to a wide range of students. Students coming from high-poverty schools often have fewer resources and weaker teachers (Layton A1). “People are sick of the overkill of test volume and the consequences, ridiculous things like rating art teachers based on the reading test scores in their schools” quote Robert Schaeffer (Layton A1). “Fort Myers, Florida, gives 183 tests during the year!” quote Sen. Patty Murray (Layton A1). There is many ways students can be evaluated more

These tests will provide teachers and administrators a diagnosis of how the school is performing and in which areas the school needs to improve on. This will also inform policymakers which schools are doing well and why. Then that technique can be applied to schools in which the scores were not meeting standards. President Bush and the U.S. Congress have challenged educators to set high standards and hold students, schools and districts accountable for results. (Dept. of Ed, 2004)

If someone asked you “how do you define student achievement?”, what would your answer be? Would you say student achievement is best measured by state assessments? Or would you say that student achievement is too complex a subject to be objectively measured? From a National Education Association survey in 2015, seventy percent out of 1500 members do not believe state assessments are developmentally appropriate for students (nea Today). State assessments, most commonly known as standardized testing, have the same questions, same answers, and have to be done within the same amount of time by all students. Standardized testing ranges from driving tests to the SATs. In our society, standardized testing is important because they are designed to

Ever since then standardized testing has been a huge part of education. Teachers across the nation had to teach to the curriculum instead of what they thought the students needed to learn. Nowadays colleges strictly look at ACT and SAT scores rather than classroom grades, because they believe that some teachers grade on a curve and are not giving the students a fair chance. Standardized tests are an unreliable measure of student performance. A 2001 study published by the Brookings Institution found that 50-80% of year-over-year tests core improvements were temporary and “caused by fluctuations that had nothing to do with long-term changes in learning…”(“Standardized Tests”). Teachers are stressed over if they are teaching “correctly”. They went to a 4-year college, some even more, to get a degree in something that they wanted to do, either for themselves or for the children, and now they have to “teach to the test”. Tests can only measure a portion of the goals of education. A pschometrician, Daniel Koretz says, “standardized tests usually do not provide a direct and complete measure of educational achievement.”(Harris, Harris, and Smith).

Ben Johnson is an educator, author, and administrator and basically feels if a teacher does not teach to the test then the student will not be prepared. Johnson compares it to preparing a kids sports team for a soccer game. If you just drill them and they go to the game but have no idea which goal to shoot the ball or the importance to defend your goal it would be a losing game. In order to be successful in the assessments the teachers and students must equally understand and know what the expectations of the assessment are and how they can work together to meet these expectations (Johnson). When it comes to high states testing failure is not an option for the student or

Like Dr. Robert O’ Connor of Marble Falls Independent School District Superintendent also say’s “some student’s aren’t geared towards time standardized testing –it’s not where they shine “(HILLEY-SIERZCHULA 109-112). With students supposed to be taught to shine, we have to talk about the results themselves the scores within Austin Area Schools and Statewide in Texas the scores of children in elementary schools, which is where it all begins and at their ages seems to have the most impact on our children. With scores that are staying the same for the past three years, and showing Texas overall scores are dropping in subjects and within certain

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

A very current and ongoing important issue happening within the education system is standardized testing. A standardized test is any examination that's administered and scored in a calculated, standard manner. There are two major kinds of standardized tests: aptitude tests and achievement tests. Standardized aptitude tests predict how well students might perform in some subsequent educational setting. The most common examples are the SAT’s and the ACT’s. The SAT and the ACT attempt to estimate how well high school students will perform in college. But standardized test scores are what citizens and school board members rely on when they evaluate a school's effectiveness. Nationally, five such tests are in use: California Achievement Tests,