Reflect on the idea that tests are the only objective assessments of student learning.
Every year, America's public schools administer millions of standardized exams to learners. The primary purpose of many such tests is to rank-order students, their teachers, and their schools: that is, to guarantee that some will be labeled as successes and others as failures, with the vast majority considered mediocre. These include readiness tests, to determine if a child is ready for the kindergarten program offered by the school; screening tests, to determine if a child will be labeled as learning disabled or, at the other extreme, as gifted and talented; intelligence tests, which are widely but erroneously thought to measure intellectual ability; and achievement tests, which measure a much narrower range of skills and content than what we really want students to learn.
Standardized tests tend to focus attention on what students do not know and cannot do, in situations unlike daily life. At the same time, they do not tell us what we really need to know in order to foster individual students' learning. Because of these and other concerns about standardized tests, educators have been developing alternative methods of assessment-methods and measures that more accurately reflect the curriculum and what parents and the public want children to learn, know, and be able to do.
My experience in the classroom has yielded the conclusion that test are not the only objective assessment of student learning. One would agree that assessment is ongoing and practically occurs every minute within the classroom.
The teacher that implements rubrics has an objective instrument that clearly assesses. Outstanding teachers provide objective means to assessment by incorporating a variety of assessments for instance, oral assessments, projects that allow students to create, as well as open ended questions.
I do agree that at the end of the day only standardized test hold the most validity within the school and the district. Nevertheless, I believe objective assessment exceed that of just pen and paper test.
