A standardized test would be a summative one because the
students are being evaluated on how much they have learned during the school
year. These tests are supposed to be cumulative. These tests are formally given
usually in a classroom or computer lab. They have guidelines they have to
follow like, how much time they have to complete it and have to use a number 2
pencil. An assessment can tell you about
a child’s knowledge but it is not always valid. Some kids may know how to do
the work but they are just not motivated to try so they just try to hurry up
and finish it. Some students have test anxiety, so they could get really nervous
about the test and not do their best work. If a student takes the test
seriously it can be valid, but if a child does not take it serious or is very
nervous sometimes it is not valid. Standardized tests really are not
standardized because every student taking them is different. Sometimes the tests
are biased on gender or race and more. The test measures intelligence, leaving
out the other factors that affect the student.
With the concept of test validity you might want to consider not only how the student is performing on a test, but whether or not the assessment is measuring what it's suppose to be measuring. Also consider if the test is reliable based on consistent results.
ReplyDeleteI like Sam's comment above, but I think that might be what you're getting at--in that the test isn't measuring what it's intended to measure (student knowledge in a particular topic) if anxiety or lack of effort gets in the way. If so, then I think you are making a good point about validity.
ReplyDeleteWhat convinces you that the test does measure intelligence?
The test can be biased, but how? The wording of the questions can be slanted to what is typical of the society (a question about a doctor would imply he is male) but also more concrete things, like being very difficult to comprehend if a student is learning English (another case where the test is invalid in that it is intended to measure understanding in math, science, etc, while it is testing language comprehension as well).