A typical standardized test is a summative assessment because it assesses achievement at the end of an instruction period. Standardized tests are formal summative assessments because formal assessments are a preplanned, systematic attempt to discover what students have learned, which is representative of a standardized test. Summative assessments also help the teacher evaluate students' progress as well as the effectiveness of his/her instructional methods at the end of a unit or grading period. Standardized tests fall into the category of formal summative assessments because they are preplanned and systematic tests based on what the students have learned in the curriculum over a period of time.
An assessment can be reliable but have poor validity because if the results are consistent, then it is reliable, but if the test does not measure what it is supposed to measure than the assessment has poor validity. Validity is defined as the degree to which a test measures what it is intended to measure and is judged in relation to the purpose for which the test is used. Reliability refers to the consistency of the test results. Teachers can use information about validity and reliability evidence to determine the quality of a test and to make decisions about whether the test should be used. A standardized test can have this quality especially because in a standardized test there is a standard error of measurement which can be used to determine a confidence interval, rather than depending on a single raw or standard score. Confidence intervals remind teachers and professionals that some measurement error is present in all tests. If a standardized test is not measuring the accurate curriculum for students, but the students still have consistent results than it is a reliable test with poor validity.
Standardized tests are in fact not standardized or equitable to every student taking them. This is because there are students who are English language learners (ELL) where English is not their first language and they still are required to take standardized tests which is unfair to them because they do not have equal opportunities as other students who English is their first language to achieve on the test. The No Child Left Behind Act's intention was to make testing fair for students, however it has not succeeded especially to the ELL students.
I really like how Jessi explained how standardized testing is not fair to students with ESL or ELL. As a child who has grown up in the same area her whole life, I would never think of a standardized test as being foreign to me. However, there are students out there all over who do not speak English at home. This makes a standardized test unfair, and unjust to these children, and not an accurate indicator of what that student knows.
ReplyDeleteI thought you did a good job explaining the difference between an assessment that is reliable and one that has poor validity. I like how you used the example of confidence intervals to show that their are some sort of errors in all tests, yet students can still have consistent results.
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