Standardized testing is a commonly used assessment. It is a
formal assessment that is scored. Generally, they are also are summative,
covering material from the whole year. These assessments can be reliable, since
it is consistent in its scoring, however they may lack validity since they are
intended to measure knowledge of different content areas, especially math and reading,
but may not do so well. Students may be distracted, having a bad day, or be bad
at test taking, and therefore, the test results may not be valid. There are
many complaints about standardized tests, including that they are not
equitable. Some tests may be inequitable in the types of questions they ask.
Some questions are relevant to only certain cultures, such as questions about
holidays. This can be very exclusive to other students.
I like the way that you mentioned that cultural differences could cause some test results to not be valid. It really emphasizes that many times it could be the fault of the test construction in general and not the fault of the student. Biased questions and badly constructed tests can result in invalid results.
ReplyDeleteI think that cultural differences is something that is definitely way over looked. This would make the tests not equitable. All children are different but having cultural differences can make the most difference in my opinion. Mckinnah Bussey
ReplyDeleteI think that cultural differences is something that is definitely way over looked. This would make the tests not equitable. All children are different but having cultural differences can make the most difference in my opinion. Mckinnah Bussey
ReplyDeleteIs the fact that they're at the end of the year the only thing that makes them summative?
ReplyDeleteNice points on reliability and validity, as well as inequity. Simply the language or structure of the tests can also be problematic. A test that is assessing science knowledge is also (unintentionally) testing language comprehension for a child that is not fluent in formal english.