In my educational career, I have completed the
Maryland State Assessment (MSA), the High School Assessment (HSA), and the SAT.
The MSA tests were taken every year in elementary school and middle school if I
remember correctly and I took my first HSA in 8th grade because I
took Algebra I that year. I then took three other HSA exams over the next two
years of high school to display proficiency in algebra/ data analysis,
government, biology, and English (HSAexam.org, 2016). My junior and senior
years of high school I took the SAT exam in order to apply and possibly receive
scholarship money from colleges. I do not believe that the difference in my
scores on the SAT exams from my junior to senior year reflects learning
progress as much as it reflects studying the style of the exam and already
having experience taking the test as well. In similar fashion, I believe that
all of the sample tests and practice questions for the HAS definitely allowed
me to get a better score (HSAexam.org, 2016). I definitely feel that the HSA
tests showed evidence of learning because the topics of government and biology
are covered much more in depth in high school, depth that I was not taught in
middle school, but I still was able to pass the exam after taking classes for
government and biology. I feel that test results can show a student’s
improvement with a pre-test and post-test, but test results cannot directly
determine if a teacher is doing their job well. I believe test results cannot
be interpreted to show if a teacher is successful because some students take
longer to learn new material and some students struggle on tests as well
(Popham, 2014). I believe that falling
standards in comparing the education of the United States to other countries
motivated the development of standardized testing. I believe this because many taxpayers
are frustrated because standardized tests are supposed to help teachers
understand their students’ progress and help teach them more, but children are
still struggling to pass high school courses (Robinson, 2013). Standardized
testing is supposed to reward teaching performances, but the federal funding
provided to each school can make teachers at non-performing schools seem like
bad teachers when that may not be the truth (Popham, 2014). Federal funding
should be appropriated towards the schools with the worst performance because
they need to be able to pay for better materials and better teachers who can
change the environment and improve the learning inside those schools. I feel
that the role of Common Core is to show teachers how their students are
performing on the subject outcomes and how teachers can adjust their
curriculums so that students are able to be successful in the workplace or
higher education beyond high school. When
I was in high school, I was in a very new school with excellent teachers who
received state recognition every year. My high school pushed very hard for
standardized testing and success in those tests which is why I think my
education was so important to me. From my experience, my parents always pushed
me to do my best in school which included studying for standardized tests and
completing homework assignments on time. The motivation from my parents and
teachers to succeed on tests lead me to pass these exams without much trouble
or stress. I believe that schools that place a high level of importance on
standardized testing are usually schools where teachers understand the
importance of success on standardized tests.
Works Cited
HSAexam.org.
(n.d.). Retrieved January 31, 2016, from http://hsaexam.org/
Popham, W. J. (2014). Classroom assessment:
What teachers need to know (7th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
Robinson, K. (2013, April). Transcript of "How to
escape education's death valley" Retrieved January 31, 2016, from http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_how_to_escape_education_s_death_valley/transcript?language=en
