HIGH-STAKES TESTS: Some Unaddressed Problems

From Faceboook, by Marion Brady

Standardized, machine-scored tests:

- can measure only “lower level” thought processes, trivializing true learning
- provide minimal to no useful feedback to classroom teachers
- are keyed to a deeply flawed curriculum adopted in 1893
- lead to neglect of physical conditioning, music, art, and other, non-verbal ways of learning
- unfairly advantage those who can afford test prep
- hide problems created by margin-of-error computations in scoring
- penalize test-takers who think in non-standard ways (which the young frequently do)
- radically limit teacher ability to adapt to learner differences
- give test manufacturers control of the curriculum
- encourage use of threats, bribes, and other extrinsic motivators
- use arbitrary, subjectively-determined pass-fail cut scores
- produce scores which are manipulated for political purposes
- assume that what the young will need to know is already known
- emphasize minimum achievement to the neglect of maximum performance
- create unreasonable pressures to cheat
- reduce teacher creativity and the appeal of teaching as a profession
- are unavoidably culturally biased
- lessen concern for and use of continuous evaluation
- take inadequate account of individual, ethnic, and regional differences
- have no “success in life” predictive power
- unfairly channel instructional resources to learners at or near the pass-fail “cut score”
- are open to massive scoring errors with life-changing consequences
- are at odds with deep-seated American values about individuality and worth
- create unnecessary stress and negative attitudes toward learning
- perpetuate the artificial compartmentalization of knowledge by field
- waste money
- inevitably allow the profit tail to wag the education dog
- negate the vast, creative potential of human variability
- block all innovation that can’t be evaluated via machine
- unduly reward mere ability to retrieve secondhand information from short-term memory
- undermine a fundamental democratic principle that those closest to and therefore most knowledgeable about problems are best positioned to deal with them

National Academy of Sciences, 2011 report to Congress: Standardized tests “have not increased student achievement.”

“When you’re in a hole, stop digging.”