Written assignment unit 7
Master of Education
University of the People
EDUC 5220: Curriculum design and instructional decision making
Dr. Kimberly Doerflein
May 25, 2021
What is Standardized Testing?
Standardized Testing supposes certain objectives, goals, criteria which are held within one form
of test. It can measure pupils' mastery of curriculum or teachers’ proficiency. Standardized Test
consists of four essential aspects.
1- Format; usually multiple-choice, true\false or fill in the blank, the student must have the same
format.
2- Question; students should have the same questions.
3- Instruction; should be the same for all students.
4- Time distribution; the time needed to complete the test is the same for all.
Students seem to have these tests at the end of each unit or semester (that what is called primary
standardized test). Once students are planning to attend college, they must take special
standardized test measures students’ readiness for college.
Talking about early history for a standardized test, it has known in the 7th century in China " The
tests, built upon a rigid “eight-legged essay” format, tested the applicants’ rote-learned
knowledge of centralized Prussian school system philosophy, and were in widespread use until
1898. In the Western world,"( ProCon.org, 2020). After that two reformers of Boston schools,
Horace Mann and Samuel Howe concentrated their efforts to model standardized test for a
Prussian school system, these tests contain two phases, first one is to judge and compare the
output of each school, the second phase is to have a clear vision about teaching quality. Later
on, many schools’ systems adopted Boston's program.
Now let us talk about some pros and cons of standardized test, one advantage could be
considered a disadvantage…
1-A) Standardized tests deliver a thematic measurement of education and mention an
evaluative system for improvement
Making these tests continuously reflect an understanding of each student and help teachers and
administrators determine the effectiveness of the methods used and existing competencies.” At
their core, standardized exams are designed to be objective measures. They assess students based
on a similar set of questions, are given under nearly identical testing conditions and are graded
by a machine or blind reviewer. They are intended to provide an accurate, unfiltered measure of
what a student knows.”(churchil.2015).
1-B) Standardized tests might be unfair in some conditions, however, these tests give an
immediate evaluation and completely ignore student's progress, Standardized tests easily being
affected by many factors, stress, illness, or war. it measures students' preparation for the test, not
their knowledge.
2-A) Standardized tests are good resources for teachers' evaluation
students' grades and Standardized tests are good resources for teacher evaluation, teacher can
determine the students' level and evaluate everything related to books, classrooms, curricula, and
administration and then compare these results with the required results. Timothy Hilton stated
“No self-respecting teacher would use a single student grade on a single assignment as a final
grade for the entirety of a course" (blogs.edweek.org, 2018).
2-B) it is unfair to evaluate teachers according to students' grade in any kind of test, teachers
suffer and struggle hard in delivering knowledge to all students, they do their best in all ways and
possible approaches they know, evaluating them should not be within a certain time or under a
specific test, rather than this process must be during the year taking in consideration all the effort
made. Adopting this process as one of the evaluation metrics could make some teachers assist
students in their tests to avoid teachers getting a low rank.
Where I work, we use standardized tests as the main tool in knowing students’ ability, each two
months standardized tests are held for two weeks for all topics, that means students have two or
three standardized tests during each semester, and to be fair enough 50% of final grade depend
on the sum of all test grades divided by the number of tests, and the other 50% is for homework,
participation, and projects.
To conclude, using Standardized tests is a good idea to discover weaknesses and strengths in any
curriculum, it helps students test their knowledge and get feedback about which topics they need
to focus on. While Standardized tests are considered as objective approaches to grading/ assess
the academic achievement of students, teachers or administrators can not rely on this kind of test
in getting accurate data, they must take into their consideration all fixed and variable factors that
may affect any member in the evaluation process.
Reference
Burrows. B, (2020), What is a Standardized Test? https://www.studyusa.com/en/a/1284/what-is-
a-standardized-test
Churchil ,A, ( 2015), "Bless the Tests: Three Reasons for Standardized Testing,", Retrieved May
,24,2021, from https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/bless-tests-three-reasons-
standardized-testing
Ferlazzo. L.(Aug,2018), Response: The Role of Student Test Scores in Teacher Evaluations,"
blogs.edweek.org , Retrieved (May,24,2021) from https://www.edweek.org/education/opinion-
response-the-role-of-student-test-scores-in-teacher-evaluations/2018/08
ProCon.org. 2020, Do Standardized Test Improve Education in America?
https://standardizedtests.procon.org/
The Glossary of Education .(n;d), STANDARDIZED TEST,
https://www.edglossary.org/standardized-test/
