My standardized test was slightly different than the Iowa standardized test. It did not have just fill in the bubble but short answer and essay questions. I took this test from third grade through my sophomore year in high school. The problem with this test is the stressed importance. The students will receive a pamphlet the week before CSAPs showing them where their school fell in the intelligence range of other schools. There was almost an expectation that the school will do better the current year on the tests. The students were told that it was very important to assess the school and see how the teachers are doing in their classrooms. However, I was hearing from teachers that CSAPs were ridiculous and simply a waste of time. This could be a possibility because by the time we were sophomores in high school, we could really care less about the test. Assessment is not a bad thing. It is very helpful in informing a teacher where a student is struggling and where a student is exceeding expectations. However, standardized testing has been stressed, I believe, too much. The scores do help compare schools but, how reliable are they? Students with learning disabilities are factored in to the schools overall score, students with mental disabilities also have to take the CSAPs and their scores are factored in as well, they get different tests as well as extra time on the tests but everyone has to take it and everyone is incorporated in it.
After taking that standardized test for so long and every year having teachers tell me, make sure you get a good nights rest before the test and make sure you eat breakfast too, the test has a bad connotation in my mind. Yes their are students who do exceptionally well on standardized tests, that does not mean they are particularly smart, they just may know how to take tests very well. On the other hand there are the students who do not take tests well, have test anxiety, and simply do not score well on tests because they stress out very much before the test. I personally in the beginning it may be a good inclination of how a student is doing and what information they are actually understanding but I do not think students should have to take the test for a multitude of years. Many of the tests are biased towards a specific set of people. This is seen with standardized tests as well. If there was a way to lower the amount of standardized testing that the school systems do, then maybe they would not have such a negative connotation to many students as the become older. The testing could possibly improve if created through learning theory. If the test makers include SLT, CLT, DLT, and BLT, it is possible that the test would be better at explaining where a student's level of understanding is. Standardized testing is not the only answer.
