Summary
Assigment 7
“Standard Bassed Assessment”
A history of standardized testing in the United States reveals that during most of the decades in the middle of the twentieth century, standardized tests enjoyed a popularity and growth that was almost unchallenged. Standardized instruments brought with them convenience, efficiency, and an air of empirical science. In schools, for example, millions of children could be led into a room, seated, armed with a lead pencil and a score sheet, and almost instantly assessed on their achieve- ment in subject-matter areas in their curricula. Standardized test advocates' utopian dream of quickly and cheaply assessing students across the country soon became a political issue, and would-be office holders to this day promise to "reform" education with tests, tests, and more tests.
CASAS AND SCANS
At the higher levels of education (colleges, community colleges, adult schools language schools, and workplace settings), standards-based assessment systems have also had an enormous impact. The Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS), for example, is a program designed to provide broadly based assessments of ESL curricula across the United States. The system includes more than 80 standardized assessment instruments used to place learners in programs diagnose learners' needs, monitor progress, and certify mastery of functiona basic skills. CASAS assessment instruments are used to measure functiona reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills, and higher-order thinking skills CASAS scaled scores report learners' language ability levels in employment and adult life skills contexts. Further information about CASAS may be found on the website http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EPTW/eptw14/eptw14a.html.
TEACHER STANDARDS
Professional teaching standards have also been the focus of several committees in the international association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). For more information, consult http://www.tesolorg/assoc/alstandards/ index.html.
How to assess whether teachers have met standards remains a complex issue. Can pedagogical expertise be assessed through a traditional standardized test? In the first of Kuhlman's domains-linguistics and language development-knowledge can perhaps be so evaluated, but the cultural and interactive characteristics of effective teaching are less able to be appropriately assessed in such a test. TESOL's standards committee advo- cates performance-based assessment of teachers for the following reasons:
Teachers can demonstrate the standards in their teaching.
Teaching can be assessed through what teachers do with their learners in their classrooms or virtual classrooms (their performance).
This performance can be detailed in what are called "indicators": examples of evidence that the teacher can meet a part of a standard.
The processes used to assess teachers need to draw on complex evidence of performance. In other words, indicators are more than simple "how to" statements.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF STANDARDS-BASED AND STANDARDIZED TESTING
A couple of decades ago I had the pleasure and challenge of serving on the TOEFI Research Committee. Among other things, it was a good opportunity to hear son of the "inside" stories about the TOEFL. One of those stories, as told by Russe Webster (personal communication), illustrates the high-stakes nature of this global marketed standardized test.
The story of how this underhanded group of entrepreneurs were caught brought to justice is a long tale of blockbuster spy-novel proportions involving the and, eventually, international investigators. But the story shows the huge gate-keep role of tests like the TOEFL and the high price that some were willing to pay to : access to a university in the United States and the visa that accompanied it.
Test Bias
It is no secret that standardized tests involve a number of types of test bias.That bias comes in many forms: language, culture, race, gender, and learning styles (Medina & Neill, 1990). The National Center for Fair and Open Testing, in its bimonthly newsletter Fair Test, every year offers dozens of instances of claims of test bias from teachers, parents, students, and legal consultants (see their website: www.fairtest. Org)
In an era when we seek to recognize the multiple intelligences present within every student (Gardner, 1983, 1999), is it not likely that standardized tests promote logical-mathematical and verbal-linguistic intelligences to the virtual exclusion of the other contextualized, integrative intelligences? Only very recently have traditionally receptive tests begun to include written and oral production in their test battery-a positive sign. But is it enough? It is also clear that many otherwise "smart" people do not perform well on standardized tests. They may excel in cognitive styles that are performance-based evaluation as interviews, portfolios, samples of work, demonstra- tions, and observation reports? Perhaps, as Weir (2001, p. 122) suggested, learners and teachers need to be given the freedom to choose more formative assessment rather than the summative assessment inherent in standardized tests.
Test-driven Learning and Teaching
Teachers also get caught up in the wave of test-driven systems. In florida, elementary school teachers were recently promised cash bonuses of $100 per students at a reward for their school’s high performance on the state-mantedate grade-level test, the Florida Comprehesive Exam (fair test, 2000).
ETHICAL ISSUES: CRITICAL LANGUAGE TESTING
Shohamy (1997, p. 2) further defines the issue: "Tests represent a social technology deeply embedded in education, government, and business; as such they provide the mechanism for enforcing power and control. Tests are most powerful as they are often the single indicators for determining the future of individuals." Test designers, and the corporate sociopolitical infrastructure that they represent, have an obligation to maintain certain standards as specified by their client educational institutions. These standards bring with them certain ethical issues surrounding the gate-keeping nature of standardized tests.
“Standard Bassed Assessment”
A history of standardized testing in the United States reveals that during most of the decades in the middle of the twentieth century, standardized tests enjoyed a popularity and growth that was almost unchallenged. Standardized instruments brought with them convenience, efficiency, and an air of empirical science. In schools, for example, millions of children could be led into a room, seated, armed with a lead pencil and a score sheet, and almost instantly assessed on their achieve- ment in subject-matter areas in their curricula. Standardized test advocates' utopian dream of quickly and cheaply assessing students across the country soon became a political issue, and would-be office holders to this day promise to "reform" education with tests, tests, and more tests.
CASAS AND SCANS
At the higher levels of education (colleges, community colleges, adult schools language schools, and workplace settings), standards-based assessment systems have also had an enormous impact. The Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS), for example, is a program designed to provide broadly based assessments of ESL curricula across the United States. The system includes more than 80 standardized assessment instruments used to place learners in programs diagnose learners' needs, monitor progress, and certify mastery of functiona basic skills. CASAS assessment instruments are used to measure functiona reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills, and higher-order thinking skills CASAS scaled scores report learners' language ability levels in employment and adult life skills contexts. Further information about CASAS may be found on the website http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EPTW/eptw14/eptw14a.html.
TEACHER STANDARDS
Professional teaching standards have also been the focus of several committees in the international association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). For more information, consult http://www.tesolorg/assoc/alstandards/ index.html.
How to assess whether teachers have met standards remains a complex issue. Can pedagogical expertise be assessed through a traditional standardized test? In the first of Kuhlman's domains-linguistics and language development-knowledge can perhaps be so evaluated, but the cultural and interactive characteristics of effective teaching are less able to be appropriately assessed in such a test. TESOL's standards committee advo- cates performance-based assessment of teachers for the following reasons:
Teachers can demonstrate the standards in their teaching.
Teaching can be assessed through what teachers do with their learners in their classrooms or virtual classrooms (their performance).
This performance can be detailed in what are called "indicators": examples of evidence that the teacher can meet a part of a standard.
The processes used to assess teachers need to draw on complex evidence of performance. In other words, indicators are more than simple "how to" statements.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF STANDARDS-BASED AND STANDARDIZED TESTING
A couple of decades ago I had the pleasure and challenge of serving on the TOEFI Research Committee. Among other things, it was a good opportunity to hear son of the "inside" stories about the TOEFL. One of those stories, as told by Russe Webster (personal communication), illustrates the high-stakes nature of this global marketed standardized test.
The story of how this underhanded group of entrepreneurs were caught brought to justice is a long tale of blockbuster spy-novel proportions involving the and, eventually, international investigators. But the story shows the huge gate-keep role of tests like the TOEFL and the high price that some were willing to pay to : access to a university in the United States and the visa that accompanied it.
Test Bias
It is no secret that standardized tests involve a number of types of test bias.That bias comes in many forms: language, culture, race, gender, and learning styles (Medina & Neill, 1990). The National Center for Fair and Open Testing, in its bimonthly newsletter Fair Test, every year offers dozens of instances of claims of test bias from teachers, parents, students, and legal consultants (see their website: www.fairtest. Org)
In an era when we seek to recognize the multiple intelligences present within every student (Gardner, 1983, 1999), is it not likely that standardized tests promote logical-mathematical and verbal-linguistic intelligences to the virtual exclusion of the other contextualized, integrative intelligences? Only very recently have traditionally receptive tests begun to include written and oral production in their test battery-a positive sign. But is it enough? It is also clear that many otherwise "smart" people do not perform well on standardized tests. They may excel in cognitive styles that are performance-based evaluation as interviews, portfolios, samples of work, demonstra- tions, and observation reports? Perhaps, as Weir (2001, p. 122) suggested, learners and teachers need to be given the freedom to choose more formative assessment rather than the summative assessment inherent in standardized tests.
Test-driven Learning and Teaching
Teachers also get caught up in the wave of test-driven systems. In florida, elementary school teachers were recently promised cash bonuses of $100 per students at a reward for their school’s high performance on the state-mantedate grade-level test, the Florida Comprehesive Exam (fair test, 2000).
ETHICAL ISSUES: CRITICAL LANGUAGE TESTING
Shohamy (1997, p. 2) further defines the issue: "Tests represent a social technology deeply embedded in education, government, and business; as such they provide the mechanism for enforcing power and control. Tests are most powerful as they are often the single indicators for determining the future of individuals." Test designers, and the corporate sociopolitical infrastructure that they represent, have an obligation to maintain certain standards as specified by their client educational institutions. These standards bring with them certain ethical issues surrounding the gate-keeping nature of standardized tests.
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