Are Summative Tests Working? — Teaching to Learn

Even though the landscape of education has changed dramatically in the last 70 years the format of standardized tests have remained oddly the same since the 1950’s (Bryant, 2018). Here in Colorado, students prepare to take the Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) assessments each spring. Having been a proctor and technology assistant for the testing, I can attest that it looks much like the way a standardized test has always looked, except with computers. Students must sit in a defined space, making no noise, with strict time limits to answer mostly multiple choice questions. The format very much adheres to the values of the Industrialized 20th century: cost efficiency, quantifiability, uniformity, speed, and mass production (Bryant, 2018). So then our questions should be, does that age-old format work for modern learners and if not what should replace the current system?

Let’s take a look at the first question. Other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries have focused their energy toward test validity while the U.S. has stayed on the track of test reliability (Vander Ark, 2019). In research from the PISA given in 2015 the U.S. ranks in the middle of the pack, well behind many other advanced industrial nations (DeSilver, 2017) In this table from the Pew Research Center, we can see that several other nations are far ahead of the U.S. in math, science, and reading. Of course, these numbers are derived from a standardized test and full systems of education are much more complex than just summative tests. However, it can be gleaned from these numbers that something isn’t quite right with the current system. Bryant (2018) asserts that “...the fixed content and rigid testing conditions [used in the U.S.] severely constrain the skills and knowledge that can be assessed” (para. 3). This includes skills created by substantive and authentic learning experiences and essential non-cognitive skills like resilience or collaboration (Bryant, 2018). On a more simple level, standardized tests don’t take into account all the knowledge teachers have of their students (Vander Ark, 2019).

So what should replace this system if it isn’t working? We need and will continue to need some sort of large scale testing. Just classroom-based assessments are not enough for districts, states or even the country to gain data. Without this data we wouldn’t be able to see what is working and what is not, where resources are needed or differentiate between groups or subgroups (Bryant, 2018). Since this is the case we need to be able to make the tests more valuable by creating them to encompass a wider range of important academic skills. In his book The Promise of Next Generation Assessment David Conely outlines 10 Principles for Better Assessment (Getting Smart Staff, 2018) that include the idea of cumulative validity. This idea takes advantage of many points of data about a student. The data can include classroom-based evidence, continuous assessment, real-word and performance based assessments, the addition of diploma networks (like IB), and the use of AI grading of digital portfolios. All these can be utilized to make the large-scale summative test work toward validity and ultimately the benefit of students.

References

Bryant, W. (2018, February 20). The Future of Testing. Getting Smart. Retrieved from https://www.gettingsmart.com/2018/02/the-future-of-testing/

DeSilver, D. (2017, February 15). U.S. students’ academic achievement still lags that of their peers in many other countries. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/15/u-s-students-internationally-math-science/

Getting Smart Staff. (2018, September 20). David Conley on Next Generation Assessment. Getting Smart. Retrieved from https://www.gettingsmart.com/2018/09/david-conley-on-next-generation-assessment/

Vander Ark, T. (2019, April 1). A Proposal For The End Of Standardized Testing. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanderark/2019/04/01/a-proposal-for-the-end-of-standardized-testing/#7860494621d8