Classroom Assessment of Literacy Growth and Content Learning (Chapter 4)

There were two things that that stuck out to me the most in this chapter. The first was the pro/ con list regarding standardized tests and the second was the case-study at the end of the chapter.

While pointing out the good, the bad, and the ugly of standardized testing the book pointed out that tests can be limited in their methods. For instance, most (if not all) standardized tests are multiple choice, but in-class assessments may be given in short-answer or graphic form. I've found this to be one of my biggest problems with standardized testing, because it disadvantages students in one of two ways. For students who are not given in-class assessments in a similar format, they are disadvantaged by their own unfamiliarity with the test logistics, let alone teh material. On the other hand students who are only given multiple-choice in their classrooms fail to develop the same type of critical thinking and thought/ opinion generation which occur when a student is forced to create their own answer. I've found that schools that "teach to the test" often disadvantage students in this second way.

Because I teach 1 of 2 untested subjects at my grade-level, I often try to emphasize short answer, rather than multiple choice in my classroom. Because of the demands of being state-tested many teachers are required to give tests in strictly multiple choice format; however, i feel that its in the students best interests to develop their own answers as well. In life you don't always have 4 choices, sometime you just have to come up with your own plan. Similar to the technique used by Selma, in the case-study on pg. 125, I use my short answer responses to distinguish good test-takers from good though generators. Students who regurgitate answers from the textbook are often good test-takers, because they know how to search for specific information within a paragraph. On the other hand, students who give answers in their own words are better able to form their own opinions about different things. Overall, I think its important that students develop both skills, although its hard to balance both in communities where test-scores alone determine funding and "success".

Lastly, I found it interesting that the book emphasized the need to address diversity within the classroom, yet failed to recognize the manner in which standardized tests utterly disregard diversity in background, community, culture and learning style. I definitely agree that teachers must be able to emphasize various students' strengths, but the challenge is in recognizing these strengths, but preparing them for a test which only focuses on a select group of strengths and competencies.