Elizabeth Watson Dr.

William Powell TSL 633 15 September 2011 Response Journal: Spolsky and Davies Videos, Coltrane article, Heubert Article Spolsky and Davies videos: These videos clarified a lot of my confusion between reliability and validity. I really liked the point that Spolsky made in regards to validity: it is easier to create a new test, but it is difficult to determine what it is really measuring. When teachers are not carefully aligning instruction to assessment, it does become difficult to create meaningful tests that accurately measure the skills that are being taught (or should be) in the classroom. Creating simple fill-in-the-blank, matching, and multiple choice test items is easy, but the central question in language education still exists: are you really measuring what the students are capable of doing? Coltrane article: I think one of most important points that Coltrane makes in his article deals with language proficiency and test language. Sometimes the hardest part about taking a high stakes test is not necessarily a lack of content knowledge; rather, testers may struggle with test terminology and the instructions that they are given. This problem is exacerbated for ELLs, which not only reflects poorly upon ELLs, but also upon a school and school district. I dont think that it is fair to assess ELLs if they do not have a certain proficiency level in English or have not been in the United States for a prolonged period of time, but unfortunately this is exactly what happens in districts across the United States. I also struggle with some of the accommodations listed in the article. I dont think that simply extending the amount of time that students have to take the test is a satisfactory accommodation in itself, but I do like the idea of being able to translate answers to a test proctor. Heubert article: Heuberts article makes several good points that all individuals involved in education should pay attention to. One aspect of high stakes testing that is particularly troublesome is the idea that high school graduation is contingent upon passing a test. While a majority of high school students can take the test and pass, this may not be the case for all students. I was pleased to read that former Secretary of Education Richard Riley advocates utilizing multiple assessment measures to determine students knowledge (Heubert 1999). I think that students should be assessed through multiple measures, simply because every student is different. Assessing students through only one type of high stakes test refutes any other assessment techniques and accommodations that have been developed and used in the classroom. There also exists a paradox in regards to the types of students who take high stakes tests. While students who lack intrinsic motivation in the classroom may do well on high stakes tests, there are also students who excel in the classroom but simply are not test-takers.