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Replacing Standardized Testing: Where Did It Go Wrong?

Hannah Owens

Old Dominion University

Advanced Composition 327W

Professor Weddington

November 1st, 2017

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Replacing Standardized Testing: Where Did It Go Wrong?

Introduction

A survey was given to members of the NEA (National Education Association) in 2015,

and it indicated that 70% of educators believed that the state standardized assessments that are

given every year are not developmentally appropriate for their students. Only 13% of these same

educators agreed that the state standardized tests met the standard of No Child Left Behind,

which is an act that is designed to ensure that students in public schools are understanding the

standards of learning (Walker, 2016). Standardized tests are annual tests given to students as a

test (as of intelligence, achievement, or personality) whose reliability has been established by

obtaining an average score of a significantly large number of individuals for use as a standard of

comparison (Websters). These were initially designed to hold schools accountable for making

sure that students were being taught the information that was required for the certain grade level.

There are standard baseline scores that are used to score and evaluate these tests, which measure

the students knowledge and academic progress. Because these standard baseline scores decide

whether a student passes or fails the assessment, there has been a lot of controversy regarding

how the tests negatively effect students, teachers, and the school system. For the students, studies

have shown that these tests have negatively changed childrens attitudes and views about school

and education. During the research study by Kearns, children expressed that not passing these
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tests degraded them, and that they were shocked to be informed that they were not up to the

governments standard (Kearns, 2013). Another effect that was noted was that these tests were

molding curriculums to solely focus on the importance of standardized testing scores. This has

caused the roles of teachers to change, and for the learning curriculum to be based around the

success rates of these tests. Teachers should be focused on ensuring that students are

understanding the material and learning it correctly, not whether or not a student can achieve a

passing score on a standardized test. To help improve this, studies and researchers have

discovered and tested out alterative options to replace standardized testing. These options will

still be used to monitor a students learning progress, and will individualize students learning

instead of basing it off of a baseline score. These alternative options include: sampling, stealth

assessments, multiple measures (social and emotional skill surveys, game-based assessments,

performance or portfolio-based assessments) and inspections.

Literature Field

Finding a replacement for standardized tests has been a popular study for many years.

The goal according to Kamenetz, is to find a replacement that still monitors learning progress

while ensuring equity and accountability. (Kamenetz, 2015)

Sampling

Sampling is a simplistic approach on replacing standardized testing. This uses the same

standardized tests that have been previously given, but tests a selected group of random students

instead of testing every single student. This sample of tests will be used as a statistical

representation to assess knowledge in various subject areas. This alternative would still give us

results to assess, and would be making an approach similar to the Nations Report Card. The

Nations Report Card is also known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress
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(NAEP). The NAEP is one of the longest-running, and highly trusted tests in the U.S. education

arsenal, and they already a similar concept like the sampling alternative. They administer test to

students in grades 4, 8, and 12, and have had positive results. Testing this way has been proven

to be effective, especially since they are one of the longest-running and most trusted. (Kamenetz,

2015)

Stealth Assessments

Stealth assessments are convenient because they assess a students knowledge and

progress without the student being aware that this is going on. It is said that these tests are

seamless, so the distinction between learning and assessment is completely blurred (Terrell,

2014). This distinction becomes blurred to the child; because they are being tested on their

learning progress throughout the year, versus being assessed using an annual test. Using

information provided by Wallace, assessing students throughout the year would involve keeping

track of their learning performance using everyday activities of learning and playing in the

classroom. This alternative has an advantage for the students, because we are assessing

knowledge without using an accumulative annual exam. These annuals exams tend to result in

test anxiety, which students would now not have to deal with. Another advantage with using

stealth assessments is that teachers can get a bigger picture of how and what each individual

student learns throughout the school year. They are able to sense the effort given from each

student, and are able to make sure that everyone is understanding and applying the material.

Each student and the way that they learn is unique, and this alternative allows each student to be

assessed without being compared to national testing scores. (Wallace, 2016)

Multiple Measures
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According to Kamenetz, using multiple measures is an alternative that will incorporate more,

and different, kinds of data on student progress and school performance into accountability

measures (Kamenetz, 2015). Data systems now track students learning progression from pre-K

through high school, and measure accountability throughout their entire school career. This will

keep students from being assessed using only their scores from standardized tests, and instead

will allow their knowledge to be accessed from multiple sources from their school career. This

will allow these individual recorded sources to have an impact on the following: graduation

rates, discipline outcomes, demographic information, teacher-created assessments, and even

workforce outcomes for later in their lives. These all can be used together to gauge the

performance of students, teachers, and school systems collectively. The multiple measures

alternative is also a baseline for three other alternative approaches. These also collect different

types of information about individual students. The approaches that are based off of this

technique are social and emotional skills surveys, game-based assessments, and performance or

portfolio-based assessments. (Kamenetz, 2015)

Social and Emotional Skills Surveys

In Briggs article, it says that research has shown how long-term chances of success come

from qualities that are social and emotional. For example, such qualities can include:

perseverance, curiosity, determination, and persistence. As stated previously, states begin

recording individualized data about students as early as at the pre-K level. Along with recording

academic data and progression, it is extremely important for them to also make note of a students

social and emotional interactions and abilities. All school systems are held accountable for

knowing this side of information about their students. Schools can take these factors to guide

their students, and also measure the students individual levels of hope, engagement, and well-
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being regarding their education. A students engagement is a measure of their attitude about

school and their view on education. For example, the Montgomery County Pubic Schools system

uses a survey called the Gallup student poll. This poll is 20-questions, and measures the levels of

hope, engagement, and well-being of each student. After analyzing the surveys, the students

scores can be used to help predict college persistence and GPA. It has been said in a study that

this poll does a better predicament job then scores that come from standardized tests. (Briggs,

2015)

Game-Based Assessments

Video-game-like assessments are a fun and creative way for students to enjoy being

assessed. These types of assessments are used to target high-order thinking skills, and provide

teachers with targeted feedback. These are both things that are hard for traditional standardized

testing to measure. According to Rufo-Tepper, the video-game-like assessments offer valuable

ways to unlock the instructional power of games and support a student-centered learning

environment (Rufo-Tepper, 2015). There are electronic tools that are incorporated in these

game-assessments that test a students knowledge while they play. These discover what material

is understood and what the student is struggling with. This alterative has been used in the AAA

lab at Stanford, and is continuing to grow in popularity. (Briggs, 2015; Rufo-Tepper, 2015)

Performance or Portfolio-Based Assessments

According to Elford, a portfolio is a file folder containing a collection of student work

samples that students select for review to show the quality of work they are doing (Elford,

2002) Performance or portfolio-based assessments are direct demonstrations of student learning,

and can be used to determine how well students are learning individually. Examples of these can

be projects, individual presentations, group presentations, reports, papers, and portfolios. These
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are all teacher-created assessments that give students the opportunity to show the learned

material through a collection of their individual work. An issue with standardized testing, is that

students are compared to peers and baseline scores instead of being evaluated on the quality of

their own work. To avoid this, portfolio-based assessments measure a students individual

knowledge using a rubric and/or guidelines. This measures the full range of a students learning.

Using this alternative has resulted in higher graduation rates and better college-retention rates.

(Elford, 2002; Briggs, 2015; Kamenetz, 2015)

Inspections

Another suggested alternative to standardized testing is inspections. This is used in the British

education system, and simply inspects school systems as a whole. They evaluate the teachers

curriculum, how they teach, and also how well the students are learning the required material.

Inspectors will also go into schools to interview students, teachers, parents, and administrators to

evaluate. Inspectors will also review projects and schoolwork, and sit in on classes. They do

evaluate test results, but their main evaluation comes from the actual inspecting. This process

results in providing feedback to schools and individual teachers on how to improve their teaching

and/or school culture. This is a very successful system in the British countries, and would be

very effective in the United States school systems as well. This would allow students to have

their knowledge measured by multiple realistic factors, instead of just basing it off of a standard

baseline scores. (Shepelavy, 2016)

Potential Solutions

There are many suggested alternatives that could potentially replace and/or alter

standardized testing. The actual replacement must be one that is heavily researched and studied,

and must be proven to be successful. It also needs to evaluate a students learning and show
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positive educational progress. Through research and proven studies, the stealth assessment is the

alternative that would best replace standardized testing. This is because stealth assessment can

cut the time, cost, and emotional distress that standardized testing causes the school systems.

Instead of measuring a students knowledge once a school year, this alternative will measure a

students knowledge and progression every single day. This will give insights to educators on

how quickly a student can learn, their diligence, and also provide a big-picture factor of a childs

overall knowledge. This will give educators an opportunity to daily monitor a child, and be able

to quickly see how well a child is learning material. With children already having a bad view on

assessments because of standardized testing, this will be an easy way to assess knowledge and

progression without a child being aware that they are being assessed. This will allow students to

simply focus on learning and understanding the material, and then applying it. They will not

have to stress over preparation for standardized tests, or have to be compared to the standard

baseline scores. Students will not realize that they are being assessed every single day, and can

be measured on their individual learning styles. (Kamenetz, 2015)

Conclusion

Stealth assessment has been used to measure the development of students in the Danville

Independent Schools which are located in Kentucky. They realized that skills like complex

thinking skills could not be measured by standardized testing alone. Effects of standardized

testing were proven to be harmful to the classroom environment for students, so they decided to

use stealth assessment. This would measure learning during daily instruction. As apart of the

study, the teachers were told to no longer drill or prepare for the standardized tests. They were

told to simply just evaluate and base a students progression using the stealth assessment, and to

evaluate daily. The tests that are measured by ACT benchmarks, and other testing scores have
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increased by more than double. In 2012 they were at a mere 34%, and in just a year they were at

70% in 2013. The student engagement has also had a dramatic increase, and the school system as

a whole is more excited and invested in learning. This alternative should continue to be

researched and studied, and could be a valid replacement for standardizing tests. The stealth

assessment is a great way to assess individual students learning, and keep the school system as a

whole on the right track. (Terrell, 2014)

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References

Briggs, S. (2015, November 20). 8 Alternatives to High-Stakes

Standardised Tests. Retrieved October 10, 2017, from

https://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/8-alternatives-to-

standardized-testing/

Elford, G. W. (2002). Beyond standardized testing: Better information for

school accountability and management. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow

Press.

Kamenetz, A. (2015, January 06). What Schools Could Use Instead Of

Standardized Tests. Retrieved October 10, 2017, from

http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/01/06/371659141/what-schools-

could-use-instead-of-standardized-tests

Kearns, L. (2013). The construction of illiterate and literate youth: the

effects of high-stakes standardized literacy testing. Race Ethnicity and

Education, 19(1), 121-140. doi:10.1080/13613324.2013.843520

Rufo-Tepper, R. (2015, June 17). Using Games for Assessment. Retrieved October 25, 2017,

from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/using-games-for-assessment-rebecca-rufo-tepper

Shepelavy, R. (2017, March 28). Judge Schools Based on Inspections, Not Test Scores.

Retrieved October 29, 2017, from http://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/ideas-we-should-steal-

judging-schools-based-on-inspections-not-test-scores/

Terrell, J. (2014, October 5). Lessening school assessment stress | District

Administration Magazine. Retrieved from

https://www.districtadministration.com/article/lessening-school-
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assessment-stress

Walker, T. (2016, March 09). Survey: 70 Percent Of Educators Say State Assessments Not

Developmentally Appropriate. Retrieved October 22, 2017, from

http://neatoday.org/2016/02/18/standardized-tests-not-developmentally-appropriate/

Wallace, K. (2016, April 14). Standardized tests: How do you measure

progress without them? - CNN. Retrieved from

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/04/health/school-testing-alternatives-

measure-progress/index.html

Webster's. (n.d.). Standard Test. Retrieved October 28, 2017, from https://www.merriam-

webster.com/dictionary/standard%20test
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