I’m not a big fan of standardized testing, they evolved from a simple tool of measurement quickly into an industry and a political weapon (teaching for the test). But they do provide a glimpse still of the status of education.
If he wanted to show the reality of things, he would have quoted the actual percentages, which show how bad it is. In the SAT 41% are ready for university-level math, 64% for reading and writing (only 13% of them completed the essay part), and the ACT is a huge 29% and 39%, respectively. And that’s just the kids who took these tests.
It’s always been bad. I remember being surprised when I went to college decades ago and there were remedial classes to get students up to university standards because they were coming out of high school not ready.
And a quote from a test provider, Brighterly:
“According to standardized math testing statistics PDF files researched, student performance has worsened since the pandemic and is not improving dramatically.”
I would say standardized testing is a way for us to provide transparency about how we are failing our kids. The SAT and ACT stats you used are an example of that. This should motivate us to improve things, but like a lot of modern issues people just don’t care enough to make it happen. Even so, being able to cite worsening outcomes supports people arguing for more investment in education.
I took standardized tests from elementary to college, and I remember their questions being objective, unambiguous, and relevant to learning topics much better than teachers’ custom exams. I actually felt well prepared for the SAT/ACT/college thanks to the way they were used.
Teachers do need some discretion on what they teach, but without good standards you can easily have them just spreading their personal agendas. I don’t want students learning about “the war of northern aggression”, or that native Americans just chose to move to reservations actually, or that evolution is nonsense, or that abstinence is the only way to be safe regarding sex. Having expectations about what students should know at each grade gives a goal without stipulations on how it’s achieved. Standardized tests then just measure it.
Standardised tests started as tools to do racism without directly doing racism.
Low test scores in the U.S. actually just measure the fact that it provides roughly the same education to every student instead of what most other countries do and filter students out if their scores aren’t high enough in elementary school.
I’m not a big fan of standardized testing, they evolved from a simple tool of measurement quickly into an industry and a political weapon (teaching for the test). But they do provide a glimpse still of the status of education.
If he wanted to show the reality of things, he would have quoted the actual percentages, which show how bad it is. In the SAT 41% are ready for university-level math, 64% for reading and writing (only 13% of them completed the essay part), and the ACT is a huge 29% and 39%, respectively. And that’s just the kids who took these tests.
It’s always been bad. I remember being surprised when I went to college decades ago and there were remedial classes to get students up to university standards because they were coming out of high school not ready.
And a quote from a test provider, Brighterly:
“According to standardized math testing statistics PDF files researched, student performance has worsened since the pandemic and is not improving dramatically.”
https://brighterly.com/blog/standardized-testing-statistics/
We’ve failed our kids. Many times over. All generations.
I would say standardized testing is a way for us to provide transparency about how we are failing our kids. The SAT and ACT stats you used are an example of that. This should motivate us to improve things, but like a lot of modern issues people just don’t care enough to make it happen. Even so, being able to cite worsening outcomes supports people arguing for more investment in education.
I took standardized tests from elementary to college, and I remember their questions being objective, unambiguous, and relevant to learning topics much better than teachers’ custom exams. I actually felt well prepared for the SAT/ACT/college thanks to the way they were used.
Teachers do need some discretion on what they teach, but without good standards you can easily have them just spreading their personal agendas. I don’t want students learning about “the war of northern aggression”, or that native Americans just chose to move to reservations actually, or that evolution is nonsense, or that abstinence is the only way to be safe regarding sex. Having expectations about what students should know at each grade gives a goal without stipulations on how it’s achieved. Standardized tests then just measure it.
Standardised tests started as tools to do racism without directly doing racism.
Low test scores in the U.S. actually just measure the fact that it provides roughly the same education to every student instead of what most other countries do and filter students out if their scores aren’t high enough in elementary school.