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All I can say is that we've had standardized tests in the U.S. my entire life, and none of that has happened. I just looked up when the SAT was introduced: 19

by dkarl 14y ago

All I can say is that we've had standardized tests in the U.S. my entire life, and none of that has happened. I just looked up when the SAT was introduced: 1926. Over eighty years ago! It hasn't ruined American high school education. (If that requires magic, then magic is real.) Of course standardized tests can be misused. If we make standardized tests into tests of rote regurgitated knowledge, if we design tests that reward cramming and mindless drilling instead of learning, if we replace the college admissions process with a single do-or-die test, then the results will be unfavorable. But we haven't done that in the U.S., and we aren't going to.

intended 14y ago
> Speaking on behalf of student body of India - we would have loved to have tests like that. Do note, as far as standardized tests go - the SATs were fun - I personally loved taking them and practicing them. They weren't compulsory either. And if you didn't take them, well you weren't going to be a loser in life. There were other things you could do. Please understand, that without NCLB you could have all those "IFs". With NCLB the dynamic has changed very drastically, and those conditional flags are set. SATs are very different from NCLB mandated tests to measure student performance mate. They are compulsory and everyone gets graded. (Remember the last time someone ran an experiment where they gave some kids fake good grades and some kids fake bad grades?) Test structure and test making knowledge isn't static either - it evolves. One of the first thing it starts becoming aware of is people gaming the system - cheating, memmorizing and so on. It tries to adapt to this by making the test more complex or variable. But then to standardize it has to create a (publicly available) rubric for graders to follow. So the process just renews. You've started down an evolutionary path. Your tests are moving down a particular road. What you see today isn't what you are going to have. Further I don't need colleges to have a single do-or-die test. - I just need parents to start privileging the test. IT doesn't matter what colleges do unless they work actively against the test. All that matters is that parents start pushing their kids to do well in it. This is one of the engines of the self fulfilling prophecy. Standardized tests aren't being misused. They are achieving the kind of goals they usually achieve.

by dkarl 14y ago

intended 14y ago

> Speaking on behalf of student body of India - we would have loved to have tests like that. Do note, as far as standardized tests go - the SATs were fun - I personally loved taking them and practicing them. They weren't compulsory either. And if you didn't take them, well you weren't going to be a loser in life. There were other things you could do. Please understand, that without NCLB you could have all those "IFs". With NCLB the dynamic has changed very drastically, and those conditional flags are set. SATs are very different from NCLB mandated tests to measure student performance mate. They are compulsory and everyone gets graded. (Remember the last time someone ran an experiment where they gave some kids fake good grades and some kids fake bad grades?) Test structure and test making knowledge isn't static either - it evolves. One of the first thing it starts becoming aware of is people gaming the system - cheating, memmorizing and so on. It tries to adapt to this by making the test more complex or variable. But then to standardize it has to create a (publicly available) rubric for graders to follow. So the process just renews. You've started down an evolutionary path. Your tests are moving down a particular road. What you see today isn't what you are going to have. Further I don't need colleges to have a single do-or-die test. - I just need parents to start privileging the test. IT doesn't matter what colleges do unless they work actively against the test. All that matters is that parents start pushing their kids to do well in it. This is one of the engines of the self fulfilling prophecy. Standardized tests aren't being misused. They are achieving the kind of goals they usually achieve.