Standardized Testing's Effects on Homeschoolers

In this source, Sandra Foyt looks into a more uncommon alternative to education and how it is affected by standardized testing. That alternative, of course, is homeschooling. A big point that Foyt makes in this analysis is for a homeschooled child, there are no teachers to judge a student by speaking and writing skills, the two skills that these tests seem to avoid. Since no one is testing a homeschooled student on creativity, a standardized test serves as an accurate assessment of the student's ability to synthesize and process information. The third point that Foyt makes is that private test takers get results much faster and thus can measure their progress more accurately. Schools take longer to receive test results, so most particular students must have developed substantially by the time the score is revealed. By these reasons, standardized tests serve as an accurate benchmark for homeschooled students, and can be reassuring services to the homeschoolers.

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How Should Schools be Judged?

http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/437/560

Another distinct opinion surrounding aptitude exams sees how these tests have an impact on the supposed quality of a certain school. The main claim this source makes is that aptitude tests are more reflective of a student's mastery instead of an institution's success. It addresses how detractors of the achievement tests being an indicator of school quality point to how the school's job is to help the student achieve mastery in a specific area, while these tests test the ability of the student to synthesize this information. Therefore, aptitude tests are an indicator of student prowess, but not student quality. Another idea it points to is how aptitude tests are especially bad indicators of math prowess, since the specific math reasoning skills are not tested enough on. Finally, the article points to how English and history writing and analysis skills are highly underestimated by these tests. For example, schools that focus more on analyzing purposes of authors versus grammar and mechanics might struggle, creating many problems for certain schools.

The Myths Behind Testing's Flaws

http://www2.ed.gov/nclb/accountability/ayp/testingforresults.html

Previously, I explored the fallacies of high-stakes testing. However, this source argues otherwise, keying into the strengths of tests tapping into students' potentials.One point the author brings up is that testing does not limit the curriculum, but rather serves as a measure for where a student really is and is an assessment of how the student is able to synthesize the information. Another facet of testing the author looks into is how testing is the best way for parents to monitor their children's progress. Since they are not present or aware as much of classwork, parents can use testing to gauge student needs and school effectiveness. Finally, a third key point stressed by the author concerns how testing can harm those who have trouble in a certain format of test. However, the author claims that testing reveals how different students can work in different manners in order to accomplish the same goal.

Do Standardized Tests Improve Educational Achievement?

http://www.fairtest.org/k12/naeprep.htm

In this source, the author claims that major tests with significant implication are not cooperative with student educational experience. It has been shown that performing well on a high school graduation test has had no positive effect on a state's NAEP rating, or National Assessment of Educational Progress. Furthermore, these reports show that the new tests that test reformers have attempted to institute are actually almost identical to the high school graduation exams of the past, with higher passing scores, which only further diminish the "effectiveness" of these exams. Detractors of standardized tests also point to the limited capacity of multiple choice aptitude tests, since problem solving and real world application are the tools that have proven to make a difference in today's community.