 To Test, Or Not To Test, That Is
Not The Question?
Hugh W. Kress, Principal, Grace
Lutheran School, River Forest, Illinois
As with most aspects of education,
the word, "testing," stirs lively debate, creates pangs
of guilt (a good Lutheran emotion), and strains budgets.
Administrators and teachers must sift through the mounds of
opinion and expert advice to separate out what is both true and
useful. There are some universal truths that apply to all
educational settings, but the uniqueness of each classroom demands
careful selection and use of testing to insure that it serves its
most worthwhile purpose-to improve instruction and learning.
In this article, testing,
measurement, and evaluation are all considered forms of assessment
and serve the same function. TESTing can become too high stakes if
its aim is off target. It could be used:
- to label our school as one of
the BEST
- in JEST as we fool ourselves
into thinking we really understand what the data means
- to keep the curriculum close to
the VEST of what the test teaches
- to cause us to REST on laurels
- to use drill and kill with ZEST
to prepare for testing
No matter if the test is aptitude
(ACT) or achievement (Stanford), it only provides a window of
content that gives a glimpse of student knowledge. Recent trends
in assessment urge a move from behavioral to cognitive views of
learning, paper and pencil to authentic, single snapshots to
samples over time (portfolios), single attributes to
multi-dimensional , and achievement to performance.
If the goal of assessment is to
foster student growth, then it must begin with the identification
of the most important student outcomes. These desired outcomes
shaped the design of the instruction; the assessment is
constructed to measure student progress to fulfilling these
outcomes. The assessment must require the student to use key
knowledge and skills consistently over a reasonable length of time
and in different formats. The assessment tool should return to its
roots and answer the question; "does the student demonstrate
the ability to meet the performance goals that were used to form
the instructional plan?"
Effective assessment seeks to
measure both simple and complex thinking, the ability to process
information, effective communication, and the ability to work
collaboratively. Ah, yes, it can also be used to measure the chunk
of knowledge that a student has acquired. In all cases, the
assessment results should be used to make decisions for future
instruction. Perhaps an example would be a helpful way to
conclude.
Mr. Goalworthy teaches a seventh
grade math class and has just completed a unit on integers. Before
he begins the next unit he needs to understand the amount and
depth of the set of acquired knowledge and skills of his students.
This set must be applicable in new problem situations. In order to
assess this, he sets up a mathematical treasure hunt on a number
line. Students must read each step of the hunt (information
processing), solve the integer problems framed in different
settings, e.g., temperature, football yards, leaking buckets
(complex thinking), find which student has the other half of the
solution set (effective communication), and work together to solve
the problem to gain a clue (collaboration). Through observation,
group processing and written records Mr. Goalworthy can answer the
big four of assessment questions:
- What are the student results?
- Why are these the results?
- What is needed to improve the
results?
- How does this affect the
planning of the next instructional unit?
Hugh Kress serves as principal at
Grace Lutheran school in River Forest, Illinois, a Preschool—8th
Grade school which serves 255 students. He can be reached by email
at hkress@soltec.net.
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