Too Standardized?
A problem that comes up with standardized testing is the idea that teachers teach only toward the test their students are taking at some point during the year. Some teachers are very proficient at actually teaching their students material in addition to teaching for the test, but most are not. It takes years of practice and classroom experience to be able to successfully teach to a test and successfully teach students real material. These tests often become too standardized and ask questions that do not actually test one’s learning, but rather their ability to decode and decipher oddly-worded test questions. While there is a need for standardized tests to use language that is not ambiguous in order to assure correct interpretation among students, there is also a need for the use of language and questions that are of practical importance. A problem with the issue of standard wording is that it fails to provide any true measurement of knowledge because of its simplistic view and therefore limited scope of knowledge.
This website is being created for Marc Bousquet's English class at Santa Clara University.