I feel very strongly about testing and assessment, so
these readings had things I liked and I did not like about testing students. Tests
are a very difficult task for teachers to succeed with. It takes a lot of time
to come up with a test that contains the five basic principles of language
assessment that were talked about in Brown’s book. It is important to have
practicality, be reliable and valid, authenticity, and washback. It can be a
difficult task to include all of these above principles and have a good test.
You can have a test without one of these, but then it may not be reliable or
valid which does not effectively assess your students.
In my opinion, many of the different kinds of tests are
important and necessary, but I do not agree with all of them. I specifically
feel strong about the ACT and tests like those because I do not believe
students should only be tested on information to decide whether or not they
make it into a college. I think there are so many reasons behind that why that
is not an accurate way to admit students into a university because there are so
many other aspects in a student’s education that could go into them being an
accurate fit for a certain school.
I think other tests such as, achievement tests and
placement tests, to name a few are very helpful and necessary in the school
systems. Placement tests are important, so that students are being placed in
classes that are specific to their needs. If we did not use placement tests
than students could be placed in a class too hard or too easy for them, which
would make a student, fall behind or become bored.
Achievement tests are also helpful because they allow
teachers to see how children are progressing throughout the year. This allows
them to decide whether to move on and continue with the curriculum/unit, or if
they need to slow down and review something that the students may not have
understood so well. Although testing is not my favorite, I believe it is
necessary in the school system to see the students’ progress throughout the
year and their education.
Along with that, the tests need to be constructed
correctly in order for the students to be tested in a good manner. The steps
that Brown talked about are important for teachers to follow because it allows
them to write an appropriate test for their students. I think a lot of teachers
pull tests together and do not spend the time on reviewing them and double and
triple checking them. There have been many times where a classmate or me has
found a mistake on a teacher’s test and it throws students off. Students work
hard on their homework and projects, I think teachers should take the same time
while making tests and grading assignments.
Testing is a difficult task for teachers and a decision
teachers get to make (whether or not to do it), but there should be steps they
should follow to succeed in doing so.
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