Education policymakers in the U.S. seem to think that more tests will produce higher achievement, but there is no evidence for this assumption. As this article from the Center on International Education Benchmarking shows, the U.S. tests more frequently than any of the world’s high-performing nations.
Jackie Kraemer writes:
“Unlike the top-performing countries on the 2012 PISA, the United States stands out for the amount of external testing it requires for all students. As the chart below shows, the United States is the only country among this set to require annual testing in primary and middle schools in reading and mathematics. A more typical pattern among the top-performers is a required gateway exam, or an exam that allows a student to move on to the next phase of education, at the end of primary school, the end of lower secondary school and the end of upper secondary school. This is true of Canada (Ontario), China (Shanghai), Estonia, Poland and Singapore. In some of these cases, the secondary school exams are used to determine placement in the next level of schooling such as in Singapore and Shanghai where the lower school-leaving exam determines placement in upper secondary school. And in Poland, Shanghai and Singapore the upper secondary academic exam functions as an admission exam for university. This differs from the United States where annual tests are used primarily for school and teacher accountability purposes.”
“How tests are used is also different among the high performers. South Korea and Japan test only for diagnostic purposes in the primary schools, and South Korea continues to test for diagnostic purposes through 10th grade. It is at the secondary level that they introduce the high stakes exams for students, with Japanese students required to take an entrance exam for upper secondary school and students in both countries required to take tests at the end of upper secondary school that will determine what kind of higher education institution they can enter. These tests are recognized as very high pressure for students and both countries are trying to address that issue. In both Korea and Japan, some students enter a vocational training system at the upper secondary level and take tests to qualify for vocational credentials rather than the tests for entry into university.
“Hong Kong and Finland have no required testing until the end of upper secondary school. Taiwan is a bit of a hybrid, with no required testing in primary school, but a Basic Competency Test at the end of lower secondary (along with three required tests a year in each of three subjects during lower secondary) that determines admission to upper secondary school.”
We can’t test our way to success. The more time devoted to testing, the less time available for instruction. tests are best usedfor diagnostic purposes. tests with stakes attached are delayed in these nations until secondary schools. We should learn from the leaders of the pack.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Amen to testing is not learning, nor does it necessarily prove it any more than formative assessments. When a factory (ex. car assembly line) wants to improve production (the quality of the car) they form focus groups, or give questionaires, to the employees, asking them what could be improved. It is the employees, teachers, not managers (district administrators) that know what works and needs improvement.
Yet, in education we trust management (local, district and state administration) to know how to improve the assembly line (the classroom, and its human interface of curriculum, teacher and student), yet many of them were never in the classroom long enough to have the practical experience, wisdom and insight needed to know how to fix things.
So, what do we get? Well, using the analogy of a car factory, we get a new test track to prove we are making better cars, when the assembly line has never been assessed or modified. Better teaching produces better results, and good teachers know what works and doesn’t in their curriculum (especially those with experience).
Even within our science department there is (IMO) too much variation in how each topic is taught. Some rely on the books, others do demonstrations with notes and discusssion, others show videos and pause to take notes. Yet, IMO there needs to be an agreed upon set of best practices (derived and chosen by those with experience and recognition) that all teachers in a discipline must use. This will ensure that although there will be the variation of teacher style, personality and other human-based variables, there will be the common-core of best practices chosen by the experienced stakeholders of each school; which will ensure that efficacious learning is occurring for all students.
Improving education means improving curriculum and pedagogy, not creating “new and improved” tests.
I would argue that formative tests are much more “informative” to the teacher, and can “inform” instruction. They guide the teacher in planning future whole group and small group instruction. Standardized tests are generally a lot less useful. They offer a generalized notion of performance. They only get useful if the data is disaggregated. When a 3rd grade teacher sees that a student scored 3.7 on a reading test, we see that the student is performing within the range of what is expected. The details of what is means can only be ascertained by doing an item analysis.The analysis may reveal that the student can locate information and recall facts, but has some problems with applying information or some other comprehension skill. Often these summative assessments are given at the end of the year, and the data is never useful to the teacher as the student moves on to the next teacher.
Giving standardized tests to very young children is developmentally inappropriate. As an ESL teacher in New York, I was required to give the NYESLAT to my K and first graders. While the kids could mark in the book, and each new question was signaled by a picture, the amount of information on the page was overwhelming for them. The testing obsession is out of control. When we start to calculate the amount of lost instructional time due to testing, we are harming students and contributing to them falling further behind.
I agree completely Rick
Organizations like NCTM and NCTE have done the research and the studying, have determined best practices and policies, written their own standards and practices, and yet they are largely ignored. There IS too much variation between teachers in a school, but that is the school’s fault (or district or country’s fault), not a lack of having standards. Teachers are not given the protected time to study these organizations’ findings, or to collaborate and formalize any school-wide policies and practices. They are constantly being given more and more out-of-class things to do, more and more non-subject related responsibilities, more and more “trainings”, but are NEVER given more time to sit down and collaborate and discuss and learn from each other and the research. They are NEVER given more TIME.
“Yet, IMO there needs to be an agreed upon set of best practices (derived and chosen by those with experience and recognition) that all teachers in a discipline must use. This will ensure that although there will be the variation of teacher style, personality and other human-based variables, there will be the common-core of best practices chosen by the experienced stakeholders of each school; which will ensure that efficacious learning is occurring for all students.”
Standardize this, standardize that standardize all till the cows come home.
NO! Not all teaches should be required to all teach in the same fashion. The variety of human interaction by each teacher in teaching through ways that are amenable to their own strengths and weaknesses is what is desirable, not “everyone doing the same thing”
How the hell did this country survive all those years without standardization?
“Improving education means improving curriculum and pedagogy, not creating “new and improved” tests.”
Quite true and then get out of the way and let each teacher determine what is best for his/her classroom teaching and learning processes.
Thank you, Duane. I was about to say the same thing. Teachers should NOT be required to standardize. What works for me doesn’t work for others in my department, and vice versa. As long as the basics are covered, and there’s not actual damage being done in the instruction (both of which should be no-brainers), why should it matter how a teacher teaches?
Agreed! Kids all learn differently-teachers should be able to teach differently!
We are expected to standardize our instruction for all students and differentiate for all their needs in the same classroom of 35…..huh?
I don’t know how things came down in other districts in other states. However, as the testing insanity has increased in SW Ohio, it seems that the reason for more and more testing has been fueled by two things 1) to better prepare kids to take the 3rd grade test and to pass at the beginning of the year, and 2) to find a way to “evaluate” ALL teachers from K-12, rather than those who teach in the years where the tests “count”.
We honestly thought that NCLB would die of its own weight. It is preposterous to expect all kids to function on “whatever” at Grade Level means simply because of their ages. Anyone with a grain of sense knows that babies have development delays and are at, below, or above certain expectations for their particular month of gestation and post birth growth. To compare kids as if they are cars is detrimental to everyone except those who make money from the testing that does the comparisons.
We were kind of forced into accepting the RttT “challenge” because our superintendent stated publicly that our teachers were just resisting being evaluated … but he didn’t say WHY we objected! We objected to the person who would be evaluating us and to the manner in which they expected CC changes to suddenly appear overnight with little to no PD. There is some advantage to being a new teacher who has been exposed to this new set of “rules” during college, because the jargon is familiar to them.
So much disrespect was flung at the experienced teachers that it was insulting and the morale broke down. Yet,so much has been said publicly to denigrate teacher opinions that it is very difficult to feel hopeful.
Another problem that we have run into is the fact that many people object to the CCSS for reasons that aren’t necessarily about education, but about a fear of One World, UN mind controlling conspiracy theories. Those are not my objections. My objections are to the implementation and the punitive nature of the process. Also, I object to the lack of respect shown to boots on the ground early grade teachers. The top down ramming of standards that leaves too much for the k-4 students is appalling.
I hope this falls of its own weight, but I feel so bad for the students caught in the web of change … where will they be in the 2020s? I don’t know.
Let’s see – we test more & have less school days than these other places – that’ll get us to the top! grrrrrr…
No other country but the US of A spends billions of dollars on high-stake testing to demoralize students nationwide. Even Japan and South Korea have no more than 3 tests. If you hear people saying “Oh stupid typical Americans,” you can allude it to corporate de-formers and pro-private culture vultures, apologists, and charcoal machines.
Not only do we spend billions, those billions go to a company from England…good stuff….
“Womb to Tomb Testing”
Pearson Testing from the womb,
Should be standard, to the tomb
Give the fetus number 2’s
And an IPhone they can use
Just in case they need to call
A testing proctor down the hall
Give the corpse a new iPad
So they can chase the latest fad
When they fill their final bubbles
As their body rots and doubles
If they pass, inter them in
Otherwise, just make ’em swim
I like the term “womb to tomb”…funny
What is the alternative?
Give a diagnostic math and reading test in 3rd grade to check for progress, another in 8th grade give diagnostic test for Math, English/Language Arts, Science and Social Studies and then use ACT and SAT scores to evaluate progress after that.
Maybe we should do this in India. We have a lot of tests, with a lot of pressure and kids don’t understand what they spit out onto the paper..
Choke and Puke education….choke down as much information as possible and then on test day “puke” it out. The end result is very little of the information remains as authentic learning…
I like that term.. This is what we increasingly have in India, and it is worrying..
Don’t worry…be truly frightened!!!
I will!
No testing!
TRUST teachers to be professionals and check for students progress in their own classes. It worked for a long time. We sent people to the moon and everything while allowing those scientists and engineers to be taught by teachers in the way they felt was best.
“Education Reform: Back to the Moon”
Send reformers to the moon
Yesterday was none too soon
To the dark side, where they’ll be
Isolated from you and me
That is true. That is very much of the style that I grew up with. Nowadays in India, you are hard pressed to get into college with average marks of less than 98%. That means you need to be nearly perfect, and this is not possible. I think that our system needs more fixing than yours
“Education policymakers in the U.S. seem to think that more tests will produce higher achievement, but there is no evidence for this assumption.”
My opinion–they “think” nothing of the sort. More tests is simply a way to funnel money where “they” want it to go. They don’t give a rat’s ass whether anything they do will produce higher achievement. It’s all about the money.
I was talking to Brit recently who described the three days of essay writing he had to do at the end of high school.Their purpose was not to show his “essay-writing skills” but to demonstrate his knowledge of three subject areas. Preparing for them forced him to learn a lot. Don’t disparage this as mere “choke and puke” –one of his tests was on American politics and from talking to him I can tell he still knows a lot about the subject.
By contrast American students cannot write well about any subject in particular (because they don’t learn many facts), but there sure have had a ton of essay-writing practice!
You can’t make a pig fatter by weighing him/her more
You can’t make a pig fatter by weighing him/her more
“Yet, in education we trust management (local, district and state administration) to know how to improve the assembly line (the classroom, and its human interface of curriculum, teacher and student),”
We don’t,…. trust the people who conjured up this crap. It’s forced upon teachers and students by
clueless, ignorant politicians who believe anyone with lots of money (Gates) must know what’s best for the unwashed masses.
no one rules,…..if no one obeys