Trends in Testing

Dr. James McLean, Dean of UA College of Education, discusses different trends in Educations. He first trend he discusses is about specific learning objectives. Tests force teachers to teach specific learning objectives rather general topics and general abilities. It has become this way because No Child Left Behind wants to measure accountability. The problem with measuring accountability is it doesn’t measure what has been learned. Dr. McLean states, “The purpose is not to improve learning as much as it is to measure what has been learned. It also has limited use in improving learning other than to make overarching judgments.” I found this statement to be one of the most powerful statements stated throughout this video. He further discusses the negative of testing takes away from teachers teaching general knowledge. The last trend he talks about is ACT and SAT scores. More colleges and universities are looking more at grades than standardized testing scores. The reason is that colleges can predict how successful a student’s grades will be in college by looking at the past grades a student achieved in high school. I very much agree with this because I can personally relate to it myself. My SAT and ACT scores really did not predict how successful I would be in college, my scores were very low. The only things those scores did was low my self-confidence in my abilities. Which shouldn’t have happened because I did so well in high school, and I am doing well in college.

I agree with Dr. McLean in every aspect of his interview. I think that in schools we put too much emphasis on tests rather than how much students are really learning. Higher test scores really mean nothing to the students, so why should they to us. I feel students are missing out on so much, just as he mentioned ‘general topics’ that can help students be more successful outside of school. Isn’t that why we go to school, so we are educated to survive outside of the school grounds? So, why is it that tests are such a big trend and not learning?