Teachers not only give achievement tests to satisfy local, state, and national requirements, they must also give tests to find out whether their students are prepared to pass the big ones. Of course they also have to give daily or weekly tests on the subjects they teach so they can report their students’ progress to parents.
Standardized Tests and School Effectiveness
Tests are supposedly objective measures, and relatively easy to understand, so schools sometimes give them too much importance. Some of the problems with relying too much on tests to judge school effectiveness are:
- With too much emphasis on scores there is a tendency to teach to the test, or to teach what is expected to be measured on the test.
- When teachers know what is likely to be asked on a test they may concentrate on that information, skimming over the larger body of information that may be as important or more important than the skills the students may be tested on.
- Standardized tests tend to measure recall of factual information more than higher-level thinking and problem-solving skills.
- Information in today's world is growing and changing so fast that students cannot learn the vast amount of information available to them through print and non-print materials.
- Today's students have to learn where to find the information they need and how to use print materials and technology to find answers to their questions and solutions to their problems.
- Many of the skills that students need today cannot be easily measured by paper and pencil tests, and cannot be taught through drill and practice.
Other Indicators of School Effectiveness
Other indicators of a school’s success are not as easily measured as standardized tests, but they are just as important as test scores in determining how well a school is doing its job. Here are some other things that parents can use to judge their children’s school.
- Find out whether the principal's focus is on instruction. The athletic program and the facility and grounds are important, but the purpose of the school should be excellence in all instructional areas.
- Know what the school's goals are, and whether parents and staff were involved in developing them.
- Notice whether the facility is safe, and whether the hallways, classrooms, and grounds are clean and free of hazards.
- Ask how planning is done at the school. Is time set aside for regular planning?
- Find out if there are regular faculty meetings and grade level or departmental meetings at the school.
- Learn about the school's climate. How does the school feel when you are there? Does it feel safe and friendly? Ask the students questions. Listen to their conversations in the halls and on the playgrounds.
- Ask children if their teachers give them extra help when they ask for it.
- Notice whether student work is prominently displayed in the classrooms and in the public areas.
Other Indicators
For other indicators of effective schools, see the 1996 article "Setting the Course for Learning by All" published by The Association for Effective Schools, Inc. The article lists seven indicators of effective schools based on educational research.
The purpose of instruction should be to facilitate learning, not to get good test scores. When too much emphasis is placed on test results and too little attention is given to other indicators of school effectiveness, children are the losers. Test scores are only one of many measures of a school’s success. All of them deserve attention.
 |
 |
