Issues on Testing & Measurement in the Classroom

Testing and measurement can create too much pressure on students.

Education is heavily focused on testing and measurement of students' ability and intelligence. The disadvantages of this approach are that testing (or overtesting) places too great an emphasis on exams, which puts too much pressure on students. Advantages of classroom testing include the opportunity to rank students and so that their education can be tailored appropriately to their skill level. Modern approaches to testing suggest that students assessing themselves could provide a useful alternative to more traditional classroom testing methods.

Advantages

Testing and measurement in classrooms has several clear advantages. Basic testing from young ages allows educators to establish students' intelligence levels and aptitudes, then adjusting their education effectively. For example, knowing that a student is poor at mathematics, teachers can offer the student particular assistance and consideration when teaching math. Testing also recognizes academic achievement and rewards students for their hard work and study, which can perpetuate further achievements.

The parents and guardians of children are keen to track their child's educational progress, and results of testing is one of the ways this can be done. Furthermore, parents can assess which school to send their child to based on the school's overall exam scores.

Disadvantages

The primary disadvantage of classroom testing is the detrimental effects it can have on students. If students are tested at a young age and found to be underachieving in a certain subject, such as English, and are subsequently placed in a remedial class, they can suffer from a self-fulfilling prophecy -- the students think that are bad at English and lose interest in the subject, which leads them to underachieve.

Some students suffer stress as a result of frequent testing, with perceived pressure coming from schools, their parents and themselves.

Self And Peer Assessment

Both self and peer assessment in the classroom are valuable ways to relieve the pressure on students of traditional testing. According to the Center for Development and Learning, allowing students to mark and adjust their own work helps reinforce the correct information. This boosts self-efficacy, helps students identify their strengths and weaknesses and enables students to present a clear plan of action to their teacher. Educators, of course, are not redundant even when students are self-testing. Encourage your students to complete a test, go through the answers themselves before meeting with them and asking them about the process.

Research by the United Kingdom Department of Education suggests that peer assessment allows students to work together towards the common goal and help each other through difficult subjects. For example, a student may be more receptive to learning about algebra from a friend rather than the teacher.

Testing For College Applications

For older students, testing and measurement are used by colleges and universities to assess their applications. Colleges, for example, will look at students' SAT scores when deciding whether or not to admit them into their institution. The SATs are a set of standardized tests, and it is arguable that assessing students on the scores they achieve is the fairest possible way of measuring students' aptitude.

References

• Teaching Expertise: Asssessment - An Overview
• Dr. Ken Hunt: Classroom Assessment
• Using Self-Assessment in the Classroom: Rationale and Suggested Techniques
• Center for Development and Learning: Student Self-Evaluation - What Research Says and What Practice Shows
• UK Department of Education: Impact of Self and Peer Assessment in Secondary Schools