POV FROM EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY.(point of view on student testing)(Brief Article)

To Assess or Not to Assess --That Is Not the Question It is difficult to trace the exact time in educational history when assessment of students became a primary issue for educators. That being said, one can certainly trace the most recent fascination and obsession with, what I have come to call, the "testing frenzy" in this country.

In 1983 the infamous Congressional report, A Nation at Risk, made its way into the collective American psyche. With the assistance of various media, the report became the focal point of a backlash against public education and a veritable indictment of children, teachers, parents, and our masted system of education in this great democracy. In the 1980's climate of melancholy for the "good old days," public education became the whipping boy for many of the alleged ills of the country. Upon close examination of the document, however, it is apparent that the writers relied not only on rhetoric, but also on deep subconscious American archetypal fears of inferiority, particularly in its relentless comparisons of U.S. students' educational achievement to that of students in other countries. Berliner and Biddle in their outstanding book, The Manufactured Crisis, delineate the many changes in U.S. population and how this country has addressed these changes within the context of education. Much of the "decline" in test scores reflects not the "dummying down" of America, but the ever-changing cultural profile reflected in different waves of immigrants. Their conclusion is that public schools, while still in need of reform, have done a good job in educating the most diverse nation in the world.

Furthermore, the comparisons of U.S. student achievement to that of students in other nations is, at best, unfair. It is often a comparison of "apples and oranges." When we compare our high school seniors with those in other countries, we are often comparing the very best achievers in that particular country with the aggregate of all the levels of achievement in our nation's schools. Quite simply, as the great experiment of democracy, citizens in this country believe that we should educate our entire population of children to the best degree and not relegate high levels of education to a select few.

So how does this relate to the "testing frenzy?" Getting back to the backlash prompted by A Nation at Risk, educators in the United States, fueled by media hype and the distress of parents, began to rely more and more on standardized assessments and a standards-driven curriculum to measure the academic achievement of our children. It should be noted that not all educators, or educational psychologists, agree with this type of testing, particularly at the early levels at which it begins. But do these standardized tests serve a purpose? ...