What skill should standardized accountability tests emphasize?

Consider this..We need to educate our children - what is an education? (Rhetorical)

Ok so let us give a 6 year old a math test and ask the question, "If you had 10 cows and divide them by three what is the answer?

Let us assume that the child is one of the following?

The child of a mathamatician or a child of farmer.

Math Child: 3.33333
Farmer Child: You can't divide 10 cows into three without losing one which then is no longer a cow but a slab of meat. You cant have a 1/3rd cow!

So what is education and how do we measure it? Who failed the test and why?

Critical thinking and problem solving starts long before we need to test. A childs very survival depends on these skills at a very early age.

Lastly, Blooms Taxonomy higher order thinking does that only work after a child has become literate in a numerical sense?

Instead of latching on to numeracy and literacy and bashing the test nay-sayers perhaps you could send a self addressed envelope with $250 made payable to Paul's Retiremenet Fund Inc, where upon I will send you multiple choice test which you can complete. On it's return I will evaluate what you know based upon my research and national norms and return your score. Oh and if your sick or lost a loved one the day before - tough! You should have arranged for this to happen on a non test day.

Oh and absolutely no refunds my decision is final.

How can these options be an either or?

Surely this Poll only measures which answer is the most popular from a menu of equally important choices.

Lets throw out standardized testing (at leat 80%) of it and have PBL, Portfolios and assessment that is meaningful at a local level. Not untennable ideas spawned from some comfortable air conditioned offices with pot plants and layers of secretaries. Sumptously furnished and located in an an ivory tower where the policy makers trade rationality for profitability!

Baaaaa--Bahhhh Lets follow the "Sheeple"

We need our students to learn how to learn. Teach by example the love of learning.

The question, "What skill should standardized accountability tests emphasize?" seems to presume

1.that we should use standardized tests;

2. that they can assess accountability; and

3. that there is skill whose emphasis is somehow necessary. (I guess to demonstrate accountability?)

To me, this question points out the major flaws in this system that has been thrust upon us. Are we using standardized tests to measure learning, or to make teachers accountable for their productivity? Do the tests succeed at either of these tasks?

In my opinion, standardized tests are inaccurate measures of learning, and useless to make teachers accountable for anything other than teaching to the test. Instead, testing, if we must use it, should be used to uncover weaknesses in instruction. A teacher could then be made accountable for how well those weaknesses are addressed.

In every case, the measurement should not assume that all students at a particular age or grade level are at the same place cognitively, ready to learn the same skills, using the same schema. The skills measured should be those applicable to the student's abilities and educational goals.

How to accomplish this??? A miracle, I suppose.

We need to be able to evaluate the whole person with more than just a snap shot it takes a movie. Zoning in one skill set does not help the child really see their potential. Elective teachers see this all the time. A student is failing one or more of their core classes, but excels in their elective class. It just means something valuable is not being tapped and it cannot be measured by multiple choice.

I am not sure that a creativity and problem solving standardized assessment tool could be developed. I do know that as a nation we need to improve student achievement and ensure that all students have at the very least the basics under their belt. When students leave public schools, they should be equipped to make choices about their future without limits. They should know how to gather information, analyze it and come up with their solution through their own perspective.

Some great comments--we need to begin seeing standards (and this form of "testing") as reflecting only a foundation upon which we build. They are not the achievement, they are minimums, the least expected. You don't test "thinking" but you have to be able to think to learn, to build a skills set, to read and reason, to develop good questions, to define the context. So we have a defunct view of accountability when we only reflect minimums--sort of like building codes. Codes don't reflect good construction practices, they are the absolute minimum necessary to be minimally competent.

One shot standardized tests are not very useful because they only measure what a child can produce on that given day. We all know the tremendous amount of varaibles that can influence those results. Frequent monitoring and quality made teacher assessments (if properly developed and implemented)are much more reliable in measuring the true "skills" students have mastered. At our school (Porter Elementary in Mesa, AZ) we emphisize, and put number, one the importance of teaching to and respecting the "Whole Child" Mind, Body, Heart and Spirit. Respectful and complete assessments should measure all four areas. We are not just "Brains On A Stick" which is how the current assessement model views our students. We are "Whole" unique, individuals. If we are to be held accountable to and for our student's progress and growth we need to be assessing their growth and development frequently with meaningful feedback in the areas of Mind, Body, Heart and Spirit. It is possible.

If we have to have standardized testing, which is debatable at best, it should look to basic literacy and numeracy. Broad-based testing can't test well things like critical thinking, creativity, problem-solving, organizational skills, etc. Those things can be assessed by teachers in classroom but standardized tests can't properly guage those skills.

Responsibility and organizational skills!