In 2005, numerous states reported students achieving proficiency at an average rate of 40% higher than NAEP standards. This article states that these exaggerated levels of achievement are perhaps due to states “lowering the bar” due to the stress of the No Child Left Behind Act. In this article, the authors conduct a study in an effort to figure out the differences between the state achievement tests in reading comprehension and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Framework.
It is assumed that these state achievement test are fairly comparable with the NAEP since the educational community agree that reading comprehension involves the reader to use prior knowledge to attain thoughtful and logical answers, thus becoming mature readers. However, this is not the case. Researchers have observed several teachers who were teaching to the test, and results showed students are in fact memorizing and reciting details instead of thinking and responding to text. In 2005, many states have reported students achieving proficiency at an average rate of 40% higher than NAEP standards.
This article states that these exaggerated levels of achievement are possibly due to the states “lowering the bar” due to the stress of the No Child Left Behind Act. The authors then determined that there is a substantial difference between the NAEP tests and the state test. NAEP assigns more open-ended items for reading assessment, higher order thinking responses, and less genre and vocabulary items for comprehension. Furthermore, the authors propose that teachers who encourage and support students to reach a mature reading level will better prepare them for state and national accountability assessments.
With so much emphasis being placed on the state tests, and with teachers being held accountable by the state tests, it is natural for teachers to fear for their jobs and teach 'to the test' in order to get the highest results possible. After reading this article, I want to get a copy of the state standardized test and use it as a guideline to help create classroom assessment which offer more open ended questions like those mentioned in the NAEP assessment. The content on the state test is important information for students to know. The tricky part is to create assessments that allow students to fully interact with the text and use those higher-order thinking skills.
ReplyDeleteHey Ed,
ReplyDeleteI think that that is a great idea! I agree it may be tough though to try and create assessment that allow students to use higher-order thinknig skills.