Weinberg: Myths about standardized testing
Steven Weinberg, a retired Oakland teacher and regular Education Report blogger, tells us what standardized tests can’t measure, in his view, and why. -Katy
In my last 10 years working for Oakland Unified School District, I spent considerable time investigating the California Standards Tests and their results to help my school make sense of the data the tests generated. During that time I became aware of a number of myths have been built up about these tests, many propagated by the state or the test makers themselves.Knowing the facts about these tests is important for drawing reasonable conclusions from their results and for making sound educational decisions for the future.
I know that most readers of this blog are already fairly sophisticated about the nature of standardized testing, but the results of these tests are so often misused, it is worth taking some time to review these misconceptions.
Myth 1: The California Standards Tests (CSTs) measure what teachers are supposed to teach.