What Standardized Tests Miss
Honors History Class at Mission High School.Students and teachers at Mission High School weigh in on the California STAR Test.
DONATE"The big bad California STAR Test is in 27 days, everyone!" Mission High School history teacherRobert Roth announces at the beginning of an honors class in March. "The way you are going to feel this is we are going to go through events really quick. But don't worry, we'll look at some things more deeply after the test," Roth explains as 25 juniors trickle in. "I'm hecka bad at these tests," Marilyn* says out loud; she puts her head down on the desk. Roth walks over to Marilyn and puts his hands on her shoulders. "No, you are not!" he says. "You are not bad at anything that's important."
Every spring since 2001, students in 3rd to 11th grades in the US sit down to takestandardized tests, which are federally mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act. But how standard can standardized testing really be, when each state decides which basic "standards"—or lessons—to teach, and how to test students' knowledge of them? In California schools, standardized tests consist of multiple-choice questions only (except for a short
