HechingerEd Blog | Are new online standardized tests revolutionary? Decide for yourself.

HechingerEd Blog | Are new online standardized tests revolutionary? Decide for yourself.:

Are new online standardized tests revolutionary? Decide for yourself.

by Sarah Garland

New high-tech standardized tests are coming soon to schools across the country, but will these new tests really revolutionize how we measure whether children are learning? The designers of the new tests, which a majority of states plan to adopt in two years, are allowing a sneak peek at sample questions, so you can decide for yourself.
Two competing state coalitions have taken on the job of designing the new tests, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, and both have posted examples of what’s coming on their websites.

• Sample English/Language Arts question from Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium
• Sample Math question from Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium
• Sample question from third grade assessment from PARCC
• Sample math question from high school assessment from PARCC

In some questions, which the test designers have called “computer enhanced,” students will be asked to drag words or numbers across the screen, or to highlight phrases or sentences in a reading passage. In one example