Testing History

Standardized testing has its roots in the industrialization of America at the turn of the nineteenth century, when rural Americans left the farms in droves to seek work in city factories. This new wave of workers created a need for literate employees who could read instructions, write reports, and perform basic mathematical functions. At the same time,government began to increase support for public education. Blue-collar workers began sending their children to school so they could train for better jobs.

During this period, psychologists Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon in Paris developed the forerunner of today’s intelligence test to help identify children likely to have trouble in school—but their test was given to each child individually and was therefore quite expensive. As World War I funneled recruits from all educational backgrounds into the military, commanders needed quick ways to determine which soldiers were capable of learning particular skills.

Searching for a way to evaluate recruits in a fast and cost-effective manner, two group tests of ability were developed for the Army—these tests were the forerunners of today’s group standardized tests used in schools. After the war was over, psychologists and educators began to realize the benefits that standardized tests might bring to the nation’s schools. In 1923, the Stanford Achievement Test became the first group achievement test used in the schools.

This test, currently in its ninth revision, continues to be one of the most popular group achievement tests today. Group standardized achievement testing caught on, and in the 1920s and 1930s became the darling of American public education. Psychologists placed great faith in the value of such tests to diagnose a student’s learning abilities. In fact, by the 1930s, psychologists believed that the group standardized achievement tests available at that time were superior to individually administered tests because of their objectivity, ease of scoring, and standardized conditions.

They looked forward to a time when schools would test first graders to help plan the type of instruction most suited to them. They envisioned testing all children every year not only to determine how successfully they were learning but also to figure out which teaching strategies worked the best. Educators eagerly embraced these tests because they thought the tests offered an objective and accurate way of determining a student’s needs. Group standardized tests allowed educators to evaluate many children at a small cost per child—certainly at a cost much lower than for individual testing.

Unfortunately,group standardized tests never lived up to their early promise. Researchers discovered that the very characteristics that make standardized tests so efficient and cost-effective also limit their validity in evaluating the learning of individual students. By the 1960s and 1970s, after decades of ability grouping based on standardized tests, it became clear that such practices were not acceptable. Parents sued school districts for placing their children in rigid educational “tracks” based on test scores. Parents and civil rights groups won a series of landmark court cases challenging ability grouping (or tracking), and the courts told the schools that they could no longer place children into different instructional groups on the basis of group standardized test results. Researchers also began to identify racial and gender biases in group standardized tests.

The Accountability Movement

Just as the courts began to restrict the use of standardized tests for ability grouping, taxpayers began to demand of their schools more accountability. By the early 1980s, voters began to demand evidence that schools were spending their tax money responsibly. Parents became suspicious of the ways educators gauged how effectively they taught students. The public became suspicious of any but the most objective measures of student performance.To parents, group standardized tests seemed to be the ideal tool to gauge academic progress. Politicians began to promise to boost the amount of testing and the consequences of test scores for students, teachers, and educational systems themselves.Today many states use standardized tests in “high-stakes testing”as the basis for:

• Promotion and retention
• Graduation
• Eligibility for remedial programs
• Eligibility for gifted programs
• Teacher evaluations, including firing teachers whose students consistently perform poorly on standardized tests
• Evaluations of administrators, firing administrators in schools and school districts in which students consistently perform below national standards
• School district funding

Along with the increasing importance of standardized test scores, there have been testing scandals.Teachers have been fired or prosecuted for stealing copies of standardized tests and drilling their students on the correct answers as a way of boosting test scores used to evaluate teaching skills.Some school districts have been accused of unethical practices such as:

• Creating “flu lists” of students who consistently perform poorly on standardized tests and are told to stay home during test week
• Intentionally classifying underperforming students as being eligible for special education classes to exclude them from taking standardized tests
• Teaching only items included on standardized tests and neglecting important subject matter that the tests don’t cover

Read More : Testing History

Testing Tips - Student Guide

Testing Tips:

1. Get smart, play dumb. Don’t read anything into the question. Don’t make an assumption that the test writer is looking for something other than what is asked. Stick to the question as written and don’t read extra things into it.
2. Read the question and all the choices twice before answering the question. You may miss something by not carefully reading and re-reading both the question and the answers. If you really don’t have a clue as to the right answer, leave it blank on the first time through. Go on to the other questions, as they may provide a clue as to how to answer the skipped questions. If, later on, you still can’t answer the skipped ones . . . Guess. The only penalty for guessing is that you might get it wrong. Only one thing is certain; if you don’t put anything down, you will get it wrong!
3. Turn the question into a statement. Look at the way the questions are worded. The syntax of the question usually provides a clue. Does it seem more familiar as a statement rather than as a question? Does it sound strange? By turning a question into a statement, you may be able to spot if an answer sounds right, and it may also trigger memories of material you have read.
4. Look for hidden clues. It’s actually very difficult to compose multiple-foil (choice) questions without giving away part of the answer in the options presented. In most multiple-choice questions you can often readily eliminate one or two of the potential answers. This leaves you with only two real possibilities; automatically, your odds go to Fifty-Fifty for very little work.
5. Trust your instincts. For every fact that you have read, you subconsciously retain something of that knowledge. On questions that you aren’t really certain about, go with your basic instincts. Your first impression on how to answer a question is usually correct.
6. Mark your answers directly on the test booklet. Don’t bother trying to fill in the optical scan sheet on the first pass through the test. Just be very careful not to mismark your answers when you eventually transcribe them to the scan sheet.
7. Watch the clock! You have a set amount of time to answer the questions. Don’t get bogged down trying to answer a single question at the expense of ten questions you can more readily answer.

Read More : Testing Tips - Student Guide

Great Study and Testing Tips!

What to study in order to prepare for the subject assessments is the focus of this study guide, but equally important is how you study. You can increase your chances of truly mastering the information by taking some simple but effective steps.
Study Tips:
1. Some foods aid the learning process. Foods such as milk, nuts, seeds, rice, and oats help your study efforts by releasing natural memory enhancers called CCKs (cholecystokinin) composed of tryptophan, choline, and phenylalanine. All of these chemicals enhance the neurotransmitters associated with memory.
Before studying, try a light, protein-rich meal of eggs, turkey, and fish. All of these foods release the memory enhancing chemicals. The better the connections, the more you comprehend.
Likewise, before you take a test, stick to a light snack of energy-boosting and relaxing foods. A glass of milk, a piece of fruit, or some peanuts will release various memory-boosting chemicals and help you to relax and focus on the subject at hand.

2. Learn to take great notes. A by-product of our modern culture is that we have grown accustomed to getting our information in short doses (e.g., TV news sound bites or newspaper articles styled after USA Today).
Consequently, we’ve subconsciously trained ourselves to assimilate information in neat little packages. If your notes are scrawled all over the paper, it fragments the flow of the information. Strive for clarity. Newspapers use a standard format to achieve clarity. Your notes can be much clearer through the use of proper formatting. A very effective format is called the “Cornell Method.”
Take a sheet of loose-leaf lined notebook paper and draw a line all the way down the paper about 1-2” from the left-hand edge.
Draw another line across the width of the paper about 1-2” up from the bottom.
Repeat this process on the reverse side of the page.
Look at the highly effective result. You have ample room for notes, a left hand margin for special emphasis items or inserting supplementary data from the textbook, a large area at the bottom for a brief summary, and a little rectangular space for just about anything you want.


3. Get the concept, then the details. Too often we focus on the details and don’t gather an understanding of the concept. However, if you simply memorize only dates, places, or names, you may well miss the whole point of the subject.
A key way to understand things is to put them in your own words. If you are working from a textbook, automatically summarize each paragraph in your mind.
If you are outlining text, don’t simply copy the author’s words.
Rephrase them in your own words. You remember your own thoughts and words much better than someone else’s, and subconsciously tend to associate the important details with the core concepts.

4. Ask Why? Pull apart written material paragraph by paragraph and don’t forget the captions under the illustrations.
Example: If the heading is “Stream Erosion,” flip it around to read “Why do streams erode?” Then answer the questions.
If you train your mind to think in a series of questions and answers, not only will you learn more, but it will also help to lessen test anxiety because you are used to answering questions.

5. Read for reinforcement and future needs. Even if you only have 10 minutes, put your notes or a book in your hand. Your mind is similar to a computer; you have to input data in order to have it processed. By reading, you are creating the neural connections for future retrieval. The more times you read something, the
more you reinforce the learning of ideas.
Even if you don’t fully understand something on the first pass, your mind stores much of the material for later recall.

6. Relax to learn; go into exile. Our bodies respond to an inner clock called biorhythms. Burning the midnight oil works well for some people, but not everyone.
If possible, set aside a particular place to study that is free of distractions. Shut off the television, cell phone, and pager, and exile your friends and family during your study period.
If you really are bothered by silence, try background music. Light classical music at a low volume has been shown to be particularly effective in aiding concentration. Music that evokes pleasant emotions without lyrics is highly recommended. Try just about anything by Mozart. It relaxes you.


3. Get the concept, then the details. Too often we focus on the details and don’t gather an understanding of the concept. However, if you simply memorize only dates, places, or names, you may well miss the whole point of the subject.
A key way to understand things is to put them in your own words. If you are working from a textbook, automatically summarize each paragraph in your mind.
If you are outlining text, don’t simply copy the author’s words.
Rephrase them in your own words. You remember your own thoughts and words much better than someone else’s, and subconsciously tend to associate the important details with the core concepts.

4. Ask Why? Pull apart written material paragraph by paragraph and don’t forget the captions under the illustrations.
Example: If the heading is “Stream Erosion,” flip it around to read “Why do streams erode?” Then answer the questions.
If you train your mind to think in a series of questions and answers, not only will you learn more, but it will also help to lessen test anxiety because you are used to answering questions.

5. Read for reinforcement and future needs. Even if you only have 10 minutes, put your notes or a book in your hand. Your mind is similar to a computer; you have to input data in order to have it processed. By reading, you are creating the neural connections for future retrieval. The more times you read something, the
more you reinforce the learning of ideas.
Even if you don’t fully understand something on the first pass, your mind stores much of the material for later recall.

6. Relax to learn; go into exile. Our bodies respond to an inner clock called biorhythms. Burning the midnight oil works well for some people, but not everyone.
If possible, set aside a particular place to study that is free of distractions. Shut off the television, cell phone, and pager, and exile your friends and family during your study period.
If you really are bothered by silence, try background music. Light classical music at a low volume has been shown to be particularly effective in aiding concentration. Music that evokes pleasant emotions without lyrics is highly recommended. Try just about anything by Mozart. It relaxes you.
Read More : Great Study and Testing Tips!