Assignment 7
Summary Standard-Based Assessment

STANDARDS-BASED ASSESSMENT

Standardized test is an assessment instrument for which there are uniform procedures for administration, design, scoring, and reporting. It is also a procedure that, through repeated administrationand ongoing research demonstrates criterion and construct validity. But a third, and perhaps the most important, element of standardized testing is the presupposition of an accepted set of standards on which to base the procedure.

A history of standardized testing in the United States reveals that during most of the decades in the middle of the twentieth century, standardized tests enjoyed a popularity and growth that was almost unchallenged. Standardized instruments brought with them convenience, efficiency, and an air of empirical science.

Toward the end of the twentieth century, such claims began to be challenged on all fronts (see Medina & Neill, 1990; Kohn, 2000), and at the vanguard of those challenges were the teachers of those millions of children. Teachers saw not only possible inequity in such tests but a disparity between the content and task of the test and what they were teaching in the classes.

The construction of such standards makes possible a concordance between standardized test specifications and the goals and objectives of educational programs. And so, in the broad domain of language arts, teachers and educational administrators began the painstaking process of carefully examining existing curricular goals, conducting needs assessments among students, and designing appropriate assessments of those standards.

EID STANDARDS

The process of designing and conducting appropriate periodic reviews of ELD standards involves dozens of curriculum and assessment specialists, teachers, and researchers (Fields, 2000; Kuhlman, 2001). In creating such “benchmarks for accountability” (O'Malley & Valdez Pierce, 1996), there is a tremendous responsibility to carry out a comprehensive study of a number of domains:

• literally thousands of categories of language ranging from phonology at one end of a continuum to discourse, pragmatics, functional, and sociolinguistic elements at the other end;
• specification of what ELD students needs are, at thirteen different grade levels, for succeeding in their academic and social development;
•  a consideration of what is a realistic number and scope of standards to be included within a given curriculum;
•  a separate set of standards (qualifications, expertise, training) jor teachers to teach ELD students successfully in their classrooms; and
• A thorough analysis of the means available to assess student attainment of those standards.

Standards-setting is a global challenge. In many non-English-speaking countries, English is now a required subject starting as early as the first grade in some countries and by the seventh grade in virtually every country worldwide. In Japan and Korea, for example, a “communicative” curriculum in English is required from third grade onward. Such mandates from ministries of education require the specification of standards on which to base curricular objectives, the teachability of which has been met with only limited success in some areas (Chinen, 2000; Yoshida, 2001; Sakamoto, 2002).

ELD ASSESSMENT

The development of standards obviously implies the responsibility for correctly assessing their attainment. As standards…based education became more accepted in the 1990s, many school systems across the United States found that the standardized tests of past decades were not in line with newly developed standards. Thus began the interactive process not only of developing standards but also of creating standardsbased assessments. 

CASAS AND SCANS

At the higher levels of education (colleges, community colleges, adult schools, language schools, and workplace settings), standardsbased assessment systems have also had an enormous impact.The Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS), for example, is a program designed to provide broadly based assessments of ESL curricula across the United States. The system includes more than 80 standardized assessment instruments used to place learners in programs,diagnose learners' needs, monitor progress, and certify mastery of functional basic skills. CASAS assessment instruments are used to measure functional reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills, and higher-order thinking skills. CASAS scaled scores report learners' language ability levels in employment and adult life skills contexts. 

 

TEACHER STANDARDS

In addition to the movement to create standards for learning, an equally strong movement has emerged to design standards for teaching. Could (2001,p. 3) noted that a student's “performance [on an assessment] depends on the quality of the instructional program provided, which depends on the quality of professional development.”  Professional teaching standards have also been the focus of several committees in the international association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). TESOL's standards committee advocates penormancebased assessment of teachers for the following reasons:

• Teachers can demonstrate the standards in their teaching.
• Teaching can be assessed through what teachers do with their learners in their classrooms or virtual classrooms (their performance) .
• “This performance can be detailed in what are called "indicators”: examples of evidence that the teacher can meet a part of a standard.
• The processes used to assess teachers need to draw on complex evidence of penormance. In other words, indicators are more that simple "how to" statements.
• Performance-based assessment of the standards is an integrated system. It is neither a checklist nor a series of discrete assessments.
• Each assessment within the system has performance criteria against which the performance can be measured.
• Performance criteria identify to what extent the teacher meets the standard.
• Student learning is at the heart of the teacher's performance.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF STANDARDS-BASED AND STANDARDIZED TESTING

The widespread global acceptance of standardized tests as valid procedures for assessing individuals in many walks of life brings with it a set of consequences that fall under the category of consequential validity discussed in Chapter 2. Some of those consequences are positive. Standardized test offer high levels of practicality and reability and are often supported by impressive construct validation studies.

TEST BIAS

It is no secret that standardized tests involve a number ot types of test bias. That bias comes in many forms: language, culture, race, gender, and learning styles (Medina & Neill, 1990).

TAST-DRIVEN LEARNING and TEACHING

Yet another consequence of standardized testing is the danger of testdriven learning and teaching. When students and other testtakers know that one single measure of performance will determine their lives, they are less likely to take a positive attitude toward learning. The motives in such a context are almost exclusively extrinsic, with little likelihood of stirring intrinsic interests. Testdriven learning is a worldwide issue.

ETHICAL ISSUES: CRITICAL LANGUAGE TESTING

One of the by products of a rapidly growing testing industry is the danger of an abuse of power. Shohamy (1997, p. 2) further defines the issue: Tests represent a social technology deeply embedded in education, government, and business; as such they provide the mechanism for enforcing power and control.

The issues of critical language testing are numerous:

• Psychometric traditions are challenged by interpretive, individualized procedures for predicting success and evaluating ability.
• Test designers have a responsibility to offer multiple modes of performance to account for varying styles and abilities among test-takers.
• Tests are deeply embedded in culture and ideology.
• Test-takers are political subjects in a political context.

These issues are not new. One of the problems highlighted by the push for critical language testing is the widespread conviction, already alluded to above, that carefully constructed standardized tests designed by reputable test manufacturers are infallible in their predictive validity. One standardized test is deemed to be sufficient; follow-up measures are considered to be too costly.

Language tests, some may argue, are less susceptible than general-knowledge tests to such sociopolitical overtones. The research process that undergirds the TOEFL goes to great lengths to screen out Western cultural bias, monocu1tural belief systems, and other, potential agendas. As a language teacher, you might be able to exercise some influence in the ways tests are used and interpreted in your own milieu. Further, you and your coteachers might help establish an institutional system of evaluation that places less emphasis on standardized tests and more emphasis on an ongoing process of formative evaluation. In so doing, you might be offering educational opportunity to a few more people who would otherwise be eliminated from contention.

Reference

Brown, H. Douglas. 2004. Language Assessment: Principle and Classroom Practice. New York: 

Pearson Education