Standardized Testing

I actually thought it was a little funny when we started discussing standardized testing in class because I was working on a project for another for a book that I read called Measuring Up! This book is written by Daniel Koretz and it discusses the issue of standardized testing in America and ways that we can change it! If you want to check out the summary click here and you can read more about it! It is actually a blog post that gives a couple of Koretz' main points throughout the book!

When I was junior I had an ACT prep course that was a part of my everyday schedule during the second trimester of the school year in order to get prepared for the ACT in March! The class was arranged so that every couple of weeks you would switch "stations" in order to prepare properly for each section on the test. So for a couple weeks, you would be in the Science station, then the English and writing station, then the math station! I thought that this would be helpful but 2 weeks before the ACT I completely blew out my new. I tore my ACL, both sides of my meniscus, LCL and MCL and I had an extremely difficult time focusing long enough to get through the test! I thought that this was an interesting topic to talk about while I was working on my other project because the book I mentioned above talks a lot about bias of testing, whether it's a language barrier or in my case a physical barrier. Being in a straight leg brace was really difficult on it's own and then piling the ACT on top made it really stressful for me!

I think that it's important, as future teachers, to have an opinion on standardized testing and I definitely have one! I think that standardized should NOT be thrown out completely but should be changed in ways to make it more fair for each individual student!