Article Critique One
Main Idea
W. James Popham, a former UCLA Professor, argues that standardized achievement tests should not be used to measure the effectiveness of a school or its teachers, even though the tests were and are still often used for such a purpose. Popham believes that while these tests roughly measure a student’s strengths and weakness and can provide useful information to both teachers and parents, they are, however, inadequate evaluating tools to gauge a school’s effectiveness. In the article, Popham states three reasons why standardized achievement tests are ineffective in determining educational quality.
Supporting Facts
The first reason that Popham provides against the use of standardized achievement tests in assessing …show more content…
In order to effectively see the interpretations of a student’s ability, the questions included in the assessment efficiently spread out the students total test score. The questions that do this are ones that only about half the students who the test answer correct. Inversely, the questions that the majority of students answer correctly are frequently omitted. Popham (1999) clarifies this idea by stating, “the better the job that teachers do in teaching important knowledge and/or skills, the less likely it is that there will be items on a standardized achievement test measuring such knowledge and/or skills.” If this is the case, then why evaluate a teacher using an assessment that purposefully leaves out questions on content that the teacher effectively educates their students …show more content…
The three factors that he lists are “(1) what’s taught in school, (2) a student’s native intellectual ability, and (3) a student’s out-of-school learning” (Popham, 1999). The first factor is directly linked to educational quality and the assessment could be used to assess educational quality if the whole assessment were based on it, but the other two factors contribute to the questions in the test as well. Other questions included on the test require a certain set of innate intellectual abilities. This causes problems because children are not all born with the same skills, which is precisely why test makers use questions that require these skills, for they are not taught in school and not all the students will be able to answer these questions. And finally, a student’s socioeconomic status contributes to their performance on the test, as their status will determine what things they have been exposed to throughout their life. These questions are included in the assessment because it will further spread out the scores of students because children whose families have lower socioeconomic status have a lower chance of getting the answer. This in sum concludes Popham’s reasons for not using standardized achievement tests. As Popham (1999) says, “[e]mploying standardized achievement tests to
Main Idea
W. James Popham, a former UCLA Professor, argues that standardized achievement tests should not be used to measure the effectiveness of a school or its teachers, even though the tests were and are still often used for such a purpose. Popham believes that while these tests roughly measure a student’s strengths and weakness and can provide useful information to both teachers and parents, they are, however, inadequate evaluating tools to gauge a school’s effectiveness. In the article, Popham states three reasons why standardized achievement tests are ineffective in determining educational quality.
Supporting Facts
The first reason that Popham provides against the use of standardized achievement tests in assessing …show more content…
In order to effectively see the interpretations of a student’s ability, the questions included in the assessment efficiently spread out the students total test score. The questions that do this are ones that only about half the students who the test answer correct. Inversely, the questions that the majority of students answer correctly are frequently omitted. Popham (1999) clarifies this idea by stating, “the better the job that teachers do in teaching important knowledge and/or skills, the less likely it is that there will be items on a standardized achievement test measuring such knowledge and/or skills.” If this is the case, then why evaluate a teacher using an assessment that purposefully leaves out questions on content that the teacher effectively educates their students …show more content…
The three factors that he lists are “(1) what’s taught in school, (2) a student’s native intellectual ability, and (3) a student’s out-of-school learning” (Popham, 1999). The first factor is directly linked to educational quality and the assessment could be used to assess educational quality if the whole assessment were based on it, but the other two factors contribute to the questions in the test as well. Other questions included on the test require a certain set of innate intellectual abilities. This causes problems because children are not all born with the same skills, which is precisely why test makers use questions that require these skills, for they are not taught in school and not all the students will be able to answer these questions. And finally, a student’s socioeconomic status contributes to their performance on the test, as their status will determine what things they have been exposed to throughout their life. These questions are included in the assessment because it will further spread out the scores of students because children whose families have lower socioeconomic status have a lower chance of getting the answer. This in sum concludes Popham’s reasons for not using standardized achievement tests. As Popham (1999) says, “[e]mploying standardized achievement tests to