Standardized Testing

Having just taken the Math MCA and the ACT, and being in the process of taking the Science MCA, I've had a lot of thinking to do about standardized testing, and have come to the conclusion that it's not always representative of what a student actually knows.

Let's take the ACT, for example. In my school district in particular, a majority of students preparing to take the ACT hire private tutors to teach them how to take the test. People who aren't fast readers are taught the skills to help them read a little faster to help them get through the test easier, which makes complete sense to me. Even the people who hire tutors to help them review materials they learned in previous years that they may have forgotten make sense. It's those who have tutors that teach them how to take the test. There are plenty of helpful tips for completing the ACT, including "every fourth question is a hard analysis one in the math section" and "go back to the contrasting viewpoints in the science section" (not that either of these is actually true, I completely made them up). 

In my opinion, to truly test a student's knowledge, and not how expensive of a tutor they can pay for, the test shouldn't be as predictable. The average ACT score at my high school is a 26.1, compared to the state average of 22.1, and the nationwide average of 21.1.Personally, I got a 33 going in and only reviewing for math for 3 days before the test, although if I'm being honest, I think I got pretty lucky guess-wise. After hitting my goal score on round 1, I decided to just be done with taking it, because it opens me up for plenty of scholarships in the future. 

On another note, the MCA's are intended to help districts get funding if their students do well on these comprehensive assessments, but they're very basic, baseline things for students to learn, and oftentimes aren't taken seriously at all.

Overall, the idea of standard testing to see where students rank against each other is a brilliant idea, I just think that in this day and age, its becoming less about how smart a student is, and more about how much work they put into studying and how much money they put into tutoring.

On a lighter note, if anyone's been having an awful week like I have, here's a few pictures of synchronized swimmers that are sure to cheer you up. (PS mad props to synchro I would never be able to do any of this...)