Standardized Testing in the Science Classroom Blog 5

Pros and Cons of NCLB
In 2006 Lihshing Wang along with a team of researchers from the University of Cincinnati brought a third eveidence based perspective to the debate of NCLB that was published in a peer reviewed journal. They looked at four issues:assessmentpdriven reform, standards-based assessment, assessment-centered accountability, and high-stakes consequences. I will look at two of the four issues.
Pro arguments for assessment-driven reform point out the need to counter the declining trends in SAT and ACT scores of American students, also pointing out our poor standings in international rankings as found in the TIMSS study. Assessment-driven reform can be a powerful driving force between curriculum and reform.
Con arguments for assessment-driven reform point out that the decline in SAT scores during the 1970's and 1980's are a result of more students taking the test than in the past not because of perfomance factors. They also point out that there was an upward trend in scores during the 1990's and 2000's. Fault is place on "the fundamental mis design of schools, lack of qualified teachers and the instability of families and communities."
Pro arguments for Assessment-centered accountability point out that standardized testing is the best alternative available to compare student perfomance across the educational sytem.
Con arguments for assessment-centered accountability argue that important learning outcomes are not being measured with the current standards testing. They would like to see a variety of sources to measure student performance. It is also pointed out that the current standardized tests measure little more than a student's SES.
references http://nces,ed.gov/timss/
http://www.ernweb.com/public/892.cfm