Re: Evaluation of Standards, Tests: Back, to Basics 

Re-view, Re-fresh: It's what's showing and what we are hearing around here these days, every fall, at least for school age children -- "...an act or function of updating the display on the screen". If only it were that easy, an updated version of an updating the students' knowledge, academic skills they ostensibly acquired in the prior school year, some of which may have been lost in the summer months while likely spending lots of time on screens. The estimated amount of time each school year that each school, each teacher spends reviewing, refreshing, sharpening their re-call. This, either in conjunction with or just following a "baseline" test the teacher administered, either on their own or at the direction of their district's "board", but now, even more likely at the direction of the "state board" as schools throughout the nation have become more 'centralized'. Tests designed to be administered early in the school year and then re-administered at specified intervals (allowing for a small margin, discretion), to sample the students' individual and collective aptitudes (those that predict the rate by which they will probably progress) as well as those that sample what portion of the 'common core' curriculum has been absorbed, re-tained -- the areas deemed "essential" to both future academic success and when the students in the home district finally hit the "Exit" door of their high school and "Enter" something else entirely😔... "wait, there's more..."

Re-turn, Re-run: As in a return to some earlier times, as in "back to basics", part of a brand of a local politician attempting to unseat another, who is attempting to re-turn to office, an attempt to bring the public's attention of the recent regression of our students' collective achievement. As in an actual 're-run', re-watching a TV series or movie. A step back in time. Which I intend on doing here (combining both literary and visual media works that many of us have seen but likely long forgotten, not fully re-tained), after getting your attention, like a well-designed infomercial. But not before I myself pick up where I left off in the last post here, talking about standards -- the ways in which we are all judged, re-gardless of age or stage -- how we judge our students, teachers, schools, parents, and even the instruments by which we are evaluated, as in 'standardized tests' themselves. There's several kinds, each designed and administered to provide one dimension or another of the ways in which we are attempting to judge. May as well do it right, eh? Well, I've talked to you here before about the ways in which we all judge, but here's a brief..."but wait, there's more..."

Re-Fresh-er: A step back, actually two, to the last few words of the post hinting of "what's to come" as in "Three Sums" (see September 20th), an attention getter (like a good infomercial), to sustain, re-tain your attention as well as the re-call of the "800" number to call, as you search for your credit card...Here a re-flection on how many things that are "essential" to our understanding, our immediate and future success, come, can be categorized (as in "Educational Taxonomies") in groups of 3😀😉😔. Here, today, I will re-strict myself, in the service of space and time ('relatively' speaking😁), to the three ways in which we evaluate people, and the types of 'standardized tests' associated with each. Simply and inclusively, they include: 1) How we are compared, judged against an 'absolute' or 'aspirational' standard (how we all 'ought to' be), otherwise referred to as 'competency', 'mastery' and/or 'proficiency' tests (more on these a bit later); 2) How we are compared with a 'cohort', our 'peers' which, in school, usually consists of those in the same grade, roughly the same age (but can be an increasingly wide age span the longer one is in school, which may call for another test which allows for a more precise age comparison), the comparison group referred to as a 'norm'; and 3) How a student is compared with themselves, primarily in a quantitative manner (i.e., are they "progressing" or "regressing"?) as well as qualitative (their relative strengths and weaknesses😔). These three ways in which we all compare and contrast have a place (yes, parents, it is sometimes even useful to compare your children, assuming you are in a 'safe' place) in evaluation of individuals and groups, such as in the world of education. As do the tests representing each category, but how much is enough and how much is...? It is primarily the first category, most often now referred to as "Proficiency Testing" that has risen in numbers and frequency, if not popularity, the latter varying between those calling for them and those feeling the numbers and frequency may be 'un-called for', with many students wanting to call them off altogether😖. In turn, the groups that have been primarily responsible for the rise in proficiency testing -- no, not the manufacturers, you cynics out there and certainly not those taking them (i.e., the students, the true consumers), and not even those administering them (i.e., teachers for the most part), but yet another 3-Sum, which will be re-summarized, next...

"But wait, there's even more...on testing"