standardized testing

[jargon_dudette]

Hello guys, i'm back. hello to tdol, harry smith blouen, veron1 anglika, and all the gods of Mt. English. (Red 5...)
Back to my topic. I'm now taking my master's degree and one of my classes this semester is Research. And I chose standardized testing as my topic. I need your opinion on this matter. Do countries around the world carry out standardized testing? Do we have the same complaints? Here in the Philippines , standardized testing are often considered:
1. contents are based on the curriculum designed by the Dept. of Education. Thus, private schools, (w/c may or may not adapt the curriculum) are basically left out of the process.
2. Even other public schools do not follow the designed curriculum but still take the test.
3. Some consider S.T.'s as weak because of its testing method of multiple choice w/c can lead students to guess instead of think.

So points said, what say you teachers as well as students out there?

P.S. ASK A TEACHER: can you please tell me of web sites, position papers, articles about standardized testing? thanks:-D

 

[Anglika]

Welcome back - good to see an old face again

To start you off, try this: standardized testing - Google Search

 

[Tdol]

M/c can lead to guessing, but there are ways to reduce that; I think that exams like the Cambridge ESOL ones where they offer more choices than necessary, forcing the student both to exclude and to choose are a good idea.

I believe that some form of standardised testing is useful as it allows a level comparison. In the UK, we are increasing the amount of coursework and course assessment, which is little more than giving students, families and teachers a licence to cheat IMO. Our 'national' exams like GCSEs and A Levels are available from a number of providers, which makes no sense to me; there can only be one national exam body. It's not an area that benefits greatly from free market forces; you can only cut back so much to reduce theprice, which means that every year exams are poorly marked to save money. The other way to atract customers is to make it easier to pass; I remember the year when Cambridge ESOL exams were accepted by the government because my pass rate in another exam went up to 100%.

Also, I don't see why m/c has to be the only tool of standardised assessment.