To Test Or Not To Test?

In Goodman's writing, he proposes getting rid of testing students altogether. Many students that have a difficult time taking tests would be all in support of this. Instead of having a big final test, have several quizzes during the sememster. Also grading daily work would be a good indicator of how the student is doing in the class. Many college classes rely on only testing for the students grade. Some students do not do well with the pressure that comes with this kind of grading. The pressure to do well on tests starts as early as first grade. A child that young does not understand the difference between an A and an F letter grade. The tests at that age level are very short. Say a student receives a grade of 8 out of 10 on a spelling test. The corresponding letter grade would be a low B. How accurate to a students ability can that really be?

In Gardner's writing, he has a good point about testing for apptitude and not for speed. A student who takes fifteen minutes longer to complete the SAT than another student does not by any means suggest that the slower student is not as smart. The slower student possibly double checked every answer while the faster student just answered the questions as fast as he could. True there are jobs out in the real world that will require an employee to be a fast thinker, but that doesn't mean they need to be tested on that before entering college.

In Ravitch's writing she defends testing, by saying it is a neccessary part of learning. She mentions testing for a driver's license. There should be more emphasis on the actual driving part of the test than whether or not the applicant knows exactly how many feet to turn on their blinker before turning in the written part of the test. Too much emphasis is put on written tests when many things should be demonstrated to a test giver that the student is competent.