By:Paul J. Condra
Get a dictionary and look up the word test. Compare it with this definition: An evaluative device or procedure in which a sample of an examinee's behavior in a specified domain is obtained and subsequently evaluated and scored using a standardized process.
Chances are the common dictionary's definition is much shorter, a little more open to interpretation, and doesn't include the part about being evaluated with a standardized process. But the definition above is exactly what parents and teachers need to know if they're to understand New York's standardized high-stakes tests.
Now in the fourth year of phased-in implementation, the tests have increasingly made their presence known in New York's school systems. For the first time, this year's fifth graders will have to take a standardized social studies test, in addition to the language arts, math and science tests they took in fourth grade.
By now, elementary school officials have gotten used to the controversial state mandate, and they say teachers have started to get a grip on what was once viewed as a basic conundrum: How do we get students to perform well on these tests without placing too much importance on them?
There is even widespread recognition that positive things are to be gained from having to re-evaluate teaching curricula. Still, controversy lingers and some are questioning the long-term effects of the new system as it may place more influence on test scores over teaching curricula.
Top-down standard-setting
The confusion is felt on all levels, and is what prompted the need for Deputy Commissioner James Kadamus to include the 1999 Standards for Educational Psychology definition of the word test
