How Does Standardized Testing Affect Teacher Pedagogy Information

How Does Standardized Testing Affect Teacher Pedagogy? *Information obtained through Qualtrics survey By: Chris Gebler

Standardized tests restrict my choice of material

Standardized tests help me understand what to teach

Standardized tests place unnecessary time constraints on me

Standardized Tests help me plan ahead to get through course material

Standardized tests accurately assess student knowledge

Standardized tests fairly assess student knowledge

My abilities as a teacher are reflected in the outcome of standardized tests

My job performance rating should be based on the outcome of standardized tests

General View of Standardized Tests “They truly prevent me from teaching important topics in-depth. The course can wind up being a mile wide [content- and skills-wise] and an inch deep. ” “To compare my current test scores to the scores of students in the inner-city school is just plain unfair. There are just too many variables to consider in both settings. For me, the testing is not high stakes; however, for other teachers, is really is high stakes. ”

Continued “They do not [affect me]” They are not necessarily a true reflection of student learning and achievement “I am a bit jaded to public education as a result of ST's. I have been trained up to follow their strictures so they have become the forced hand towards my planning with the long-term APPR reflection. ”

Finding Although there are some issues in which teachers disagree, all have agreed standardized testing is not a fair or accurate way to test knowledge. Teachers say they are forced to teach about things in general, and cannot go in depth, according to their own statements.

Discussion I think my topic may change slightly. Finding the affects on pedagogy may be a good question, but the fairness of standardization may be another option. My data may be biased, in that my survey was only 8 teachers, most of which are from the same school (yet a couple different)

Next Steps Feedback: Which is a better topic? (pedagogy or fairness? ) Any ideas of who to survey/interview? Next steps: 1. Research on history of standardized testing (to understand how we got to where we are) 2. Conduct survey and/or interview. If I go with fairness, I think the amount of people I can ask will go up, as almost all people have taken a standardized test.