Test Scores because of COVID

Last spring when the pandemic started most schools had no idea how to continue and, as a result, not much instruction was given for the spring. In addition to kids being out of school, a majority of students did not take standardized tests like the PSAT and SAT. This then led to colleges removing the test score requirements for the application process in 2020, making it optional for 2021 seniors to submit SAT scores as part of the application process. However, not all students who took the SAT in the fall of 2020 submitted their scores for a variety of reasons. Some were not happy with their scores because they didn’t prepare as much as they would have had the tests been administered in the spring of 2020, and they already knew they didn’t need them for their applications. The big concern now is how the pandemic is going to affect test scores going forward. The NWEA MAP tests grades 3-8 in math and English and is usually taken in the fall, winter and spring. Students were able to take the tests in the winter of 2020 and the fall of 2020. The scores showed that overall the scores increased, but they increased only half as much as the scores usually increase. This means that while kids were learning over the pandemic they were not learning as much compared to other years. However, this year’s scores compared to scores from before the pandemic, showed a drop in math while reading remained the same. So, while most

students are on track with reading, most are falling behind in math, and depending on their school’s plan they might be behind for a while. Now while this data was collected from 4.4 million of students, about a quarter of students that normally take the test did not take the test this fall making the results not entirely accurate. Also, many of the students missing from the fall test were minorities or come from high poverty schools that in the past have had lower scores that could affect the measure of how much students learned over the pandemic. One concern educators have is how the pandemic will affect the current elementary students. Teachers and researchers believe that third grade is the most important grade because students go from learning to read, to reading to learn. If students don’t make this educational transition, they risk falling behind quickly. For the third graders that didn’t get to finish their 2019-2020 school year in person, they could be behind for several years because reading is a crucial part of education. Since the pandemic started so recently, there isn’t any evidence as to what the outcomes of this delay will be or whether students will be able to make up ground in their reading with online and hybrid learning. Should we use Standardized Tests?

In the current pandemic, another thing that must be considered is whether the school systems should still be required to administer standardized tests. Because standardized tests like the PSAT, SAT and NWEA MAP are multiple-choice tests, they are not an accurate representation of a person’s intelligence. These tests do not account for thinking through real-world problems and do not truly demonstrate the intelligence of a child. Since standardized tests are multiple-choice there is only one right and wrong answer, which does not represent real-life, regardless of the pandemic, where there can be multiple right answers to a problem. This approach to problem solving promotes students memorizing answers or guessing on the entire test. Therefore, that test score shouldn’t define them. Also, younger children do not care a lot about test scores and do not put effort into doing well on them. Most students probably don’t start caring about their standardized test scores until the PSAT and SAT because they need good scores on them for college admissions. In addition, standardized tests mostly focus on math and English, which has led to schools putting more emphasis on those content areas but not a lot on subjects like history and science. This also demonstrates how standardized tests are an inaccurate measure of intelligence because a student could be very good at history and not so much at English and grammar so they would get lower test scores because they weren’t being tested on history. The main two uses for standardized testing now are for college admissions and the state’s evaluation of the school system. However, it may become obsolete as many colleges after having removed them from the application process for last year are considering removing them permanently. Then there is the school system, the school districts can get more money for having higher test scores which should be removed. Teachers are also evaluated on the scores of their students, but sometimes they are judged on test scores that don’t pertain to the subject they teach. This should be stopped because as mentioned before the standardized tests don’t accurately represent a child’s intelligence. Also, it puts more pressure on the students to do well which is the last thing students need as the mental health crisis in teenagers is growing at an alarming rate.