It’s approaching the time in many states when our students will have to take annual standardized tests.
I’ve written quite a few posts about how I prepare my students to take them, as well as posts writing about how bad the tests are. I thought I’d bring them all together in one “The Best…” list.
I’ve made it quite clear that our school we intentionally do little explicit “test-prep” work with our students. Instead, we believe the work we do during the entire year prepares them to be lifelong learners and that this will show-up in test results. We also do a number of things to help students feel positive on test days.
Please feel free to offer suggestions for other good resources on how to prepare students for the tests, or pieces that show why the tests are bad.
You might also be interested in A Beginning “The Best…” List Of Free & Decent Online Practice Sites For State Tests — Help Me Add More!
Here are my choices for The Best Posts On How To Prepare For Standardized Tests (And Why They’re Bad):
PREPARING FOR TESTS
Getting Into A “Smart” Frame Of Mind on Test-Days
What Snacks Do You Give Students On Test-Taking Days?
Display The Letter “A” On Test Days & Your Students Will Do Better?
More On Test-Day Brain-”Priming”
Talking With Students About Standardized Tests
“To Improve Girls’ Science Scores, Show Them Women Scientists”
Brief Social Conversations Improves Performance On Cognitive Tasks
Thinking About Our Ancestors Helps Us Do Better In Tests
“Brief Diversions Vastly Improve Focus, Researchers Find”
The Most Effective Thing I’ve Done To Prepare Students For Standardized Tests
“Write About A Success That One Of Your Ancestors Had”
The Cognitive Benefits of Chewing Gum is by Jonah Lehrer at Wired. He reports on a study that showed test-takers chewing gum scored higher than those who did it — it kept the chewers more alert. I thought this was particularly interesting because the only other similar research I had read was financed by the Wrigley Company, which didn’t inspire a great deal of confidence in its integrity.
Chewing Gum May Improve Test Scores reports on a new study that says chewing gum can improve test performance, but only for fifteen or twenty minutes after chewing stops. It says the gum should only be chewed prior to the test and will actually ultimately hurt test performance if it continues. This contradicts the previous study.
WHY THESE TESTS ARE BAD:
Meeting Testing Goals By Lowering Standards
“Why Rising Test Scores May Not Mean Increased Learning”
So This Is What Obama Was Talking About…
“Test scores poor tool for teacher evaluation”
Refusing To Give A Standardized Test
“Why you should be skeptical about standardized test scores”
Race to Self Destruction: A History Lesson for Education Reformers is by Yong Zhao.
Michelle Rhee’s Cheating Scandal is by Dana Goldstein.
Transcript (& Selected Highlights) From President Obama’s Town Hall Meeting On Education Today
The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Test Scorer by Dan DiMaggio
“As The Stakes Go Up, The Validity Goes Down”
The Test Generation is an article by Dana Goldstein that was just published in The American Prospect magazine.
Do Standardized Tests Reflect Student Learning in Schools? is by Patrick Ledesma.
Resistance to test-based school reform is growing is by Valerie Strauss at The Washington Post.
‘I am a bad teacher’ appeared in Valerie Strauss’ blog in The Washington Post.
High-stakes tests and cheating: An inevitable combination? is from The Hechinger Report.
Testing Insanity: Amount of Time on Testing is a fascinating chart by John T. Spencer.
Is the use of standardized tests improving education in America? is a good summary of research from Pro/Con.
If Gifted And Talented Programs Don’t Boost Scores, Should We Eliminate Them? comes from The Shanker Blog.
Why Test-Driven Accountability Is Grasping at Straws is by John Thompson
Standardized tests for everyone? In the Internet age, that’s the wrong answer. is from The Washington Post.
“Teach With, Not ‘To” The Test”
When an adult took standardized tests forced on kids is from Valerie Strauss’ blog at The Washington Post.
This music video comes via Tom Whitby and The Educator’s PLN:
Standardized Testing & Creative Thinking
Remembering Test Scores and Learning about Regression toward the Mean is by Larry Cuban.
Standardized Testing Fails the Exam is by W. James Popham and appeared in Edutopia
SURVIVING THE POST-TEST BLUES
WHAT STUDENTS THINK OF THEM
My Students Reflect On Standardized Tests
Building Social Capital In The Classroom Helps With Test-Taking
Additional suggestions are welcome. Though many of these posts point to articles written by others, I’m sure I’ve missed some great ones that are out there. I’d love to revise this list and add them.
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You might also want to explore the 400 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.
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August 15, 2010 at 2:58 pm
love your blogs.
It would be really interesting if you would also cover something on entrance/enrolment and level assessment tests, i.e. ESL schools related, since this is a major problem for ESL school teachers when faced with mixed level groups on the first day of class.
what do you say?
any links for this?
Thanks for your help.
BTW your securitywordfontscriptisthepits. and you cant change it if you dont understand what 2 write…
May 17, 2012 at 12:03 am
I’m in something of a power struggle with my colleagues at a high school in a small poor town. I am a Reading Specialist and this is my first year at this school and at a high school. The English dept. (me included) are supposed to be figuring out common bell work and what to do for a 35 minute standardized test prep class that meets each of our 4 day week. I have read a lot of research claiming that SSR is the best thing to do for test prep but a couple of teachers are rabid about continuing to use the test prep workbooks though they can’t back their decision with any research. Do you know of any sources of information regarding this issue? Thanks.
May 17, 2012 at 12:06 am
Cindi,
I’ll actually have a chapter about this in the sequel to my “Motivating” book that will be coming out next spring. Most research that I’ve seen says — beyond teaching test-taking strategies for a week or so — the best test prep is just doing the regular curriculum.
Larry