Are Standardized Tests Really Helping Students?
[Image Description: Picture of a classroom ] There are many different types of standardized tests as part of the Pennsylvania state and states' systems of assessment in schools. During this past school year, I completed my student teaching in a first grade classroom at Saint Cecilia Catholic School (SCS) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At SCS, only the second through eighth graders take the TerraNovas. The TerraNovas are a group of standardized achievement tests in the United States used to evaluate the academic achievement of students in K-12. Students who take the TerraNovas are assessed in the following areas: reading, language arts, vocabulary, spelling, mathematics, science, social studies, and other areas. SCS' administration made the decision that their first graders would not be required to take the TerraNovas because they did not view this as being developmentally-appropriate. Instead of standardized tests, my first graders took formative and summative assessments f