When given the responsibility of the Nu TOEFL it made me reflect on having only been on the receiving end of an exam, I know the overwhelming emotion that comes with a high stake standardized exam. The debate of whether high stakes exams are an effective way of assessment. “NASP strongly opposes the use of large-scale testing as the sole determinant for making critical, high stakes decisions about individual students and educational systems, including access to educational opportunity, retention or promotion, graduation or receipt of a diploma” (NASP, 2003, para. 2). As this source from the National Association of School Psychologists states, high stakes exams can determine your future just on one test. This kind of testing does not take into regard outside factors in different individuals life’s such as access to education, economic standing, health issues and many more just as Jones states. “One of the problems with relying solely on test scores to make high-stakes decisions is that it involves making inferences about the quality of teachers, administrators, and schools” (Jones, 2008, P67-68).
In the office I work in there has been a recent change in assessment of the programs we offer. This change consists of getting rid of the high stakes test and introducing a series of smaller assessments that will be collated into a final grade. I am exited to see the impact this will have on the students year in the program without having the stress of a high stakes exam. I will be doing this by comparing how many people pass the program compared to the number of students who passed last year ( See Figure 1). Further to the previous set of results, I will be writing another blog regarding the new passing rate of the program in the future.
Understanding how the data is being used and how due to the data trends we were able to evaluate how the NU TOEFL wasnt an effective measure of english language.
Bibliography
Jones, B. D. (2008). The Unintened Outcomes of High Stakes Testing . Journal of Applied School Physcology, 67-68.
Kruger, L. J., & Shriberg, D. (2003). High Stakes testing : New Challenges and Opportunities for School Psychology. Rouglage.Open publish panel
Abby Duncan 