Standardized Testing is Still Failing Students

If you didn’t answer “all of the above,” then: A. 你一直没专心，或者B. 你在一家测试软件公司工作.

菠菜导航网大多数人都知道这一点 standardized tests are inaccurate, inequitable, and often ineffective 衡量学生的实际知识. 好消息是, 有一个更好的方法:基于表现的评估为衡量学生的成长提供了一个重要的拼图.

What is Performance-Based Assessment (PBA)?

这种学习和评估体系允许学生通过批判性思维来展示知识和技能, 解决问题, 协作, and the application of knowledge to real-world situations. In other words, it helps students prepare for college, career, and life.

PBA还允许教育工作者创建更有吸引力的教学，并通过长期观察来解决学习差距. 它还帮助他们收集全面的信息，以更好地支持学生的成功——这与州和联邦标准化考试的“操练和杀戮”相去甚远.

PBA可以意味着要求学生在一个开放式的简短回答中组成几个句子; 在一篇文章中进行全面的分析; conduct a laboratory investigation; curate a portfolio of student work; or complete an original research paper.

年轻的学生可以设计实验，写诗，或创作艺术来展示概念. 

“PBA allows students more choice in how they can show what hey’ve learned, and it allows differentiated instruction for different learning styles,莫利·马林诺夫斯基说, a first-grade teacher at Lynch Elementary School, 在温彻斯特学区, 在马萨诸塞州. “Standardized tests don’t allow choice because it’s one-size-fits-all. 学生可能有知识, but may not be able to show what they know and understand on the test. 他们可以在PBA中证明这一点.” 

内置的分化

马林诺夫斯基最喜欢的数学评估之一侧重于加法，使用从0到20的数字. 她介绍了这个概念和, 以探究为基础的教学, presents lessons and talks about strategies. As students pose questions or problems, the process ignites their curiosity. At the end of the unit, they have an “addition celebration.”

她从培养学生的流利度开始，然后要求学生与全班分享他们解决问题的策略.

马林诺夫斯基说:“最好的部分是，他们可以用很多不同的方式展示自己的学识。. “为了这个数学标准, 他们制作了一个视频, 一张海报, 录音, 一个mini-play, 或者是一篇文章. Students have a voice in how they demonstrate their learning.” 

PBA允许学生通过批判性思维来展示知识和技能, 解决问题, 协作, and the application of knowledge to real-world situations. In other words, it helps students prepare for college, career, and life.

她解释说，当他们与全班同学分享时，这有助于加强每个人的学习. None of this is possible in an individual test.

“通过这种指导和评估，菠菜导航网可以……提供有针对性的支持，”她说. “Some students will want to create their own piece of work, 而其他人则需要更多的脚手架, so I can really see who is learning what.”

在她学校的每个学术领域, from math to language arts to science and social studies, 拥有个人执业资格证书.

“We’ve been encouraged to take time to develop PBAs for our grade level, 开发和调整它们, and trying them out and making edits as we go,她补充道. 

序列，而不是快照

马林诺夫斯基在参与该项目的八个公立学区之一任教 Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment (MCIEA).

MCIEA是这些学区和当地教师工会之间的合作伙伴关系, who are working together to create a fair and effective accountability system, 提供学生素质和学习的动态图片，而不是单一的标准化测试. 

“MCIEA的第一个目标是以教师创造的方式来衡量学生的学习, classroom-embedded, 绩效评估，而不是外部创建的标准化评估,MCIEA联合创始人杰克·施耐德说. “第二个目标是以一种更全面的方式衡量学校质量, 有效的, 比标准化考试更民主.”

该联盟的框架超越了考试成绩、毕业率和缺勤率, instead focusing on multiple measures of student engagement and achievement, 还有学校环境.

施耐德解释说:“这是一个更公平的制度，不会惩罚边缘化的学生。.

的 current data used to measure student success, 增加了施耐德, 与种族密切相关, 收入, 以及家庭教育程度. It really only tells us about advantage and disadvantage outside school, 而不是学校实际在做什么.

“菠菜导航网想捕捉所有显示学生学习和成就的东西, not just this tortuously narrow vision that is embedded in the current system,他说. 

“数据中哪里是学生的参与度, 他们的归属感, 表演艺术, 或者公民能力的发展?他问道。. “存在巨大的差距. So many of the current variables are just demographics in disguise.”

On a standardized test, there is only one right answer. 其他答案都是错的. But educators know when students are engaged in authentic and meaningful tasks, they can arrive at answers that are not entirely wrong or entirely right.

施耐德说:“菠菜导航网从来不会给一个人一个标准化的测试，看他们是否会驾驶飞机。. “PBA可以更有效地向菠菜导航网展示学生所知道的，这实际上反映了了解和做某事的复杂性.”

公平竞争

艾丽莎·霍兰德是米尔福德公立学区的一名教学教练, 在马萨诸塞州, one of the districts participating in the MCIEA.

“标准化考试会造成考试焦虑，有些孩子甚至有考试恐惧症，因为他们只有这一次答对的机会,霍兰德说。, 谁在史黛西中学工作. “PBA allows students to ask more questions and bounce ideas around, which reduces anxiety without reducing rigor."

PBA also removes bias and creates more equity. 例如, 霍兰德回忆起八年级科学考试中一个菠菜导航网分解的州标准化考试问题:“这个问题问的是割完草坪后割草的情况, and students got hung up on ‘grass clippings,’” she says. “有些人根本不知道它们是什么，因为他们要么住在公寓里，要么没有草坪, or they had lawns but didn’t mow them because they had landscapers.”

分解的PBA, 另一方面, 会允许学生用他们熟悉的东西来展示他们的学习吗, 苹果核, 或者公园里的树叶——在一个图表里, 散文或诗歌, 或艺术作品. Students can show much more of their knowledge over time, 以他们选择的形式, 而不是某一天, 在一个测试问题上, 只有一个答案是正确的, 荷兰解释说.

“Working on a PBA shows 成长th while inspiring a 成长th mindset,” Holland says.

Her colleague Dan Cote, a social studies teacher in the same district, agrees. Nobody likes to regurgitate everything they know on a single test,  he says.

“的 PBA process acknowledges that learning happens in different stages, where we can give feedback and build skills during the assessment,科特说。. “这也增加了参与度，因为学生们站在地理学家或历史学家的立场上, with tasks that mimic real world activities.”  

加强与学生的关系

Standards and rubrics don’t always call for 协作, and there’s certainly no teamwork on a test, 但在PBA, students often work in  groups that build critical social skills.

When Cote’s students learn about earlier civilizations, 他们组成四人一组，共同决定他们的文明将居住在什么时期和景观中. 

“的y have tough decisions to make and problems to solve, 比如农民的法律, 如何应对自然灾害, what they should invest in as a civilization,科特解释道. 

“的n each student writes their version of what happened, 就像历史学家会做的那样——这表明当学生们读到其他学生对同一事件的不同版本时，偏见是多么容易发生.”

的n the students create artifacts from their civilizations, and their classmates try to guess which civilization each student inhabited.

At the end of every PBA, Cote debriefs with the class.

“Students always say that working together was the best part,他说. 这对老师来说是最好的部分, 太, because it helps them build stronger relationships with students. 

“We gain so much more when we can hear their thoughts,科特说。. “这不是考试成绩的问题.”