This article explores the question of excessive testing in public schools, its value in the educational process, and the impact that excessive testing may have on the student and the family unit. While assessments are valuable when used properly, excessive testing may lead to problems with unforeseen consequences.

Principals are increasingly being held accountable for student achievement in the public schools, but there are many questions about how to assess principals' achievement. There are many problems with using the results of standardized testing to assess the achievement of principals. Feedback from teachers appears to be a good way to assess the…

Building student abilities for taking standardized tests has certainly become an issue as testing has become increasingly important in the U.S. educational system. How much emphasis should a school or district place on educating students to do well on such tests? It is certainly possible to spend too much school time learning to take tests, and…

When schools are compared, there are variables that need to be considered because the playing field is not level. This paper discusses concepts and generalizations that must be understood to interpret test results and school report cards properly. There are many limitations in using test results to compare schools, particularly since students may…

The use of portfolios and rubrics in assessment developed in part as a reaction to limitations of standardized tests for student evaluation. Portfolios relate directly to what students are learning, but there are many problems in evaluating their contents. These center on: (1) time involved in scoring; (2) lack of validity statistics; (3) relative…

The effects of high stakes testing may be critical in the lives of public school students and may have many consequences for schools and teachers. There are no easy answers in measuring student achievement and in holding teachers accountable for learner progress. High stakes testing also involves responsibilities on the part of the principal who…

The use of portfolios is a rather recent innovation in teaching the language arts. A characteristic of the portfolio process is that students are led to notice their own progress through the work included in the portfolio. Many educators welcome the portfolio process because they recognize that standardized tests do not tell enough about what…

Formative evaluation emphasizes continuous assessment within a unit of study. There are many ways which may be used by the reading teacher to ascertain pupil achievement: teacher observation, a checklist of important reading behaviors, rating scales, anecdotal statements, teacher written tests, class discussions, self evaluation forms,…

It is difficult to know the information that should be included on state report cards to enable comparisons among school districts and among different states. There may be many problems with such report cards, ranging from the possibility of computer error to the chance of reporting test scores that are not reliable or valid or the use of tests…

Achieving a fair and objective evaluation of teacher performance is not easy. Student test results have been used to assess teacher performance, but this approach has many weaknesses, especially because students differ from school to school and standardized tests are open to questions about their fairness. Criterion-referenced tests have been…

State mandated tests are being implemented in the public schools, but states differ greatly in the complexity of their tests, making comparisons very difficult. States may have widely different definitions of what counts as proficient, and it is evident that state standards are set arbitrarily. It is also important to consider the relationship of…

The requirements of the revised Elementary and Secondary School Act for annual assessment of student progress highlight problems in using tests in a stringent manner to assess students and teachers. Issues such as validity, reliability, and time spent on test preparation must be considered. Some tests are used for prediction of future performance,…

Selected issues must be considered in choosing an effective assessment method from diverse procedures. External means of evaluation stress the use of national and state-developed tests to measure student achievement. In addition to external evaluations of students, administrators may use external tests for teachers. Internal means of evaluating…

Many changes have occurred in techniques used to appraise student achievement in social studies, and these new approaches may put teachers in a better position to notice the progress of individual students and then plan for sequential learning. Some of the deficiencies of traditionally used standardized tests have been overcome through the use of…

Different kinds of tests are given to determine student achievement. Standardized achievement tests are often used, but have many limitations. They may be useful in determining the content students should learn and its relevance for future learning and the curriculum. Criterion referenced tests eliminate a major weakness of standardized tests in…