Standards (including standardized tests)

Hello everyone,

Today is the last day of the California Standards Tests for C-track. A and B trackers, and the traditional year people at Griffith, will all be giving the tests next month.

I have a point I want to make that's unrelated to the tests themselves, but I suppose I ought to comment on the tests.

Testing season is both good and bad for both teachers and students. For teachers, the tests take away valuable instruction time, but they can provide an accurate assessment of our instruction. Yes, they are hard to look at sometimes, especially in decile 1 schools; yes, our students don't always try (it's a problem across the state; secondary students don't take the tests as seriously as elementary students); and yes, we can't always get the data in a timely, usable way. Still, when I've been honest with myself, I could see that the tests were pretty close to my personal assessments of the students, and I could see where I needed to plug holes in my curriculum or my pedagogy. Besides, the tests always gave me extra time to get caught up on ungraded papers or unread books. My students lost class time, but gained a first hand knowledge of what they were expected to know, presented to them by real people from the outside world. And they liked the break from the normal routine.

The whole point of the tests is a worthy point: there are standards that are expected of our students.

The Random House Dictionary gives 28 different meanings for the word "standard." 22 are noun forms; 5 are adjectives. I think 10 of the 28 meanings apply to the idea of what a standard may be in education. Note especially definition 4 (cited below), the idea of a standard being normal. One of the things the state is suggesting is that, when we teach to standards (or, better, above the standards), and when our students actually learn, our students will be "average" or "normal." Anything less than that is a great disservice.

As you move through the testing season and begin to work on backward planning of the next school year, think in terms of those standards as accepted norms that our students must really achieve, and resolve to plan the year to accomplish that.

I cite from Dictionary.com:

standard

–noun

1.	something considered by an authority or by general consent as a basis of comparison; an approved model.

2.	an object that is regarded as the usual or most common size or form of its kind:

3.	a rule or principle that is used as a basis for judgment:

4.	an average or normal requirement, quality, quantity, level, grade, etc.:

5.	standards, those morals, ethics, habits, etc., established by authority, custom, or an individual as acceptable:

–adjective

23.	serving as a basis of weight, measure, value, comparison, or judgment.

24.	of recognized excellence or established authority: a standard reference on medieval history.

25.	usual, common, or customary: Chairs are standard furniture in American households.

27.	conforming in pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, etc., to the usage of most educated native speakers, esp. those having prestige, and widely considered acceptable or correct:

28.	authorized or approved.

—Synonyms 1, 3. gauge, basis, pattern, guide. Standard, criterion refer to the basis for making a judgment. A standard is an authoritative principle or rule that usually implies a model or pattern for guidance, by comparison with which the quantity, excellence, correctness, etc., of other things may be determined: She could serve as the standard of good breeding. A criterion is a rule or principle used to judge the value, suitability, probability, etc., of something, without necessarily implying any comparison: Wealth is no criterion of a person's worth.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Jeff Combe