Stadards-Based Education and Assessment

I have to think really hard on what standards may have been used during my schooling as a child. I went to a private school, so I imagine the standards and assessments there were quite a bit different than the public schools, especially during that time.

I do remember taking the California Achievement Test (CAT). It was a bit like the CSAP but there was not nearly the amount of hoopla that surrounds the CSAP. I remember being told about the day before the test we would be taking one. We practiced filling in "bubbles" on the sheets correctly and stopping when the little stop sign appeared on the page. I actually really enjoyed these tests, because I felt like there was no pressure to do the absolute best, just my best. I can't imagine that many kids feel that way about the CSAP. They study and practice for weeks, if not months, to prepare for the tests.

We were tested and received grades of 1,2 or 3. 1 being excellent, 2 being good and 3 being satisfactory. Actually, come to think of it, I think there were fours, but I made sure not to get them. My Dad only wanted to see ones, so I imagined everything less was sub-par.

One of the most monumental assessments, however was the "Senior Project" in high school that all seniors had to pass in order to receive a diploma. We had to chose an appropriate topic that we would research and do some sort of time consuming project that would reflect what we are interested in. The two had to be similar. The paper was a basic research paper of approximately 10 pages long. The project was so many hours of volunteer work, or something we were interested in. Then we made a ten minute presentation on the paper and project and told about what we learned. We had to have pictures or some type of visual for the presentation. I remember how daunting the Senior Project was for some people, but I really enjoyed it, because I chose a topic that I already knew a lot about. My paper was on the development of a foal and for my actual project, I helped a mare give birth and was involved with the imprinting and training of the foal.

I think that the Senior Project really helped to pull together many aspects of education that we should have learned by the time we were seniors. For one, we had to really learn how to write a research paper, we had to apply what we learned to a real world situation and present it in front of a group of judges for a final score. It was a pass/fail sort of thing. After finishing the project, I think I was even more prepared for College. Writing a paper of that magnitude would not be as difficult and even public speaking was something that I felt more comfortable about afterwards. I do remember one teacher's comment of how I was "too nervous". I took that and tried to remember the next time I made a presentation, and not flip my hands around too much or talk too fast.

I did have a very difficult time with the ACT and SAT. I was so nervous about putting in the wrong answer and recieving a negative score, that I left way too many unanswered. I did not feel prepared in any way for taking this test. Many of the questions asked were so different that what I was used to. Needless to say, I did very poorly.

I think some preparation for standardized tests is important, however I'm not sure I think that teaching only so students will pass a particular type of test does not exactly help them in the long run.