Standarized Testing

Janay S. Mosley

AAS 4000

Standardized Testing

Even without thinking from an afro-centric point of view. I have always seen a problem with standardized testing. Growing up with a parent who was not only just an educator, but one who was aware of the biases that these test included made me less affected by them. One challenge that I face when I do think of this subject from an Afro-centric perspective is that I cannot be only concerned with that fact that I was not affected, but I have to be concerned with those children who are not as fortunate as I am. The group that presented on standardized testing did a good job of explaining the cons to such tests. The group's presentation focused on Fulton county and its students. Since Fulton County is the fourth largest school district in Georgia, a large number of students are affected by these tests.

In this presentation standardized testing was defined as a test that was designed in such a way that questions, conditions for administering, scoring procedure and interpretations are consistent and are administered and scored in a predetermined standard manner. The problem I see with this definition is that who is to say what the standard knowledge a child at a particular grade should have. These tests make assumptions that all children in different areas are the same and that their circumstances are surroundings have no effect in the knowledge that someone had determined that they are suppose to have. This creates a huge problem.

This group also talked about the history of these tests. Since these tests were created and brought to the United States by Horace Mann, they have always been another method of separation. These score were used in a school setting, to label children and the things that they were capable of doing and achieving. It is a fact that minorities porportinatley do worse on these test than Europeans. Realistically these tests are made for and by them so it is no secret that they would perform better on them.

Ukweli, the first of the Afro-Centric research cannon challenges us to use the community as an authority in determining what is true. In reference to Fulton County, I believe that it is safe to assume that most children in Fulton County are equipped with the knowledge to pass these tests. Since these tests in most cases determine if a child is able to be passed to the next grade, this is a detrimental situation for the more than 12,000 students in Fulton County. For these test to be valid from an Afro-centric point of view, the most take into count all of the challenges facing these students. A large majority of these students are poor and have circumstances that prevent them from focusing on learning. Most standardized tests do not take these situations into question when these tests are being created and without these considerations