Some Concerns about Test Scores

Last spring I read an article called "10 Things the SAT Won't Tell You."

I won't recap the entire article, but I want to share the few that resonated with me, because I feel they affect us in elementary schools.

2.  The richer you are, the better you do.

I work in a school that has fairly wealthy and fairly poor students.  How poverty affects test scores concerns me.

4. We get the answers wrong on our own test.

This is true of most standardized tests.  I don't want to be judged like this.

7.  We're not the best predictor of your college success.

We want our students to be "college and career ready," yet test scores don't really predict this.

10. Your test anxiety may hurt your score.

Having given standardized tests to students as young as first grade, yes, I believe this.  This is not how to show what you know.

I encourage you to read the whole article.