Often criticized as too prescriptive and all-consuming, standardized tests have support among parents, who view them as a useful way to measure both students’ and schools’ performances, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.
Most parents also say their own children are given about the right number of standardized tests, according to the AP-NORC poll.
They would like to see student performance on statewide exams used in evaluating teachers, and almost three-quarters said they favored changes that would make it easier for schools to fire poorly performing teachers.
“The tests are good because they show us where students are at, if they need help with anything,” said Vicky Nevarez, whose son Jesse just graduated from high school in Murrieta, Calif. “His teachers were great, and if there were problems, the tests let me know.”
The polling results are good news for states looking to implement increased accountability and for those who want to hold teachers responsible for students’ slipping standing against other countries’ scores. Teachers unions have objected to linking educators’ evaluations to student performance.
As students prepare to return to classrooms, the AP-NORC Center surveyed parents of students at all grade levels and found:
• Sixty-one percent of parents think their children take an appropriate number of standardized tests and 26 percent think their children take too many tests.
• Teachers’ fates shouldn’t rest solely on test results, according to a majority of parents. Fifty-six percent said classroom observations should be part of teachers’ evaluations, and 74 percent of all parents said they wanted districts to help struggling teachers.
• Despite many Republicans’ unrelenting criticism of the Common Core State Standards, in various stages of implementation in 45 states and the District of Columbia, 52 percent of parents have heard little or nothing about the academic benchmarks, and a third are unsure whether they live in a state using them. Still, when given a brief description of what the standards do, about half of parents say educational quality will improve once the standards are implemented, 11 percent think it will get worse and 27 percent say they’ll have no effect.
“We know when the tests are coming up. They spend a lot of time getting ready for them,” said Rodney Land of Lansing, Mich.
His daughter, Selena, will be in eighth grade at a charter school this fall. The weights-and-measures inspector supports the testing because “it shows what they know and what they should know.”
A full 93 percent of parents say standardized tests should be used to identify areas where students need extra help. Smaller majorities think such tests should be used to measure school quality, evaluate teachers or determine whether or not students are promoted or can graduate.
At the same time, 72 percent of all parents said they want to make it easier for school districts to fire teachers who aren’t getting the job done.
By Jennifer Agiesta and Philip Elliott
The Associated Press
Author: Mile High Mamas
Kemi
Decades of testing hasn’t improved our “performance” on a global perspective. But it has created a billion dollar testing industry, which guides a major portion of curriculum, unfortunately .
Leslie
What?! Who is “most” exactly?! I don’t believe that
Samantha
Against!
Kayla
Most parents must not realize we are falling in academic ratings world wide and that teaching children to memorize for testing is not educating.
Christine
Against! Instead of teaching for learning they teach to a test
Jen
Is there somewhere past “against?” ‘Cause I’m there.
Haley
AGAINST, all our children get to learn is what is on the test and with the added stress to the kids a lot of them rate poorly on things they really do know.
Gretchen
AGAINST! I don’t believe this poll at all. I don’t know any parents who like them because most of us understand children aren’t robots. Standardized tests are a ~small~ snapshot of a kid’s abilities. Too much time is wasted teaching just so kids can pass.
Lola
I call BS. How many parents were polled on this? Where were they polled? I am totally against it and we are lucky enough to have a school that doesn’t “teach to the test” and we blow their tests out of the water on most grades and tests. The schools that do teach to the test only do that so that they can keep their jobs. There has to be a better way to evaluate teachers than on how good the kids test.