Reply to If everyone indeed has a 3.9 or better, there's a problem.

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "If everyone indeed has a 3.9 or better, there's a problem."

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If everyone has 3.9+, test scores would help your smart kids then, why are people supportive of test optional?[/quote]

Many very bright kids do horribly on standardized tests.  This has been stated over and over.[/quote]

Okay but presumably that 3.9 was achieved by …. taking a lot of tests along the way.  There are no public high schools that give no tests/quizzes. If they’re bright enough to get all As by taking tests in 4 years of high school, [b]this should correlate somewhat with the SAT/ACT[/b].

A “horrible” SAT and near perfect grades achieved in part by *taking tests*! is relevant 
[/quote]

Not for everyone.  Decontextualized, high-stakes tests cause anxiety that reduces performance for a reasonable sized sub-group of students. Tests in classes are predictable, connected to the content taught, and occur in a class where you have built up comfort.

Additionally, the impact of stereotype threat on high-stakes test performance is well-researched for several decades (see Aronson & Steele).  The initial research   found that when  Black, White and Asian students were given a sample SAT test that was referred to  as a measure of intelligence, Black students performed worse (essentially showing the gap that is found in the real world).  However, when they gave the same test to another group, but the test was played down--told it was a measure of background knowledge and effort and low-stakes, the gap between the racial groups disappeared.  The researchers attributed this to stereotype threat--being reminded of a stereotype causes anxiety which reduces performance.  Variations on this study have been reproduced hundreds of times in varied ways--people have found when white men are reminded of their race (asked to check a race box) they jump less high than if they are not , when women are reminded of their gender (asked to check a gender box) just before a math test they perform worse etc.

High stakes tests + stereotypes about who performs well on them seem to be a particularly strong combination for provoking anxiety which  weakens performance.  Part of the brain power/attention is spent managing the anxiety or stereotype. Day to day testing in schools does not seem to do this as much.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics