Standardized Final Exams in Arizona Schools. Are they Really Better for the Learners or Become Just a Measurement for the State?
By: Bimol Bee
Submitted: 2012-02-04 06:33:02 | Word Count: 608
The Arizona state legislature possesses a bill nowadays presupposing creating standardized final exams for the main courses in high schools of Arizona.
The introducer of this bill, supported by a number of influencial people in education, is the Senate Education Committee Chairman.
[ advertisement ]
This bill has found support of Arizona schools chief Tom Horne as well as some scientists dealing with the system of education. It is also treated as a good idea by Paul Koehler, director of WestEd (a nonprofit research agency), who believes that this kind of the exam will provide both the state and its schools with "broader and more logical profile" on the subject of learners' results in studies.
High school core courses won't be the only given an exam on. To this list art and music are added too. At the same time the third, sixth and seventh forms are examined in social studies.
There was a choice for schools in Arizona to make their students pass only the state end-of course exams or as additional to their own ones.
Standardized final examinations as a phenomenon turned out to be connected with the Advanced Placement courses giving opportunity to get college credits while still at school. Some states where this system has been introduced already use its benefits. New York, in particular, awards students with certificates for successfull passing of these final exams.
Sequence and Responcibility
Logics and sequence in the process of teaching is what State standardized testing believed to bring in the Arizona schools. The possibility to determine the quality of teaching and learning in schools of different areas is real on the state level. Thomas Haladyna, Arizona State University professor, treats obligatory exams introduced by the state as a way of checking the quality of education and prevent systemless giving knowledge. Unforrtunately this still happens in schools. Creation of more systemic principle to teaching is necessary.
Limits of being Enough
What teachers of districts are working on nowadays are end-of-course exams for all coursework. The Mesa school system can be named the largest district in the schools of Arizona. It is claimed that they apply these finals designed by district teachers already. Joe O'Reilly, their testing director, is worried as to the possibility of losing the local involvement they enjoy nowadays with state-mandated and designed final exams. He raises the problem of disaaperance of immediacy having become a trait of the destrict - taking, evaluation and returning works the every next day. If not to take into consideration having less control to the state, O'Reilly is concearned about the reality of measurement of learners' performance in such subjects as music, painting, or in a chemistry lab, especially by the means of multiple-choice test.
Parents are worried about the size of the home-task their children are given in reading, writing and math classes, schools are getting complains from them already. The question they raise is the necessity of such a load to their children and if it's really for assistance to their kids or just to raising shcools'test scores on the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) exam, that will bring better funding for the educational institutions.
The fact is that parents have to worry as soon as these offered end-of-course exams won't influence students advancement to the following form or the fact of graduation itself. Only rating of each school in grades is defined by these standardized examinations. They also will be taken into account together with AIMS test results and other points - graduation and the rate of attendance by every learner.
