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Results from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS<\/a>) 2019 testing round were released last week. They showed Australia had improved in Year 8 maths and science, and Year 4 science, from the previous testing cycles.<\/p>\n The TIMSS is a standardised, international assessment administered to check how effective countries are in teaching maths and science. Another international standardised test is the OECD\u2019s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA<\/a>). PISA examines how well students in secondary schools across 36 OECD countries, and 43 other countries or economies, can apply reading, maths, science and other skills to real-life situations.<\/p>\n Standardised tests have been in place in a number of educational systems for nearly two centuries. They are rooted in reformers\u2019 desire to regulate schooling and hold educators accountable, in the hopes of improving teaching and learning. But how did such exams gain momentum and why are they so controversial?<\/p>\n Standardised tests are exams administered and scored in a standard, or consistent, manner. They are scored using particular scales of standards in knowledge and skills.<\/p>\n Such tests can be\u00a0given to large groups of students<\/a>\u00a0in the same area, state or nation, using the same grading system to enable a reliable comparison of student outcomes. The tests can be composed of various types of questions, including multiple-choice and essay queries.<\/p>\n In Australia, for instance, 740 schools and just over 14,200 students\u00a0participated in PISA<\/a>\u00a02018. The results were compared to those of students in other countries, but also between students inside Australia.<\/p>\n Another well known exam is Australia\u2019s national standardised test, the National Assessment Program-Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), intended for all\u00a0Year 3, 5<\/a>,\u00a07 and 9<\/a>\u00a0students across the country.<\/p>\n Similar testing programs to the NAPLAN can be found in other nations, including the\u00a0UK<\/a>,\u00a0Israel<\/a>,\u00a0Germany<\/a>,\u00a0Mexico<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Canada<\/a>.<\/p>\n So how did it all begin and what makes countries take this approach?<\/p>\n The\u00a017th and 18th centuries<\/a>\u00a0saw English and American ministers preaching annual sermons to raise money to educate the poor. This appealed to the generosity of elites, while promoting policies that enforce tax support for charity schools.<\/p>\n The public expected to literally\u00a0see<\/em>\u00a0the fruits of\u00a0mass education<\/a>\u00a0during the industrial revolution; creating a reality in which fundraising and the display of students went hand-in-hand.<\/p>\n As William Reese describes in his prominent book\u00a0Testing Wars in the Public Schools<\/a>, \u201cexhibitions\u201d or \u201cexaminations\u201d of learning became part and parcel of the US educational system. Such displays were used as a tool for citizens to judge teacher effectiveness and student accomplishment.<\/p>\n Once the days of exhibition were announced, educators\u2019, students\u2019 and even parents\u2019 preparations began. It highlighted their eagerness to impress the public with the childrens\u2019 knowledge.<\/p>\n Often reported by the press to lift community pride and morale, such exhibitions brought a milieu of people, including politicians and members of the school committee, who distributed prizes for meritorious achievement.<\/p>\n Students were focused on the task-at-hand, memorising topics and orally reciting ideas to impress the crowd. Impressions did not only rest on their public performance, but teachers\u2019 ability to successfully discipline them \u201con stage\u201d.<\/p>\n By the early 1840s, US reformers Horace Mann and Samuel Gridley Howe, among other reformers, became frustrated by the \u201ctheatricality\u201d of education and aggravated by the cruelty of\u00a0corporal punishment<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0school exclusivity<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mann and Howe had witnessed English reformers practising advanced statistics and debating the merits of competitive testing, which soon led to civil service reform and the appointment of inspectors to examine schools.<\/p>\n The two reformers grappled with fundamental questions such as \u201cWhat makes one school better than others?\u201d and \u201cHow can one identify changes in teacher practice and student learning over time?\u201d.<\/p>\n They decided it was time to establish a more formal, consistent and critical testing program than a simple exhibition. They were in\u00a0favour of written<\/a>\u00a0(rather than oral) exams in schools.<\/p>\n Materialising in various Boston grammar schools in\u00a01845<\/a>, the reformers surprised students with a one hour test attached to a blank answer sheet. A reality of competitive, written, standardised exams that offer quantifiable configurations of teaching and learning had emerged.<\/p>\n Holding sensitive school data in their hands helped the reformers to control issues of teaching, teacher promotion and leave, as well as acceptance and graduation in secondary schools (and later on higher education settings).<\/p>\n A new power battle became the centre of a long-lasting debate about the politics and the meaning of assessment.<\/p>\n Standardised tests are not new to\u00a0Australia<\/a>.\u00a0Research shows<\/a>\u00a0that since the 1800s, and although not consistently, some Australian students have taken part in some form of standardised tests to determine their knowledge, regardless of age.<\/p>\n Large numbers of students, for example, participated in half-yearly exams in the 1820s, administered by Principal Lawrence Halloran at his Sydney school. Similar to the US, external inspectors were also involved for some time in monitoring student achievement on various sets of tasks in schools.<\/p>\n But the standardised testing similar to what we\u2019ve seen in the US was introduced to Australia in 2008 by way of the NAPLAN. This was accompanied by the MySchool website, which lists results for Australia\u2019s students.<\/p>\n Then Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard introduced NAPLAN to\u00a0give accountability<\/a>\u00a0and transparency to families and policymakers on student performance.<\/p>\n The message was very much familiar: let the crowd judge while we, the reformers, steer the schooling ship.<\/p>\n The tests drummed up similar\u00a0controversy<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0criticism<\/a>\u00a0as\u00a0in the US<\/a>. It was mostly around them being a political and negative control mechanism, and their distorted critique (of what goes on in schools), waste (with regard to classroom time spent teaching to the test) and misclassification (reflection of the students\u2019 socioeconomic circumstances rather than learning).<\/p>\n These came alongside\u00a0confidence<\/a>\u00a0the tests can help diagnose learning gaps and keep parents, researchers and policymakers informed of students\u2019 performance.<\/p>\n But NAPLAN\u2019s cancellation during the 2020 COVID pandemic, as well the hiatus of standardised tests in other countries like the US, has made interested parties question whether it may be\u00a0the beginning of the end<\/a>\u00a0of the obsession with the testing method.<\/p>\n Some successful education nations like Finland \u2014 which rank highly in international standardised tests like PISA \u2014 avoid external, national standardised tests.<\/p>\n Finland<\/a>\u00a0has been a poster child for school improvement since finding its way to the top of the international rankings after emerging from the Soviet Union\u2019s shadow. The country has magnificently shifted from a centralised education system, that celebrating external testing, to a more localised one in which highly trained educators provide more narrative feedback to students.<\/p>\n As the Finnish policy analyst Pasi Sahlberg\u00a0explains<\/a>, Finland has made a conscious decision to avoid investing in standardisation of curriculum enforced by frequent external tests.<\/p>\n Instead, it focused on teacher education and providing time for teacher collaboration on issues of instruction. Student-free daily meals, health care, transportation, learning materials and counselling are also part of the package.<\/p>\n With the ongoing conversation about quality,\u00a0possible assessment alternatives<\/a>\u00a0and new ways of schooling, only time will tell whether standardised testing programs continue shaping Australian and international education practices.<\/p>\nWhat are standardised tests?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
A history of one-size-fits-all student testing<\/strong><\/h4>\n
The rise of standardised testing in the US<\/strong><\/h4>\n
What about Australia?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Where to now?<\/strong><\/h4>\n