Schools need metrics they can reliably use to evaluate students' progress and see whether teachers are successfully implementing the curriculum.
They Help You Track The Progress Of Education
When Whitby students are assessed through standardized testing, we gain a valuable metric we can use to check the quality of our curriculum. With exams created and given by an independent organization, standardized test scores are useful because they come from a neutral source
When we receive standardized test data at Whitby, we use it to evaluate the effectiveness of our education program. We view standardized testing data as not only another set of data points to assess student performance but also as a means to help us reflect on our curriculum.
Standardized testing helps pinpoint areas for improvement
Assessment data is also useful for year-over-year internal comparisons. We compare data over a number of years to find trends—and then trace any changes back to their source.
Standardized tests can help schools evaluate progress
A big disadvantage of standardized testing is that it’s easy to interpret a student’s score as the sole judgment of that student’s ability. We’re constantly emphasizing at Whitby that the number is only one point of data within an array of internal assessments
Test scores can impact confidence
When standardized exams become important in a school or district, it has a massive impact on teaching and learning.