Should test be altered to fit each student and challenge him or herself.

Charles,

That is an interesting point. The issue is: why test? Your suggestion is to test students on learning—how much did they gain in knowledge or improve on skills from before? It requires a pre-test and post-test with individualized goals for each student. Scoring that way is often used to evaluate how well teachers are doing in helping students learn.

What you described as a “set” level is called standards-based evaluation. How well did the student do compared to a predetermined level of what we want them to learn? The PARCC test given in Illinois and other states is an example of that. It is intended to measure student progress across the state and between schools in teaching things thought to be necessary for success in college and careers.

In high school most subjects are graded the second way because it is considered not enough to only improve—it is believed learning to a high standard called mastery is the best way to prepare students for the next level class. For example, without sound knowledge of subtraction, long division is nearly impossible. You need strong algebra skills before you can be expected to do trigonometry.

In some cases learning measures are used to acknowledge effort, but parents want students to know how to do arithmetic, how to understand a novel or news article, and how to interpret a graph no matter their starting point. Colleges may expect all applicants to be able to write a clear essay and solve a quadratic equation. Grades measure progress toward course goals regardless of individual starting points.

In a sense that may seem unfair, and results in stress and competition. On the other hand, meeting the standard may be what makes it possible to do more and go further. A less than satisfactory grade may motivate a student to change their study habits and learn how to succeed in schoolwork. Without standards-based evaluation, colleges won’t know as much about how you met the challenge of learning what was expected. They would rather admit students that are likely to be successful in college, and high school grades help predict that.

Individualized goals for learning are utilized by law in special education, by the way, because a student with a disability in a certain area cannot be expected to achieve to the same standard as a person without the disability in many cases.

Now that you know why standards-based testing is used, I think that it remains reasonable to keep in mind that you may be doing a lot more learning than another person who happened to earn a higher grade in a subject. Or that person who got a “C” when you got an “A” may have worked three times harder than you to get that grade.

Charles, if you remain interested in this subject, there are master’s degree programs in testing and evaluation that may be in your future after an education degree!