Academic assessment is the key to discovering how well students have comprehended the ideas of a specific subject. The success or failure of an educator depends on how effectively the students understands what has been taught. However, teachers cannot fully know this until each student has been adequately assessed.
In the pandemic, educator ran into huge challenges in the assessment area. Although this necessity was still implemented, the effectiveness of it is questionable. This conclusion is due to the academic limitations that the pandemic presented over the course of nearly a year.
The reality is that student grades went down significantly during this time. The grade point averages of many students, who normally performed at honor row level, took an alarming dive.
The reason thousands of students fell behind in academics is due to the lack of in-class, face-to-face instructions normally performed on any given school day. The question-and-answer activity for checking comprehension was inadequate in a distance, zoom learning environment.
Under those circumstances, many will question, including myself, whether the standardized test should be given for the 2020-2021 school year, the year of Covid-19.
Why the Standardized Test Should be Axed?
Clearly, if the results of student academic assessment are poor, the methodology adapted due to the pandemic is not sufficient to guarantee a high level of success on standardized test. In addition, studies show that student in underperforming schools have suffered tremendously.
Going ahead with the test will not give an accurate picture of academic achievement in the most critical areas of knowledge, namely STEM subjects.
Although, exceptional, high performing students may do well on the standardized test, most students are ill prepared.
Summer School Programs to Bridge the Gap
Therefore, the most logical thing to do is cancel the standardized test until the next school year. Instead, the education industry should launch summer programs designed to fulfill the gaps of loss learning accumulated over the shutdowns due to covid-19.
Academic assessment is an opportunity to measure the knowledge and comprehension of students across the country. However, an accurate assessment must reflect the proper learning model, a model that was highly disrupted during the interruption of the pandemic.
