ASSESSMENT
Coming from the subject area of home economics, I definitely do not see how certain types of assessment such as utilizing standardized testing would fit into my subject area. However, thinking about other subjects I feel that it is difficult to completely turn away from standardized testing. Subjects such as Math, Chemistry, Biology, etc. that are subject to provincial examination really puts teacher under pressure of following the same format of assessment during the school year. A teacher that uses other types of assessment, which may be beneficial for certain number of students, can create discrepancy between class marks and provincial exam marks. A student that performs well in oral assessments may not perform well under pressure when answering multiple-choice questions.
A discrepancy that is greater than 40 percent requires that the provincial mark be used entirely to represent the student’s final mark, whereas in regular cases a 40% provincial and 60% class mark is used. Therefore, if a student really does not respond well to standardized tests however participates and performs well during classes, the classroom mark is still ignored and the standardized test is recognized. Furthermore, standardized testing also makes it difficult for teachers to adopt different teaching styles when they are concerned with covering all materials for students to be able to write the provincial exam. As much as the push for less standardized testing be used in the classroom and more emphasis on depth rather than amount of topics covered in class, the education system seem to still favour the traditional teaching styles and make it difficult for teachers to adopt otherwise.