Although the phrase “declaring victory” leaves a bad taste in the mouths of those old enough to remember Richard Nixon’s having done so in Vietnam (and even in younger people who remember the second George Bush having done so in the famous aircraft carrier photo), the blog post by Seth Godin on the topic is worth reading.
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/01/declaring-victory.html
For although many teachers profess to dislike them, standardized tests do have one advantage: it is clear by their performance whether most students have been prepared to do well on them (I leave aside now the outliers who take them to get out of a final exam and so don’t bother to study or try on them, for instance). Whatever you think of the merits of the exam, a class average of 4.5 on an AP exam shows better student preparation for the exam than a class average of 3.2, for instance. (It doesn’t necessarily show better teaching in the class leading to the exam, but that’s a separate issue…)
A question I have wondered about for at least a quarter century is how, apart from a sense of self-satisfaction, teachers decide they’re doing a good job with their students in any given course. I know that many people (including many students, administrators, and parents) would look at grades or exam scores. However, as in general teachers write and grade their own exams, they are effectively determining not just what they’re going to teach but how to determine whether they’ve done it well or not.
Or, to put it more bluntly, I can devise a math test on any high-school topic you give me where the average grade will be failing; and I can devise another one on the same topic, to be given to the same group of students, where the average will be an A.
Think about that awhile, and then get back to me with your opinion of measuring the success of my teaching…