The Math Map and Annual Testing
In the mid-1800’s, annual academic testing began to transition from oral exams that tested individual student achievement to written exams that were used to assess teaching quality and compare school performance. Influenced by concepts from the Industrial Revolution, tests were standardized and began to be used to measure aptitude for military service and college achievement. Federal regulations that tie funding to student achievement made testing high stakes for schools and incentivized schools teaching to the tests. Textbook publishers, eager to be adopted by large school districts, developed texts and resources designed to prepare students for the tests as their primary goal.
Homeschool students who choose, or are required, to test annually often use tests that were originally designed for assessing traditional schools, using traditional textbooks. Parents who choose to use other methods of education may find that there are gaps between their chosen curricular focus and the emphasis on a standardized test.
Parents who have clearly identified their goals can rightly assess whether any gaps from the standardized tests reflect areas where the goals are not being met or whether gaps exist because the gap concepts are not a focus of their homeschool.
When scoring well on a particular test is a goal, families may consider how to tailor their homeschool to prepare students for the test. This might include specific computation practice or specific test preparation such as SAT or ACT prep.
While traditional standardized tests are less likely to reflect the goals of a classical Christian homeschooler, some families have reported good experiences with the Classical Learning Test (CLT).
For families using The Math Map, the gap between what students practice and what standardized tests measure may be greater than when using a traditional curriculum designed to prepare students for the test. Standardized math tests emphasize computation, largely because that is easiest to measure. Standardized tests don’t measure things that students learn through The Math Map such as reading complex notation, applying the skills of learning to mathematics, placing concepts within the map of mathematics, understanding dimensional structure and patterns, or seeing the unseen. While there may be “negative” gaps between what a test measures and what a student studies, so too may there be “positive” gaps – things that a students learns but that don’t show up on the test.
In a world that constantly measures and compares, it is tempting to allow a standardized test to define our success or failure as homeschool parents. Just as we have the freedom to choose how we homeschool and the curricula that we use, we also have the freedom to choose the assessment that is most appropriate for our students. Putting standardized tests into the context of being just a small piece of a more comprehensive assessment helps us to rightly determine our students’ achievement and make adjustments that are appropriate to meeting our goals.