<p>So this week was the the FCAT (Florida Comprehension Assessment Test) week for Sophomore Reading Comprehension and last week was for Freshmen. I was wondering how people felt about assessment tests, because well, not only do they base all of someone's academic ability on how they do on one test, they aren't even looked at for college. </p>
<p>Personally, I've never had a problem with difficulty on FCAT testing, but what bothers me about FCAT Math is that different people work at different paces. In 8th grade, I was being tested on stuff that I half-remembered from sixth grade. I feel like in the case of a subject where people are naturally on different pathways, standardized testing should account for that. </p>
<p>Also, I was wondering what assessment tests were administered in different places. In central Florida, we have EOC tests for certain high school classes and FCAT tests about every year until Junior year.</p>
<p>In PA, we used to have PSSAs, but now the state is transitioning to Keystones. Technically, my grade (11th) has been the test subjects for most of the new keystones so they don’t count for us, but this years freshman class have to pass all of them to graduate.</p>
<p>I don’t know how the PSSAs work because I only took one set before they got rid of them, but with the keystones math you take the algebra ones after you complete the course in your school. It’s the same for the biology ones, and the literature is given in fall of junior year</p>
<p>They are super annoying for high achievers but very useful for regular and low achievers.
High achievers tend to find them useless repetitions of things that they did years ago.
They help regular achievers understand what they know and what they can improve on.
These tests identify low achievers and students that are struggling, allowing them to receive extra help.</p>
<p>They are useful, but not really so much for people ahead of the curve…</p>
<p>@louie412
I know what you mean. I took a comprehensive reading class at three points in the school year, and the only difference I saw was that my percentile went from 97 to 98 to 99 by the third test. I mean, technically, my score did get bigger, but so did my head. (Which is yet another issue I see with standardized testing.)</p>