A Note on the Core Knowledge Tests
From Common Knowledge, Volume 13, Number 2,3, 2000.
©2000 Core Knowledge Foundation. Not to be copied or reproduced without permission from the Core Knowledge Foundation, 801 E. High Street, Charlottesville, VA 22902.
An academic test is a sampling device which, when valid and reliable, accurately indicates how well a person knows a particular domain.
The Core Knowledge tests sample domains of knowledge and understanding that are significant and appropriate for the grade level designated in the Core Knowledge Sequence. The tests are meant to provide Core Knowledge schools with information about what children have understood and retained. They are not designed to compare students against each other in percentile terms, but rather to indicate how well students have gained important knowledge that will ready them for the next stage of learning.
These tests are designed to be used only at the end of the school year. They take for granted that a child has been taught all the topics specified for a particular grade level in the Core Knowledge Sequence. Teachers should use other types of thought-provoking assessments and activities in the course of teaching throughout the school year.
While a variety of objections, usually based more on emotion than research, have been leveled against standardized tests of any kind, end-of-year tests such as this one do have some valid educational uses. They provide teachers with useful diagnostic information. The very prospect of an end-of-year test may encourage a student to pay more focused attention during the year. Tests encourage preparatory review. And — a little discussed point — the very process of taking a test offers an opportunity to revisit and rethink a topic. In short, tests encourage two activities which, according to cognitive psychologists, are essential to learning. First is attention. Next is what psychologists call “rehearsal.” Paying active attention is essential to learning, no matter for what reason attention is paid. Rehearsal, that is, paying active attention a second or third or fourth time, is of almost equal importance. How well a person learns, understands and retains knowledge depends on both attention and rehearsal.
A special feature of the Core Knowledge Curriculum-Referenced Tests, besides their emphasis on significant knowledge, is their open character. The individual forms are not necessarily required to be kept secure after they have been administered. Students and teachers are encouraged to examine the kind of knowledge which experienced teachers and advisors to the Foundation consider to be important. Security and fairness are to be achieved by using multiple forms of the test, so that no one will know in advance which particular questions will be asked. By this means, teachers will be encouraged to teach students to understand a whole domain rather than to answer isolated questions. Core Knowledge schools are asked to cooperate with this educational purpose by not revealing which form of the test will be administered in a given year. In this way, teaching and learning should not be constrained by “teaching to the test.” Rather, both will be enhanced through the increased attention and rehearsal that an end-of-year test encourages.
The Core Knowledge Foundation values the wisdom of experienced educators, and we welcome your comments and suggestions on these tests.
For more information on the TASA tests, click here.
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Last updated: Fri, March 14 2008
