{"id":18451,"date":"2018-06-04T10:19:59","date_gmt":"2018-06-04T14:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testliquidweb.voxy.com\/blog\/2018\/06\/high-stakes-testing-necessary-but-not-sufficient\/"},"modified":"2021-04-30T13:14:27","modified_gmt":"2021-04-30T17:14:27","slug":"high-stakes-testing-necessary-but-not-sufficient","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/pt-br\/blog\/high-stakes-testing-necessary-but-not-sufficient\/","title":{"rendered":"High-Stakes Testing: Necessary but Not Sufficient"},"content":{"rendered":"

Standardized tests have been both <\/span>vilified<\/span><\/a> and venerated, and, as with most polarizing issues, the truth likely lies <\/span>somewhere in the middle<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0Despite their <\/span>well-documented shortcomings<\/span><\/a>, they are widely used in many high-stakes circumstances, from measuring the effectiveness of learning programs to serving as gatekeepers for schools, universities, and employers. \u00a0It\u2019s no wonder that test preparation is a multibillion dollar industry, which, paradoxically, calls into question the validity of these tests as true measures of learner ability, aptitude, or achievement. \u00a0As it turns out, it is difficult to tell the difference between someone who truly understands the concepts being tested and someone who has simply learned to game the system.<\/span>We see this very clearly with the standardized English proficiency tests used around the world for admittance to universities. \u00a0Just last month, I met an entrepreneur in Vietnam who told me she could teach anyone to \u201chack the TOEFL,\u201d which is not far from the claims that many test preparation centers make. \u00a0Learners are often able to get the scores they need for acceptance without actually mastering the English skills they need to succeed in an English-only academic environment. They then arrive on campus unable to understand lectures–or, in the case of graduate student teachers, unable to give them.<\/span>We aren\u2019t going to get rid of standardized tests anytime soon, but what we can do is take them with a grain of salt. \u00a0Or, rather, with some other measures of proficiency, performance, and achievement. Taking multiple measures of something in different ways, <\/span>or triangulation<\/span><\/a>, is a time-tested way of making sure that our measurement of a complex phenomenon is robust, comprehensive, and complete.<\/span>So how does this work with language learning? \u00a0First, we should figure out what the standardized test itself is measuring by asking some questions:<\/span><\/p>\n