Should Student’s Test Scores Reflect How Well Teachers Teach?

Should student’s test scores reflect how well teachers teach?

Jazmyn Boyd

Western Wyoming Community College

        Students are taught and tested on what they know and what they can do. When a student fails a test, the teacher is immediately accused because they didn’t succeed in passing a student (Kinene, Teachers Blamed for Students’ Failure). Cheska Robinson said, “when a student believes their intelligence can be improved, they are more willing to put extra time and effort into their learning” (Growth Mindset in The Classroom, p 18). There are three different influences when it comes to a student’s success in education: the student themselves, teachers, and parents. Students play a huge role in their own education. If they don’t succeed, they don’t progress.

        If a student doesn’t do well on a test, the teacher is questioned. “… Students who use assessment results to take responsibility for their own learning have been found to achieve higher grades than those who see assessments as an indicator of school quality” (Brown, Peterson, & Irving, 2009). As students graduate from one class and move on to the next, they learn new challenging things. Students believe that personal effort and ability are important for academic success, but the responsibility for the encouragement and effort and development are somewhere else (Peterson, Brown, & Irving, 2009). Students must make an effort to succeed. Students are often placed in classes and programs according to placement tests they’ve taken to determine which ones they are eligible for. There was a study among students, parents, and teachers. Each was asked who is responsible for student learning and success. One student notably said “if you are really bright and you just don’t try, then you will get somewhere, but you’re not going to reach your full potential.” (Research in Education, No.86). Others said “you’ve got to be determined and try your best in everything and say, I can do this.’ ‘put as much effort as you can into it.’ ‘it’s just whether you choose to listen and take in information… because if you don’t want to learn, you’re not going to try your hardest in what you are doing, and you won’t pay attention to the teacher…’” (Research in Education, No. 86). One student accused the teacher for their failure: “With a good teacher. you don’t really need natural ability. Like all you need is to pay attention” (Research in Education No. 86).

        Parents also play a role in the success of their child. If a child fails a test, the parent is most likely to think that they failed because of their lack of effort. “A study found that 46% parents’ discourse about influences on their child’s achievement concerned their child’s relationships [with mostly their teachers], 35% concerned the school structure and learning environment, and 19% related to the child and their family background” (Research in Education No.86). Even after this study, parents still thought they weren’t an important role in a child’s success but that teachers were. Parents were asked in focus groups “Who is responsible for your child’s education?” Some parents answered, ‘[primarily] it’s the child’ as ‘you can only take a horse to water’” (Research in Education, No.86). Parents mentioned the importance of student-teacher relationship as a part of student success. These parents believed that children ‘”know whether or not a teacher is [teaching] to collect pay or whether they are actually interested in teaching them” (No.86). There were many parents who did accept some responsibility when it came to encouraging and motivating their children to work hard:

        “… at times you have to let them know when to concentrate, when they can cut loose, and know the behavior that is acceptable at certain time” (No.86).

“… as a parent we can influence outcome because if you have communication with your child and supply the resources and the tools and if they’re struggling with something and we provide tutoring for them… we can influence the outcome…” (No.86).

        “[Most] research [shows that] teachers take [complete] responsibility for student success and failure, rather than blaming the student for failure” (Lee & Smith, 1996). “Teachers view tests as a way of measuring and encouraging students to be accountable or responsible for their learning much more than they see tests as a way of making school accountable” (2009). If a test focus more on a student’s learning and improvement, teachers are willing to be responsible. Teachers see tests as a surface of learning to use to hold students accountable (Brown 2008: 2009). Like many researchers, teachers also believe that parents play a role in their child’s education. Teachers believe that parents should [assure] that their child is going to school ready to learn and that they should encourage their child to learn and do their homework and study. They also believe that a parent should not apply too much pressure on their child and that there is a limit to their involvement. A majority of teachers focused on the effort coming from the student’s saying that it is their responsibility to learn. One teacher commented that the students have to try hard, ‘I think that my expectation is that [students will] make a good effort [to succeed] to the best of their ability… [it’s not expected from teachers to] pass [their students in] everything.’ (No.86).