THE STANDARDIZED TESTS. SCHOOL USES OF THEIR RESULTS

Abstract

This quantitative, descriptive and exploratory research was developed upon the question: What do schools do with the results of standardized tests? The population was made of basic education teachers that belong to the Center-South region of Chihuahua. The stratified cluster sample included two levels: elementary and secondary education. The selected instrument was a Liker Scale with an Alfa de Cronbach value of 0.946, 73 items with five options: from strongly disagree to strongly agree, with the intention of measuring the four dimensions or areas: Pedagogical, School Administration and Organization, Community Projection and Teacher’s Opinions. The main findings were: a) students’ performance level, together with the design of methodological adjustments for the shown deficiencies and b) as inputs to establish the goals for the design of the School Project and Improvement Plan. The schools with poor performance levels have not developed the ability to use the results of the promotion actions. According to the teachers, another finding corresponds to a probable causal relation between the performance levels in the tests results and the reading comprehension level in students.

Keywords

• standardized evaluation
• use of test’s results