The CSAP differs from other tests, like the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, that are familiar to most adults. While the Iowa tests rank students against the average of their peers, the CSAP measures students against standards for what they should know and be able to do. Testing experts say they are good tests that use a balance of the traditional multiple-choice questions and questions requiring children to write a sentence, a paragraph or an essay. Fairness also is an issue when rewards and punishments enter the picture. If the standards represent mountains students are expected to climb, the tests are designed to show how high they've ascended.
Traditional tests tell where the climbers are in relation to one another.
They don't indicate whether the entire group may still be at the bottom of the mountain. And they assume someone will always be behind. She fell behind in reading in fourth grade at a New York City school and never caught up after moving to Niwot in junior high. I think I just got lost in the shuffle,'' she said. She was passed from grade to grade and received a high school diploma, but lost job after job because the real standard of the workplace required reading skills she didn't have.