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Welcome to Baltimore County PTA Council’s Assessment Page on the Web

On this page you will find informative Maryland State Department of Education links, as well as links to independent organizations with information about standardized testing.  We hope to provide you with information about assessment that is useful to you. 

Standardized testing is complex.  It provides schools and parents with useful information.  Additionally, testing impacts children’s experience of school, and the overall quality of education that they receive.  Testing programs have both positive and negative effects.  Below are some things you may wish to do as you learn about assessment:

• Keep Maryland School Assessment (MSA) scores in perspective.  Teachers regularly evaluate homework, classwork, and use other assessments throughout the year.  The MSA’s are only one way of evaluating children.

• Discover how the MSA program impacts your child’s classroom instruction.  Is the school using the results productively, to inform instruction?  Is the school keeping the test in perspective, too?  For example, is there time for recess? 

• Think of the MSA as a program, related to standards and curriculum.  Maryland children now have an official progression of things that they need to learn and be able to do.

• Understand that the High School Assessment (HSA) tests are designed to establish a floor of basic, rather than advanced subject knowledge.

• Relate your knowledge of MSA and HSA to the mission of the PTA.

• Understand PTA Position on testing: what does it mean?

PTA’s Mission includes supporting and speaking on behalf of children and youth in the schools, in the community, and before government bodies and other organizations that make decisions affecting children, and encouraging parent and public involvement in the public schools of this nation. 

The American Educational Research Association (AERA) recommends:

With any high-stakes testing program, ongoing evaluation of both intended and unintended consequences is essential. In most cases, the governmental body that mandates the test should also provide resources for a continuing program of research and for dissemination of research findings concerning both the positive and the negative effects of the testing program.