Teacher Perspectives of Their Instructional Use of Tests

AbstractThe study investigated teacher attitudes toward measurement (testing) as it is routinely used for classroom instructional purposes. Data were collected from a stratified random sample of elementary and secondary teachers in a rural mid western state. Results are reported for six major attitudinal areas: teachers’ knowledge, information desired by the teacher, student acceptance/support, external constraints on the testing situation, the nature and quality of information yielded by tests, and the evaluative uses made of tests. The results depict teachers as: heavy users of tests, supportive of tests but concerned about the evaluative merits of tests, and limited in their testing expertise.