Standardized Testing And Motivation

I feel that the author is trying to say some students aren’t motivated enough when it comes to standardized test. Walberg and Brown think that if you motivate students enough they will do better on standardized test. One of the things I notice when reading this article is they motivated the students right before the test. So they are testing the effect of a little bit of motivation.
I think the author did a logical study. I feel that the author she have also mention academic levels of each school. “Three schools differed significantly in achievement” (Walberg and Brown, 1993). This might have been a factor in the scores received. In order to see the true effect, wouldn’t you test schools that were pretty much in the same boat? Which one of the schools did better with motivation? Was it the school that was academically higher than the rest? Also were some teachers already motivating their students?
Again, they did the experiment part of their research right before the test. Looking at this from a teacher standpoint, I feel they should have done this over a longer period of time. I think you would be able to see the true effects of motivation on standardized testing.
Again to delve deeper into the study, you should look at each grade also. Grade 3 made a 10 point gain, grade 4 made a 6 point gain, and grade 8 made a 13 point gain. These findings support the author’s theory, but what about grade 6 and 7? Those grades went backwards. Why was it that grade 6 and 7 regressed? Why did grade 8 have the biggest jump? These are also concepts to look at when it comes to the