I stand corrected...
Hey, I just got my first email that said, "You screwed up". I'm glad to know there's someone out there reading this blog that closely.
My correspondent (who shall remain anonymous until he gives me permission to use his name) helpfully pointed out to me that I should have referred to the MCAS test as "standards-based" rather than "standardized", because the test is, in his words, "completely subjective, zero to many correct answers, subjectively scored by humans, scored against an arbitrary 'proficient' level deemed as the goal for performance 10 years from now". Good point, although it needs clarification, so now is a good time to discuss some definitions (taken from Educational Measurement and Testing by Wiersma & Jurs).
Standardized test: A test given under standard conditions so that the basis for interpreting the score extends beyond the site of examination and the group of examinees.
Norm-referenced test: A test on which the score is compared to those other individuals and groups who took the same tests. These tests tend to be more general and comprehensive, and scores are reported as position within a normative group.
Criterion-referenced test: A test that has an absolute interpretation that is referenced to a body of learning. These tests tend to be shorter and more focused on subskills than broad categories. Scores are percentage-correct, number-right, or some other mastery indicator. These are also called standards-based or mastery-based tests.
Most of the large-scale admissions tests, such as the SAT, GRE, etc., are norm-based standardized tests - the score is not interpreted as a mastery of certain subskills but is instead used to compare the test-taker to others on the same levels. This is why you will never see every test-taker scoring above the 50th percentile on these tests - even if everyone who took the SAT tomorrow made between a 700 and an 800, those students scoring below, say, a 725 would still be in one of the lower percentiles. On these tests, where the test-taker is in relation to the others is more important than the absolute score.
On the other hand, I believe that most statewide assessments are criterion-referenced, in which the important thing is to demonstrate that a test-taker has mastered a certain set of skills. On these tests, every test-taker can indeed make a high score, and what matters most is how high the absolute score is.
So, I downloaded the information about the MCAS from the Massachusetts Dept. of Education website. The MCAS is criterion-referenced, and the items measure what subskills students have learned in the areas of English, Math, Science, and History/Social Science. However, the test is still a standardized test, in that students take the same test, under the same conditions. What's more, the criticisms of the test that I addressed in my previous post (scroll down for it) were not about the standards, although I think that establishing standards is one of the most difficult and controversial parts of developing such tests. The criticisms seemed to be mainly about the standardization part - the claims are that teachers felt they had to teach the test material rather than what they wanted to teach, and that such tests did not engage students in learning. Those points were what I was debating, and those have nothing to do with the type of standardized test that it was. What's more, the fact that the MCAS has open-ended items that are scored by human raters does not affect the standardized nature of the test. Certainly, adding open-ended items and human raters can reduce the reliability of such scores, but the test itself remains standardized.
I'm grateful my correspondent pointed out to me the need to better define my terms. I stand by my earlier comments, though.