Two of the “Wicked Problems” I see in this text are: 1) the reliability of standardized testing for measuring students’ abilities accurately and 2) the potential negative impact of high-stakes testing environments on students who possess knowledge but struggle with the test itself.

It matters that standardized tests are reliable in accurately measuring students’ abilities because tests are used to determine college acceptance or grade promotion decisions. If these tests fail to accurately measure students’ abilities, then these decisions may not be reflective of student performance.

Quote from the text: “Concerns over standardized testing range from how reliable they are in reflecting students’ abilities…”

It is a problem that high-stakes testing environments may have potential negative impacts on students who possess knowledge but struggle with the test because it does not reflect the student’s true knowledge or learning potential.

Quote from the text: “…to how they could have potential negative impacts on students that may be knowledgeable but struggle with high-stakes test environments.”

This is a difficult and impossible to solve problem because it is uncertain how much of a student’s knowledge and learning potential is actually tested, making it difficult to recognize whether the results of these tests are accurate and fair.

This is a Wicked Problem because it is difficult to solve due to incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. For example, the text notes that “although it can be argued that all students should take the same test, some students may not be able to do so due to their special needs.” This suggests that a one-size-fits-all approach to testing may exclude certain students from receiving the same fair assessment as other students, making it difficult to have a fair comparison. This is an issue because a fair comparison for all students is a fundamental right, in order to ensure that students with special needs are not disadvantaged by an biased testing process. Quoting from the text, we can see that this is an issue as it says, “although it can be argued that all students should take the same test, some students may not be able to do so due to their special needs.”

The second Wicked Problem is how to fairly assess a student’s encoding accuracy. This is a problem because it is difficult to measure and quantify students’ encoding accuracy, which can be a valuable skill for their development. Furthermore, the text also points out that “in addition, the difficulty in quantifying a student’s encoding accuracy may cause issues with creating a standard for comparison across different students.” This suggests that some students may struggle to record encoding accuracy data in comparison to their peers, leading to an unfair assessment process. Quoting from the text, we can see that this is an issue as it says, “in addition, the difficulty in quantifying a student’s encoding accuracy may cause issues with creating a standard for comparison across different students.”

Do you agree? Are there any other Wicked Problems you see in the text?