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The impact of motivation on students
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Before you are even born you have standards that are waiting to be met. You have a due date, your first words, first steps, and many other “first” that are expected of you. Every individual learns to do these things at different times and at different paces. These expectations continue all the way to the class room. Prior to Kindergarten, everyone learns to talk, read, and get potty- trained at different times. However, whenever you enter Kindergarten you are given the kindergarten curriculum because you are five, not necessarily because you are ready for it. Some students may be well pre-prepared in advance for the material and others may need all the help they can get. Therefore, test scores are not a good indication of a school’s competency.
When speaking about having test scores as an indication of a school’s competency, everything will be based on the school. The school will have to have something to base it on themselves in order to have the results. This is where it becomes unacceptable. The fact that the whole process puts the school in a jam will make the school fall to the employees for the work. This process leads to teacher evaluations. No one likes to be put under pressure in the classroom. To be put under pressure causes more stress than needed on the teachers behalf. How is a teacher supposed to make students perform proficiently on tests? There are many different cases that can cause a good student to have bad test results. Students may have a lack of determination. Determination is a big factor in attaining success and lack of determination can cause one to fail. Determination is something that cannot be taught nor forced on a student by their teacher. It is something they want to have in order to do good in scho...
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...verage. When having test scores as an indication of a school’s competency, everything will be out of place, time oriented into a time slot we do not have the right amount of time for, and students will be peer pressured and possibly embarrassed.
Works Cited
Ash, Katie. Competency-Based Schools Embrace Digital Learning. Education Week, 15 Oct. 2012. Web. 18 Jan. 2014.
Columnist, Guest. "Test Scores and Teacher Competency." The Oregonian. Oregonlive.com, 4 Feb. 2010. Web. 18 Jan. 2014.
Djashburnal, and Esther Strong. "Do You Think Test Scores Are a Good Indication of a School's Competency?" HubPages. Hub Pages, 6 Oct. 2012. Web. 18 Jan. 2014.
Jilgalleca. "Are Test Scores a Good Indication of a School's Competency? | Jilgalleca." Jilgalleca. Wordpress.com, 22 Sept. 2011. Web. 18 Jan. 2014.
LCMUSCO. "Lcmusco." Lcmusco. Wordpress.com, 2 Dec. 2013. Web. 18 Jan. 2014.
...achieving high scores on standardized tests” (Solley).Because of this, teachers take more time to teach test preparation skills than valuable information (Neill, 165). Although standardized tests have been trusted for years to assess the progress of students, there is little evidence that they measure progress accurately.
The United States of America has placed low on the educational ladder throughout the years. The cause of such a low ranking is due to such heavy emphasis on standardized testing and not individual student achievement. Although the United States uses standardized testing as a crutch, it is not an effective measure of a student’s ability, a teacher’s competency, or a school’s proficiency.
Popham, W. James. "Why standardized tests don't measure educational quality." Educational Leadership 56 (1999): 8-16.
Standardized tests compare students in different states, districts, and schools. The comparisons lead to “unhealthy competition among the schools” (Pros and Cons 2). In the article, “Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing,” it is stated that “Federal funds are given only to those that perform well” (2). This makes the pressures in schools very high and makes the schools evaluate the performance of the teachers and students constantly. “Low scores can prevent a student from progressing to the next grade level or lead to teacher firings and school closures, while high scores ensure continued federal and local funding and are used to reward teachers and administrators with bonus payments” (Use of Standardized Tests 5). Standardized tests give parents a good idea of how well their students are doing and learning. It also leads to exaggerated reports of success. In Jonathan Pollard’s article he says “Consider this passage taken directly from Kohn’s book:” Then it states how when a test is first administered and scores are low, headlines are bad. Then in a few years the scores go up and the headlines are good. Finally, the scores level off or they substitute a new test and the scores drop. Causing the headlines to be bad again. Kohn then states that “This is not due to a change in the competency of teachers, or level of instruction. This is simply the process of students and teachers acclimating to the tests” (Pollard 4).
Worthen, Blaine R., and Vicki Spandel. "Putting the Standardized Testing Debate in Perspective." Educational Leadership Feb. 1991: 65-69. ASCD. 1 Dec. 2013
Today, in the United States, standardized tests are administered every year by states to their Kindergarten-12th grade public school students. Different states place different weight on their standardized testing results where some states differ their funding based on results and annual improvement, whereas other states allow schools to simply gauge where their students are scoring relative to other schools in the state. These tests, however, are only standardized within one state. One of the few tests standardized throughout the entire country is the SAT, the Scholastic Aptitude Test, administered by College Board and required by, “More than 800 of the nation’s colleges and universities,” (Comras, 1984). This test will be the standardized test focused on in this paper. While standardized testing is that, standardized, and enables the comparison of one student to another, the meaning of the score does not equate to a test of intelligence. Therefore, while standardized testing should be applied in the education system, it needs to be more indicative of the material learned in school and should hold less weight than it currently does in the college admissions process.
Almost state has gained federal funding from accumulating the test data from all of their schools (Ravitch 107). Data collected from multiple choice questions determines the intelligence of every student and their teachers. The test data is tracked throughout their lifetime in relation to their test scores, graduation dates and other statistics companies such as Amazon and Microsoft use to evaluate different groups (by age, ethnicity, etc) as a whole (Ravitch 107). Ravitch claims there are many problems with this, mainly, tests do not measure character, spirit, heart, soul, and potential (112). Not everyone is the same, and just because one may be weak in math or writing doesn’t mean they’re not smart, resourceful individuals with much to share with the world. For schools to be even seen with a slight amount more than just their test scores, they have to be in great standings with their students’ average test results. The government’s intense focus on test results hurts schools’ ability to be a well-rounded school immensely. In contrast to federal’s pinpoint focus on what students learn, educated consumers desire their kids to have a full, balanced, and rich curriculum (Ravitch 108). Schools need to be more than housing for test-takers. The Education Board may claim students’ proficiency in their testing makes them better people, prepares them for college, and ultimately, the workforce. What they are
Ferriter, Bill. Standardized Tests Alone Should Not Be Used to Evaluate Students. Opposing Viewpoints School Reform. Ed. Noah Berlatsky. Detroit: Christine Nasso, 2011 94-99. Print.
Parents and advocates of education can all agree that they want their students to be in the best hands possible in regards to education. They want the best teachers, staffs, and schools to ensure their student’s success. By looking at the score results from standardized testing, teachers can evaluate effectively they are doing their job. On the other side, a proponent for eliminating standardized testing would argue that not all students care passionately about their education and will likely not perform to expectations on the test. However, receiving the numerical data back, teachers can construe the student’s performances and eliminate the outliers of the negligent kids. Teachers can then look at the individual scores and assign those outliers to get the help they need in school. This helps every student getting an equal chance at education. Overall, taking a practice standardized test can let a teacher look at individual questions and scores and interpret what they need to spend more time on teaching. A school also can reap the benefits from standard testing to ensure they are providing the best possible education they can. The school can look at the average scores from a group and hold the teacher accountable for the student’s results on the test. The school can then determine the best course of action to pursuit regarding the teacher’s career at the school. By offering teachers and schools the opportunity to grow and prosper, standardized testing is a benefit for the entire education
Standardized testing is not the best way to measure how well a teacher teaches or how much a student has learned. Schools throughout the United States put their main focus on standardized tests; these examinations put too much pressure on the teachers and students and cause traumatizing events. Standardized testing puts strain on teachers and students causing unhealthy occurrences, Common Core is thrown at teachers with no teaching on how to teach the new way which dampers testing scores for all students, and the American College Test determines whether a child gets into college or not based on what they have learned during high school. Standardized tests are disagreeable; tests should not determine ranking of people.
Popham, W. J. (1999, March). Why Standardized Tests Don't Measure Educational Quality. Educational Leadership, 56(6), 8-15.
Standardized testing is not an effective way to test the skills and abilities of today’s students. Standardized tests do not reveal what a student actually understands and learns, but instead only prove how well a student can do on a generic test. Schools have an obligation to prepare students for life, and with the power standardized tests have today, students are being cheated out of a proper, valuable education and forced to prepare and improve their test skills. Too much time, energy, and pressure to succeed are being devoted to standardized tests. Standardized testing, as it is being used presently, is a flawed way of testing the skills of today’s students.
Standardized testing remains to be a major controversial issue for the American society today. Exams are given to students at different levels in their educational career and are supposed to measure their academic knowledge, but are these tests really the best way to evaluate students? There have been numerous alternatives suggested to replace or be used in conjunction with standardized testing.
Based on the Programme for International Student Assessment’s 2012 results (PISA), the United States has ranked 30th in comparison to other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) participating countries. The United States, a country that has once held the ideal for educational standards, has now ranked just slightly above other countries that are just being developed. By using high-stakes test statistics to drive America’s educational standards, classrooms are beginning to lose their meaning of helping students to learn and grow as individuals. Because of classrooms just teaching the test are beginning to lose the meaning of helping students to learn and grow as individuals, results of high stakes testing which can be affected by the minutest details, are not a reasonable way to judge overall student competency; a better alternative would be by performance based assessments. “Test developers are obliged to create a series of one-size-fits-all assessments. But, as most of us know from attempting to wear one-size-fits-all garments, sometimes one size really can’t fit all.” (Popham, James W.). High stakes tests are not a reasonable way to judge overall student competency because educators can not expect to have accurate and precise results in just one sitting for 12 years of learning. Although tests pose an important role in education, they should not be given such high stakes of determining if a student should be rejected from a college “based solely on the fact that their score wasn’t high enough” (Stake, Robert.).
For many years, school systems and parents all over America have been asking- does high school testing measure a student’s knowledge fairly, accurately, and do they benefit the student. The tests do not accurately measure a student’s true academic ability. Furthermore, testing does not always fairly measure a student’s knowledge. High-stakes testing only adds stress to a student’s life. Studies have proven that testing is not beneficial to a student’s educational growth. Testing in high school is affected by different factors; therefore results can be unreliable and not beneficial to the growth of students.