The United States of America is ranked 15th in the world for it’s quality of education. Improvement in our education system is necessary if we want to keep up with the best nations in the world. Over the past ten years, a new push has been made to improve education in America through programs like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. States across the country are assessing teachers and schools by using standardized test scores. By using standardized test scores, states link high stakes to the results such as grant money, salary, and jobs as incentive to improve the scores for the following year. In Wisconsin and other states, 50% of these evaluations are based solely on how students score on these tests making the results have a critical impact, affecting not only the futures of the students, but also the futures of their teachers. Although it is important to give schools and teachers feedback so that they can better educate students, high-stakes testing should be used minimally for this purpose because of the lack of conclusive results they produce, and the detrimental effects that they can have on students, teachers, and even the whole schooling community.
The first problem with evaluating schools and teachers with standardized testing is that the scores are so heavily correlated with factors other than intelligence. Background factors like like their family’s socioeconomic status or disabilities that a student may have all affect a students ability on a standardized test. Proponents of the use of standardized testing to evaluate schools and teachers argue that standardized tests are a fair and objective way of evaluating students because it is a common standard for everyone. The problem in their argument is that not all s...
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... Student Test Scores to Evaluate Teachers. Economic Policy Institute Briefing Paper #278. 2010 , Economic Policy Institute, 13 November 2014. http://www.epi.org/publication/bp278/
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Teachers Need Real Feedback. Perf. Bill Gates. TED. The Sapling Foundation, May 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2014. .
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"What the Research Says on Teacher Evaluations." Learn More About Teacher Evaluations. New York State United Teachers, Nov. 2011. Web. 13 Nov. 2014. .
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.
Standardized tests have been used to see how much a child has learned over a certain period of time. These tests have been a highly debated issue with many parents and just people in general. In the article “Opting out of standardized tests? Wrong answer,” the author Michelle Rhee argues that people should not be trying to opt out of standardized tests because it allows the country to see how much a child has learned and the things they need to improve. On the other hand, in the article “Everything You’ve Heard About Failing Schools Is Wrong,” the author Kristina Rizga argues that standardized tests are not an efficient way to measure a student’s intelligence.
Was, Christopher A. "Standardized Testing: NOT The Root Of All Evil." Psyccritiques 54.23 (2009): PsycCRITIQUES. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
Standardized testing scores proficiencies in most generally accepted curricular areas. The margin of error is too great to call this method effective. “High test scores are generally related to things other than the actual quality of education students are receiving” (Kohn 7). “Only recently have test scores been published in the news-paper and used as the primary criteria for judging children, teachers, and schools.”(2) Standardized testing is a great travesty imposed upon the American Public School system.
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
On page 76 of the book, David Swing wrote in the Educational Review about his criticism of teacher evaluation. This seems to be an ongoing debate that has occurred for many years, but they often cause more harm than they do good, especially when not done right. In many ways teacher evaluations are used to punish teachers and point out their flaws; it is for this reason that there is often tension for teachers when thinking about evaluations that then directly affects their instruction to students. When evaluations are constructive to help, teachers improve, evaluations can be quite positive. The complaint comes in when the evaluations are used against
Ripley, Amanda. "A Call To Action For Public Schools. (Cover Story)."Time 176.12 (2010): 32. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 15 Jan. 2014.
Teacher evaluations have been and continue to be under scrutiny. Major reform efforts are taking place to improve the process. Traditional teacher evaluations are no longer considered satisfactory. Such evaluations typically occur one or two times a year and are administered, in most cases, by the school principal. There are many reasons why traditional teacher evaluations are looked down upon. One of the reasons is because of the fact they are done so infrequently. Very little can be observed regarding the teaching and learning processes (O’Donovan, 2011). This can lead to a very unfair representation of a teacher’s performance since much of what a teacher can do, cannot be observed in one or two observations. It is also questioned whether the judgments of administrators are valid due to both the infrequency and lack of evaluator training (O’Donovan, 2011; Milanowski, 2011). Traditional evaluations, furthermore, have been found to be very ineffective in the way in which they are scored. Most educators receive high marks which makes it very difficult to determine differences in teachers’ abilities (Long, 2011). Once again, this is probably a result of an absence in evaluator training and a common understanding of what effective teaching looks like (O’ Donovan, 2011; Long, 2011). The greatest problem with traditional teacher evaluations is the fact that they do nothing to improve the bottom-line: student and teacher performance (O’Donovan, 2011; Milanowski, 2011).
An Analysis of Some Unintended and Negative Consequences of High-Stakes Testing." December 2002. National Education Policy Center. 24 March 2014. http://nepc.colorado.edu/files/EPSL-0211-125-EPRU.pdf>.
Sacks, Peter. "The Toll Standardized Tests Take." National Education Association. 2000. Web. 2 July 2015.
In “Bless the Tests: Three Reasons for Standardized Testing”, Aaron Churchill discusses standardized testing benefits and explains that such tests “assess students based on a similar set of questions, are given under nearly identical testing conditions, and are graded by a machine or blind reviewer. They are intended to provide an accurate, unfiltered measure of what a student knows” (1). He also asserts that “outside of standardized test results, no objective method exists for policymakers to identify either poor-performing schools that need intervention or high-performing schools which deserve rewards” (Churchill 2). Imagine teachers trying to correct hundreds of tests or assessments along with homework, classwork, and other responsibilities. Also, a teacher’s assessment or grading may be biased because they know the child and may unintentionally skew results for a child who was having a bad day or shows great potential. Standardized testing is the best way to gather impartial and equitable measures of how well the needs of students are being
Every newspaper puts together some detail report on the results of these standardized test scores that are broadcasted out to the community. Quickly, communities, students, teachers, administrators are either labeled negatively are with a false positive based off a standardized multiple-choice test. Testing that give the basis for “flunking students, denying diplomas, deciding where money should be spent,” (Kohn 2011). Those are high-stakes that continue to adversely impact the nation. This high-stakes testing has lead to test anxiety in children, teacher flight and political jerry-rigged data. “Testing allows politicians to show they're concerned about school achievement and serious about getting tough with students and teachers. Test scores offer a quick-and-easy—although, as we'll see, by no means accurate—way to chart progress. Demanding high scores fits nicely with the use of political slogans like "tougher standards" or "accountability" or "raising the bar" (Kohn 2011). Communities are torn apart by labels created by standardized testing, because politicians have adopted a policy which main tool of evaluation is not the least a true reflection of
We have somehow made the “assumption that test scores equal student achievement [and]…that test scores predict success in life” (Harris 23). If a test could be used to determine a human’s success, then many great leaders of our nation’s past would not have contributed inventions, scientific findings, or other essential ingredients to our everyday life in the present. Students’ self-worth is being destroyed daily simply because they are not as good at memorizing information as their fellow classmate. Also, school districts use test results as an outlet to claim that they have the smartest and most intelligent students. Teachers are observed and judged by their students’ test scores instead of their ability to walk into a classroom and get students excited about learning. There are incredible teachers in our nation who have students that just aren’t good test-takers. This shouldn’t suggest that a teacher should be fired, but it does. Standardized tests are used to evaluate a student’s understanding of what the teacher has been teaching. However, they do not adequately determine a student’s achievement, a teacher’s ability to teach, or a school’s
“If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn't be here. I guarantee you that.” This quote by Michelle Obama illustrates the idea that standardized testing should not have such a large influence on education in America. However, a majority of people are under the impression that standardized tests are an accurate method to measure a person's intellectual ability. I believe that standardized tests have developed into a very critical part of the American education system that is hindering the growth of students and teachers instead of providing a tool that can accurately measure knowledge.
Washington, DC: National Center for Teacher Quality. Hinchey, P. H., & University of Colorado at Boulder, N. (2010). Getting teacher assessment right: What policymakers can learn from research. National Education Policy Center. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.com.