School Districts in Washington State should remove the requirements of standardized testing. The tests that are taken are not a valid way of showing a student’s complete abilities that are showcased in class. The way that the tests are all the same and some students have only learned some of the materials because of the classes that chose to take in high school don’t teach everything that is on the test. Taking these tests are putting a toll on high school students and causing them stress and anxiety.
Standardized testing does not let students show how capable they truly are. School Districts in Washington State should remove the testing so that students are able to express their work ethics in a better way than a single test score. The SAT and ACT tests are all tests that every student will most likely take, the test is the same for everyone. The test is completely multiple choice questions, except for the writing part of the test. By the test having multiple choice questions, it is not a valid way of showing off a student’s knowledge. It is easier to guess on an answer or look off someone else’s test when you only have 4 answers to choose from. By letting students express themselves in a more efficient way the School Districts in Washington State would have more successful students. Having the student write out how they got a math answer or explain their reasoning behind what they think about the passage is a stronger answer than picking A,B, C or D on a test sheet. When they explain why they got the answer they did, it lets them show how their brain works and what kind of student they are. The school district should not continue with standardized testing because it does not validly express how a student can perform and what...
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...a 4 hour test on a Saturday morning can completely capture what you have learned and how you learned it. It is not a fair way for students to showcase themselves. School Districts in Washington State would continue to affect students in a negative way by keeping standardized testing as a requirement.
Students need a way for them to be seen as an individual instead of a test score. A high school transcript is a better way for a student to be revealed than a test score. Once the School Districts in Washington State realizes that the standardized tests that they give out really hurts the student rather than helps then students may start to excel more in school.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/02/11/stress-teens-psychological/5266739/
Works Cited
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/02/11/stress-teens-psychological/5266739/
This is precisely the problem. Standardized tests are old and outdated, and the harm they cause to America’s education system by far outweighs the benefits. These tests were intended to monitor and offer ways to improve how public schools function, but instead they have impaired the natural learning ability of students and imposed upon the judgment of experienced educators. Although a means to evaluate the progress of public schools is necessary, it is also necessary to develop more modern and effective ways of doing so. Standardized testing mandated by the federal and state governments has a negative effect on the education of America’s youth.
Standardized testing is not a new concept; it has been in use since the mid to late 1990’s. However the “high stakes” focus on standardized testing is. The practices that accompany standardized testing have long been in debate. Those in favor of standardized testing will argue that the testing creates a system that increases grades and accountability among teachers, students and school districts across the country. On the other hand those that oppose standardized testing will argue the ill effects that standardized testing can have on students, teachers, and schools. There are numerous ways in which standardized testing has gravely impacted education, some of which are high stress levels of students and teachers, the hindrance on educational instruction, high monetary costs of testing as well as inadvertent discrimination and bias. Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota stated “Far from improving education, high-stakes testing marks a major retreat from fairness, from accuracy, from quality and from equity.”
Although there have been legitimate arguments supporting the benefits of standardized testing, such as their ability to successfully measure students’ proficiency, in recent years there have been concerns and disadvantages regarding how their misuse poses a serious threat to the American education system. Despite the belief that standardized tests should be used to measure students’ proficiency, there are more reasons outweighing this statement regarding why they shouldn’t be used for this purpose. Not only is this a particular issue with standardized testing, but the tests are becoming more high stakes and are being used unfairly to determine things such as graduation, or placement in a school, resulting in a significant amount of stress and anxiety in students. Testing corporations are also profiting from the design of these standardized tests, while standardized testing is also forcing teachers to all teach the same thing, leading to a lack of creativity in the students. Aside from these arguments, standardized tests have been found to be becoming flawed and have poor design.
These standardized tests are used by schools because they find that it is an easy way to test a student’s ability. However, the issue in doing this is for example, the ACT is all multiple choice. Exams such as these do not give the option to include worded feedback to show that you at least know something about the subject. Multiple choice exams have this problem, they can’t test the information that a person fully knows, it only tests whether they chose the right answer or possibly just guessed it. With only a slew of multiple choice questions it can be easy to get a “good” score or a “bad” score. That’s why these tests are flawed, the results they show don’t prove anything or really show anything for that matter.
The United States is ranked in the Top 5 of the world, having the most intelligent people in the world. Being one of the most intellegent countries, our education system is not far from those being ranked higher and lower than the United States. Most countries around the world gives their student what is known as a Standerized Test. A Standerized Test is a test given according to standerized procedures to students who's scores are then compared with a given standard. Students have been challenged annually by these test, and most students do not score in the acceptable range in the United States which can affect schools tremendously. Schools around the country would take their students scores to see where students have difficulty at most. Teachers do not know how to prepare their students for these assessments and students are just willing to give up due to the lack of preperation for these test. If the United States is ranked as one of the smartest countries in the world, it is impossible to think that most students do not come to par with the expected scores from these test. Schools aren’t benefitting from these tests anymore because students are just dropping out or not taking the test as serious. Districts are starting to close down schools because of low results of the majority of classes. The parents do not know what to do and can not help about this topic anymore since the government has enforced almost every school to take these standardized tests. Schools also depend on these tests greatly and are unable to notice the other skills and knowledge the students have. Are these standardized test really beneficial to the public school systems?
Standardized testing caters to one population of people and one style of learning. These tests are supposed to measure if you are on your grade level but can be extremely ineffective. I remember taking the SAT and them asking questions that I did not know how to solve and it was so long that it made me not want to take it. This creates a problem for students because they figure why take a test I know I am going to fail and that take hours to take. The success rate for that is very low. These tests cater to people that a tolerant enough to sit down for hour and comprehend the work in one particular way but everyone is not tolerant enough for it. Just like one of my old professor said everyone learns and comprehends and has tolerance for a lot of things but taking a test that is four hours long with work that you can’t comprehend because you don’t have enough time to think in that particular section is not fair to every stud...
The world is no longer concerned with educating whole human beings, but instead, it is focused on collecting “data.” “Standardized testing robs students and teachers of using their creativity and critical thinking. It holds everyone accountable for meeting this one standard when that is nearly impossible to do. It turns us into robots, dehumanizing both teachers and students.” (Gettysburg College, 1) Standardized test are given to schools by the government. The problem with that is that the government is not in the classroom with students every day. They do not know what the students need. Standardized testing takes away time from student learning experiences where they are not able to think critically or be creative. Standardized tests take place in an artificial learning environment. They are timed, students are not allowed to ask questions, use references, talk to another student, and they cannot even get up and move around. All of these things do not mirror the reality of the real world at all. These tests are reducing the richness of human experience and human learning to a number/ set of numbers. A student may have a deep knowledge of a particular subject, but receive no acknowledgement for it because their test score may have been low. Maybe if students could draw a picture, lead a group discussion, or make a hands-on project, they could show all the knowledge that they really have. They cannot do any of these things in a standardized test. As stated before, testing also creates “winners” and losers.” The “winners” get to move on with their life, but the “losers” often suffer from loss of self-esteem and the damage of “low expectations.” Standardized tests do not value diversity either. There are a wide range of differences in the people who take standardized tests. People have different cultural backgrounds, different levels of proficiency in the English language, different learning and thinking styles, different
Since the release of the report by Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in December of 2010 many in the government and community are searching for ways to reform the American education system to give American students the greatest opportunity to succeed. According to the report, American students are not testing as high as other nations in the world (Duncan, 2010). There are many contributing elements that have brought America to her knees in the education system, however, the obsession with standardized testing is found to be one of the most influential downfalls.
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
Imagine sitting in a hot classroom on a hot summer day filling in oval after oval after oval. Sounds boring, standardized testing should not be mandatory. Teachers wait from 1-2 months for results, Students take too many of them, and students have to halt for everyone to finish.
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.
Every year thousands of students are subjected to pointless standardized tests put in front of them by the state in order to measure their intelligence level. Standardized tests are tests set forth by the state to measure all students on a similar scale in order to determine whether or not a student passes a class or not. These standardized tests that torment students should be abolished and replaced with modern more incorporative exams that properly evaluate the student. These standardized tests that we allow our students to take to decide whether or not they pass a class are an unreliable measure of student performance. These tests put extreme stress on students and teachers throughout the entire year forcing the teachers to “teach to test” in order to just keep their jobs. I believe that we can find a better more efficient way of testing the students skills that they learned throughout the year without without putting so much pressure on students and teachers.
Standardized testing is a down fall to many students but also an opportunity for many others. Standardized testing has its pros and its cons. It can be the make it or break it factor into getting into colleges you are hoping to attend or the scholarships you want to earn. Some people may have their opinions about the test, whether they hate it or not but the fact is that it’s here to stay.
In today’s day and age, the public school system has made it more and more rigorous to pass and graduate. One of the steps that students are now required to take is that they are now required to take a standardized based assessment. In many educational systems, if students do not pass this test they would not be allowed to pass to the next grade or even graduate in some cases. Not only does this test have severe negative consequences for them if they do not pass, but they also have negative consequences toward their instructors and their school. If students do not show growth or show proficiency this may affect their teachers’ pay or even their jobs. Schools may be unable to receive proper funding if their test scores do not show growth, which could cause a school to become less functional than they already are. There are many problems with the way that standardized testing is implemented in our public school system as stated above.
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.