Does Testing Measure a Students Knowledge?

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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.
A well created test can measure learning and diagnose a student’s weakness (Merrow, 4). In testing, the idea is for the student to get the correct answer on information they know and incorrect answers on the information they do not. However, a testing error may occur. A testing error is when a student gets an answer correct of information they did not actually know or an answer incorrect, they may have actually known (Gellman, 30)The people who create these tests want straightforward measures. However, test designers do not design these tests to measure what a student can do academically (Fusaro, 1). Large testing companies produce tests and sell them all over the country. This causes the test to be not specialized for the school or county and students do not do as well as they could have if the test was specialized (Popham, 4).three possible ways of testing a student’s knowledge exists: multiple choices, answer in essay form, or they are asked to perform a task and then graded on the performance (Merrow, 5). Some tests are designed to assess an individual’s performance, like an achievement test. Others, however, are designed...

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...cause a student’s test results to be false. The student could be simply anxious about the test and can affect the results (testing our schools, 3). In order to get an accurate reading for one student, high-stakes test results need to be combined with class work, portfolios, and teacher evaluations.
High school testing is not beneficial to students and just wastes thousands of dollars to give these tests. Art programs are being dropped because testing is more important and these programs can be beneficial to the student. Also, very important educational decisions are being made from the results of one test. This puts a lot of pressure of the student and can dramatically affect the results. In order to get an accurate, beneficial result, the student must take these high stakes tests but class work, teacher evaluations, and portfolios need to be incorporated as well.

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