Final Paper The debate over whether Regents Exams should be mandatory for high school students is growing with strong arguments on both sides. Those in favor of mandatory Regents Exams argue that these tests are important for testing every student's knowledge and separating those who are hardworking and likely to succeed in the real world. However, mandatory exams can lead to a lot of stress and that negatively impacts students' mental health. Additionally, there are various ways to measure academic skills that are less stressful and more accurate, such as performance-based assessments and projects. Also, standardized tests like the Regents do not account for different learning styles, potentially putting students at a disadvantage who do better in areas outside the traditional tests. …show more content…
Association, National Education Association. These tests are used to separate students and rank them by levels of intelligence. The negative part about regents exams that people don’t realize is that you have one chance at this exam and everyone can wake up and have a bad day and can end up performing poorly. Mandatory Regents Exams can lead to a lot of stress and negatively impact students' mental health, causing depression which eventually leads to suicide. Research shows that "mandatory exams create an atmosphere of pressure and anxiety, which can have detrimental effects on students' mental health and overall well-being" (Association, National Education ). This pressure can overwhelm students, affecting not only their test performance, but also their overall school experience and personal lives. Affecting their life socially is a major problem because this goes beyond school. Ruining their time with friends and family and possibly limiting time spent with them as well.
Standardized tests have historically been used as measures of how students are compared with one another or how much of a particular curriculum they have learned throughout the semester or year. Consequently, standardized tests are being used to make major decisions about students, such as grade promotion or high school graduation, and higher education evaluation. Various numbers of students across America have had to repeat classes because of the way standardized tests are used to pass or fail students. Although the tests require students to retain information until the end of the semester, I believe it is wrong to allow just a single test to decide whether an entire semester’s work will be rewarded with the credits that may have been well-earned. Some standardized testing such as the SAT, are not fair to students who may come from a poor educational background and do not retain information as their fellow peers. Students are at a disadvantage if they have test taking anxiety, which is a condition that many students suffer from “a feeling someone might have in a situation where performance really counts or when the pressure's on to do well” (Test Anxiety). Standardized tests give a false pretense of objectivity and consequently of equal opportunity. However, "the only goal of standardized tests is the scoring, which is done by machine" (Facts on Standardized Tests and Assessment Alternatives). It is made clear that the purpose of testing is to provide information to be used in conjunction with, not in pl...
These tests can have a negative impact on students as Columbia University recently states that “Standardized testing evaluates a student’s performance on one particular day and does not take into account external factors. There are many people who simply do not perform
Students dread the time of the year when they stop with their course material and begin to prepare for test. Everyone is in agreement that some type of revolution is needed when it comes to education; eliminating standardized test will aid the reform. The need for standardized testing has proven to be ineffective and outdated; some leading educationalist also believe this because the tests do not measure a student’s true potential. This will save money, stop labeling, and alleviate stress in students and teachers.
Standardized tests have been a scourge of student life in America for more than fifty years. Throughout the United States, high school students prepare for months for the day in which they have to take out their No. 2 pencils, to endure four everlasting hours of bubbling-in answers. The ACT, American College Testing, and its counterpart, the SAT, Scholastic Assessment Test, are known as the high school exit exams, in which they have become one of the largest determining factors in the college-admissions process. Both standardized tests judge a student 's performance, in which it measures how well students learned skills to meet state standards. Although standardized tests are meant to measure what one learns in high school in order to determine
tests were primarily employed as measures of student achievement that could be reported to parents, and as a means of noting state and district trends (Moon 2) . Teachers paid little attention to these tests, which in turn had little impact on curriculum. However, in the continuing quest for better schools and high achieving students, testing has become a central focus of policy and practice. Standardized tests are tests that attempt to present unbiased material under the same, predetermined conditions and with consistent scoring and interpretation so that students have equal opportunities to give correct answers and receive an accurate assessment. The idea is that these similarities allow the highest degree of certainty in comparing result...
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.
Since elementary school, students have been sharpening their No. 2 pencils, preparing to fill in the bubbles on their standardized tests. To younger children, these tests aren’t a very big deal. But little do they know that the tests they take in elementary school are practice for the biggest test they will take in their lives. This test is the ACT, or the SAT. These tests are a huge deal. Students’ results on these tests could change their plans for the future, and that’s a lot of pressure. So are these tests really all that they are made out to be? Are they really that important enough to stress about so much? Many people have started to say that standardized tests are hurting American schools, and that they put too much pressure on students.
There has always been controversy on whether exit exams should be required for a high school student’s graduation. Exit exams cause narrow statewide curriculum, too much emphasis on a single test, stress for the students, and stress for the teachers trying to reach state score standards; however on the optimistic view, standardized testing assures that students work harder, schools discover areas of weakness, and allows schools to improve performance. Exit exams hurt students who pass or fail them.Placing so much importance on one test, that is currently at a tenth grade level is asinine. These tests are supposed to help us improve, strengthen the students weaknesses, and give the students a better understanding of the subject they are learning; not keep them at a level that will never prepare them for anything. Too much emphasis on a single test gets students nowhere. Many critics say that high school graduates are unprepared for college, because of this testing many graduates go to college unprepared. The students then have to take remedial courses, because they can not handle college level work(chronicle 1). These tests are to prepare students for the classes and work ahead, but all the do is hold students back. Many teachers fear that they are sending the students into secondary education unprepared. If these tests are meant to help students with their future, but fail so miserably at doing so then why have them at all? This is the growing question in the students, teachers and parents mind. If these are meant to help why haven’t the students seen results?
The issue of standardized testing has been a highly debated issue in the United States for many years and shows no sign of being resolved any time soon. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 was an effort to standardize and improve our education system, but 13 years later it is still in shambles. While many people agree there is a need for some sort of measure for quality education, there is much disagreement about the effectiveness of standardized tests. Some even say federal programs like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top have gone too far in using test scores to evaluate teachers (Gordon 2013). Unfavorable results from these tests seem to generate more punitive consequences for the teachers and schools than help for the students. The words “high-stakes” are used often in numerous sources to describe the current testing system and refer to decisions that will make a significant impact on both students and teachers. These decisions include repeating a grade or not receiving a diploma for the student and possible loss of a job for the teacher. Standardized testing is an ineffective and expensive way to measure student achievement.
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.
There is added pressure to schools to get better scores which adds pressure to the educators and the students. The added pressure can cause health problems with the students or the educators. If health problem come from the stress of the tests it could negatively affect the student’s ability to learn (Pros and Cons, 2013). The test itself is a problem as well. The test is supposed to be unbiased based on the grade level but in most cases the test is not. As much as they try...
In this essay I will be discussing the story behind Le Corsaire, the people who created it and the social and cultural situations that affected it. The Corsaire was written by Lord Byron in 1814, which was the peak of the Romantic era of art and poetry. It is a poem which the ballet Le Corsaire is loosely based on. Le Corsaire is a ballet typically presented in three acts, with a libretto created by Jules Henri Vernoy de Saint Georges.
Standardized tests are used to evaluate a student’s performance, however, tests do not take external factors into account. This already means that tests are often inaccurate methods of measuring a students academic potential. Also, the tests do a disservice to students as they evaluate their proficiency at a time of testing, rather than their growth and improvement over the course of the year. The tests have become an outdated method of challenging students and only have negative impacts at this point. The tests develop high levels of stress in students, which is not healthy for an individual during the most important development years of their lives. Eliminating these tests will assist students in the long run as they can accommodate more time towards learning information rather than stressing over a single test. By replacing tests with more in-class lessons students will be free of constant stress and still learn the curriculum. Research shows that students are unable to remember information on standardized tests in the long run, therefore, by spending more time learning and understanding information, students are able to have a better understanding of topics. Therefore, by removing standardized tests students will be provided with a better, more effective, and fair educational
The pressure that teachers put on high stakes testing not only created an uncomfortable learning environment but ended up leading to a unproductive learning experience. I still remember taking my Math and Science Regents exams and the pressures that came along with them. I was always a poor student when it came those subjects, I remember barely passing the Math Regents Exam. If you are student struggling going into preparing for one of these exams the experience can be very dejecting. The pressures I faced are similar to those of newcomer students to some extent in that the pressures of standardized testing were unnecessary and most likely negatively impacted my opportunity to strive to better my education in that subject
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.