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How standardized testing is unfair
How standardized testing is unfair
Impact standardized tests have on education
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Common Core
Common Core is a set of high-quality academic standards in Math, English, Language Arts, and Literacy (“Common Core”). The standards outline what every student should be able to interpret by the end of the grade (“Common Core”). The standards are supposed to allow students to be ready when they graduate from high school regardless of where they are taught (“Common Core”). Forty-two states, the District of Columbia, four territories, and the Department of Defense Education Activity have adopted and fully believe that Common Core is necessary (“Common Core”). However I do not agree with the Common Core Curriculum in any way. I believe that every child learns in a different way and at a different pace. If we continue to hold children
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Common Core is attempting to use approaches such as standardized testing to create equality between every student but Common Core is actually discouraging students to be who they are and holding them up to unfair standards in which they will be evaluated on.
Common Core is attempting to create equality among all children that are in the same grade level, no matter where they are from or what level they are currently at in their learning. What Common Core advocates fail to realize is that the Common Core curriculum is actually discouraging children to
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With these standardized tests comes a time limit in which the student is given to complete each subject. Having a time limit on a test does not give the child a chance to fully think through each question resulting in test scores that could possibly be higher if they were given the opportunity to perform these tests at their own paces. Also standardized testing does not account for the different ways a child learns. If a child struggles with reading, for example, he or she may not be able to complete as much of the test as a child that excels in reading. Because of his or her inability to read and comprehend the questions and answers as fast as the child that excels in reading, the struggling child will most likely not be able to answer the same amount of questions in the same amount of time as the child that excels. The resulting test scores would fail to show the struggling child’s full ability because the child might not have had enough time to complete the test. The No Child Left Behind program is based on creating an equality for all children in their learning environments and was put into effect with hopes of dramatically increasing performance in academics. According to an argument on Common Core Standards, “No Child Left Behind failed to significantly increase academic performance or positively affect the education of undeserved black and Latino students and had a negative impact
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.
The Common Cores are set of guidelines that each teacher must meet during each school year. These guidelines are met during exams and other types of testing. In Stop The Madness: On “No Child Left Behind” by Diane Ravitch she begins her argument against the NCLB-No Child Left Behind- saying that it worthless for it forces the school to focus only making test requirements instead of students actually getting the main reason why students that go to school, it is to receive knowledge. “One of the unintended consequences of NCLB was the shrinkage of time available to teach anything other than reading and math...Test scores became an obsession” ( Paragraph 7 Ravitch). The “test scores” are wrecking and straying away from true purpose of the schools around the country. The obsession made many educators focus on more test taking skills then the actual knowledge of the subject in order to reach the stranders that the administration have given them . Despite the test scores, the United States are not high rank in math according to the U.S Math Performance in Global Perspective by the Harvard University and Stanford University. In the US itself, the percentage of students that are taking advanced classes are 11.4% in Massachusetts. This is the highest percentage in the US that students are taking high scores. Yes, not every student has the ability to do the
Another major criticism of the “No Child Left Behind” deals with the implications of using a standardized test as means of assessing achievement.
Forty-two states have adopted Common Core State Standards. These standards were created to focus only on English and Mathematics. In effect of states adopting Common Core Standards, all other subjects taught in school seemed less important. History and Science standards are no longer stressed. Students are limited to being proficient in only two subjects. The Common Core deprives students’ ability to be skilled in multiple areas. These standards do not provide a slight “break” from the challenging fast past teaching of English and Mathematics. In addition to limiting education to English and Mathematics, Jill Bowden explains that the Common Core is affecting kindergarteners by taking “away from materials that encourage playful learning.” (36).
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.
Since 2010, there were 45 states that have adopted the same educational standards called Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The initiative is sponsored by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers and seeks to establish consistent education standards across the states. The Common Core Standards is initiative state-led effort that established a single set of clear educational standards for kindergarten through 12th grade in English and Mathematical standards. These standards help to educate all of the students equally, they help children who move from state to state, as well as they help to prepare students for college and workplace. The common core standard helps to provide a clear understanding for teachers and parents of what is expected of the students to learn. It is designed to help educate our children for the future; it gives them the knowledge and skill they need to be prepared for post secondary education and employment. "The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world." (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers)
Common Core is pushing students to think critically by answering questions with more explanation. Students are required back their answer providing evidence for their answers. “The Common Core strives to create a uniform playing field for all kids and an evidence-based, robust learning system in every grade, with the end goal of college and career success in clear and obtainable sight” (How Will the Common Core Standards Affect You Child?, 2014). On a positive note, this is great for the students, but will require corporation from everyone to make it happen. Teachers are required to make their math and literacy lesson plans rigor. “Urged to dig deeper, students will find themselves interacting with subject matter at an enhanced level, allowing for long-term retention of information and an enhanced ability to utilize analytical thinking throughout multiple areas of their lives” (How Will the Common Core Standards Affect You Child?, 2014). Common Core not only affects student learning, but it affects test also. With Common Core, tests will be more challenging and scores are said to drop. “As a measure of accountability, both for students and for schools, testing under the Common Core will be more challenging and for some, might produce temporarily drop scores and possibly the need for summer school” (How Will
The colonization of America began when many colonists and settlers from emigrated from Europe and began to settle into the North American colonies. Many came to the North American colonies to look for the opportunity of wealth by conquering and ruling land. Throughout the years, the transformation of the country changed drastically and experienced an era of remarkable growth. As the approach to the 18th century became closer, British America had developed a method of ruling and government in the North American Colonies and with time, America would want fight for their independence from the British. One key event that supported the move toward American Independence included the publication of an influential pamphlet, Common Sense, written by Thomas Paine. Common Sense highlighted the importance in conquering independence from Britain and gave colonists the devotion and self-fulfillment to keep fighting and achieving self-government.
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
Common core is not a new method. America has set standards since at least the 1950’s and many schools have since then implemented a curriculum supporting this ideal. These standards in language arts and mathematics are supposed to help the nation prepare students for college and their future careers. The effects of common core, both positive and negative, lead to the debate on whether or not it should still be implemented in schools today, but thanks to federal funding it has made it hard to get rid of the program. It is because of this that the governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal has decided to sue the federal government for violating the 10th amendment. Although many can agree that having standardized goals gives both the students and staff
Common core has been the program calling all the shots in most school systems in the United States. Since the year 2008, the common core standard testing has been sneaking its way into the school systems. The common core has brought up many different situations within the schools. One situation consists of determining the education level of students by using the same standardized test. Another situation is by requiring teachers to teach to a certain test, even though students do not fully learn what they are being taught. The government should not be able to evaluate students and teachers by one certain test. Attention must be brought up to how common core has changed our education system to the unproductive side, but then explain how our schooling systems can fix the problem that has been made. The common core can be fixed for the best, but the most fulfilling way to fix this problem is to get rid of the program altogether. The best results of students’ education can truly be viewed accurately once the common core is fully out of the school curriculum.
This argument goes along with the other two mentioned and explained above. There isn’t much that is positive to say about these assessments. It places so much pressure on students to perform well and pressure on teachers to teach what is going to be on the test. This brings negative energy to classrooms. An article by Greg Jouriles helps explain why we don’t need these tests. He claims, “Standardized tests are unnecessary because they rarely show what we don’t already know” (Jouriles, Greg). He also goes on to explain that one’s test score isn’t reliable and that we should trust the teachers when grades are published. A school system can accurately judge the students in the school on what they are good at better than the standardized tests do. They can break down many different aspects of what students need to improve on and what they are already knowledgeable of. Students need to learn more than just the test information. Only studying and learning test material makes students less diverse and leads to boring lectures in the classroom. Another article written by an organization called Fairtest adds, “Some students simply do not test well. Many students are affected by test anxiety or do not show their learning well on a standardized test, resulting in inaccurately lower scores” (Fairtest). These tests punish students for what they can’t control, making them stressed and panicked that they won’t graduate or move on to the next grade. Some children are from low-income families attending schools with large classes with little to no materials for learning what is on the test. In addition to that, some teachers have never been educated on test content, which is not their fault, and this results in low-test scores. This all leads to why there are such negative feelings throughout classrooms of many
● Some people’s idea behind common core is not really that bad, they think a national educational standard is for each grade level to feed the student with the same amount of
In the subject of humanities and social sciences, literacy is an important and extremely vital skill that needs to be developed and maintained. Year 10 humanities is a demanding course for students with the course separated into 4 subjects; Geography, History, Civics and Citizenship and Economics, each with their own unique outline, learning outcomes and overall skills required for the class. However, one thing all humanities subjects have in common is the crucial need for a strong literacy knowledge, skill set and general capability. Without a strong grasp on the concepts within literacy, students will struggle greatly with the course as a predominant part of it is the ability to write, communicate and express ideas and opinions in a wide range of text formats.
The prominence of numeracy is extremely evident in daily life and as teachers it is important to provide quality assistance to students with regards to the development of a child's numeracy skills. High-level numeracy ability does not exclusively signify an extensive view of complex mathematics, its meaning refers to using constructive mathematical ideas to “...make sense of the world.” (NSW Government, 2011). A high-level of numeracy is evident in our abilities to effectively draw upon mathematical ideas and critically evaluate it's use in real-life situations, such as finances, time management, building construction and food preparation, just to name a few (NSW Government, 2011). Effective teachings of numeracy in the 21st century has become a major topic of debate in recent years. The debate usually streams from parents desires for their child to succeed in school and not fall behind. Regardless of socio-economic background, parents want success for their children to prepare them for life in society and work (Groundwater-Smith, 2009). A student who only presents an extremely basic understanding of numeracy, such as small number counting and limited spatial and time awareness, is at risk of falling behind in the increasingly competitive and technologically focused job market of the 21st Century (Huetinck & Munshin, 2008). In the last decade, the Australian curriculum has witness an influx of new digital tools to assist mathematical teaching and learning. The common calculator, which is becoming increasing cheap and readily available, and its usage within the primary school curriculum is often put at the forefront of this debate (Groves, 1994). The argument against the usage of the calculator suggests that it makes students lazy ...