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High stakes testing debate
High stakes testing debate
Advantages and disadvantages of high stakes testing
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1. I think that high-stakes testing is changing teaching in a number of negative ways. It forces teachers and administrators to align the curriculum to these standards instead of the standards being aligned to realistic, appropriate learning needs for every level. At the same time, the standards should fit what key stakeholders agree as the means and ends of education. Otherwise, high-stakes testing becomes an authoritarian means of shaping schooling according to a one-test-fits-all thinking. Instead of being inclusive and participatory, our education system becomes restrictive and static.
High-stakes testing also has negative effects on learning because it tells students what education means- which appears to be something too complex and difficult to understand and relate to. These tests, being too long and beyond their level of cognitive development, would unnecessarily eat away their confidence, and perhaps even their motivation to learn. In addition, if assessments become too geared toward these tests, affective assessments would take a backseat. Affective assessments, however, are essential to understanding what our students know and prefer and their attitudes
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towards our subjects. High-stakes tests do not value these affective assessments that can help teachers know their students more deeply, in order to help motivate the latter in learning more effectively. As for the question of high-stakes testing serving the purpose of ensuring equity in public schooling or being an obstacle to this end, I think we need empirical data to determine the answer.
If, after high-stakes testing, we have higher drop-out rates, particularly among minority groups, and lower or the same academic performance in our public schools, then the former does not result to equity. Instead, it is becoming an obstacle because it is making teaching and learning more difficult for teachers and students, respectively. I have nothing against standards and tests that help make teachers become more accountable for the academic performance of their students, but I think that we need to apply these, not in a punitive way, but in ways that support other means of performance-boosting
strategies.
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
The reason for high stakes testing in schools was to see where students stood academically. It was made to check on the progress and status of whether teachers and staff were doing their job as they are responsible for a child’s learning. In 2002, George W. Bush passed the No Child Left Behind Act. Each state had to come up with their own testing systems for students to meet certain standards. This was influenced by Red Paige who was superintendent at Houston I.S.D. Accountability was their main goal with this kind of testing. Texas tests are created by Sandy Kress who teamed up with Pearson. The current test outraging the opposed side is the STAAR (State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness) test. Kress came up with this test because people felt that the previous TAKS test was not helping students with college readiness. The STAAR test counts towards 15% of a student’s grade (Blakeslee 126). It is a harder test and Texas is a state with the most exit level exams as it is. Even though people disagree with this test even more, Kress and his followers believe that the test is not failing students, but their teachers are. Defenders can be pretty harsh and blunt about why the STAAR should stay. Bill Hammond made a stat...
Testing is a way to measure what students have learned from their teachers. Standardized/High-Stakes testing is a tool used to measure the performance of students and the quality of teachers in public school systems. High-Stakes testing is an inaccurate measuring stick of teaching quality and thus is detrimental to the educational system.
Although, a teacher may not want to teach to the test their arm is twisted. Since the implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), teachers are forced to teach to the test to try to achieve perfect test scores for 100% of the class. NCLB holds teachers accountable for each child’s scores. So the question arises, should high-stakes testing drive the curriculum?
Since the U.S. Congress passed the No Child Left Behind program, standardized testing has become the norm for American schools. Under this system, each child attending a school is required to take a standardized test at specific grade points to assess their level of comprehension. Parents, scholars and all stakeholders involved take part in constant discussions over its effectiveness in evaluating students’ comprehension, teachers’ competency and the effects of the test on the education system. Though these tests were put in place to create equality, experts note that they have created more inequality in the classroom. In efforts to explore this issue further, this essay reviews two articles on standardized testing. This essay reviews the sentiments of the authors and their insight into standardized examination. The articles provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate that standardized tests are not effective at measuring a teacher’s competency because they do not take into account the school environment and its effect on the students.
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...
Low stakes testing is a testing structure similar to HST, except the results are not used to penalize or praise. Using standardized testing appropriately and in a smaller capacity can be a welcome change. This would alleviate many issues that branch from the use of HST. The results can then be utilized to watch for damaging trends. None of these low stakes tests would determine funding or compensation. These would only give a roadmap on how the leaders are to advance. Once this change has taken place, the task would be to find out where the break in leadership is. The school systems are top heavy. Highly paid administrators that are disconnected from the vision of education are rampant. These aren’t villains, but ignorance isn’t a defense. Leaders are meant to passionately lead teams toward a common purpose. People in the education system are not there for the money, and are willing to put in the hard work involved with a change of this magnitude. “One of the most popular reasons (75%) for joining teaching was a desire to make a difference, and 80% said they taught because they enjoyed working with children. Contrary to popular belief, just below 20% went into teaching because of long holidays” (Marsh). HST eradicates this passion. Low stakes testing can be used to discover and remedy the problems it indicates. However, finding solutions for the issues in our educational system cannot be provided with
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.
Ninety percent of secondary schools in the world today use standardized tests with only a 60% passing rate. Ankur Singh, a high school student, was ready for his Advanced Placement Classes (AP) but found that his excitement would soon turn into frustration and failing grades. Singh went into his class expecting to analyze character and themes of literature, but instead he found his entire year to be filled with 50 minute, questions based essays to prepare for the upcoming standardized tests. Rather than continuing his outstanding previous pattern of academic excellence, he began to do very poorly in his AP classes. Singh expressed his frustration by stating that all of his AP classes taught specifically around college preparation and standardized tests rather than focusing on genuine learning. He continued to state, “I’m not being challenged. My classes are easy. All I have to do is memorize the textbook and spew it out on the test. I’m not learning anything. I’m not growing.” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2012/11/09/one-teens-standardized-testing-horror-story-and-where-it-will-lead/) Not only do parents and students disagree with standardized tests, educators are finally standing up against it. At Seattle Garfield high school, the teachers unanimously decided to not administer the reading and math standardized tests. Teachers sent letters to the parents giving the parents an option to opt out of their student taking the test. Teachers comment that these tests are “inappropriate measure of teacher’s effectiveness of teaching.” (http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/11/when-parents-yank-their-kids-out-of-standardized-tests/281417/) Hiss, a former dean of admissions from Bates College in Lewiston, ...
Contemporary society has been given the labels of “test-oriented” and “test-consuming” (Zeidner & Most, 1992) due to its extensive use of testing assessments as a primary agent in decisions that impact many areas of people’s lives. Test scores essentially control an individual’s status in grade school, college and employment. As one expert put it, “We live in a test conscious, test-giving culture in which the lives of people are in part determined by their test performance” (Sarason, 1959, p. 26). The increased use of tests and the high stakes that exam scores have on scholastic achievement and advancement has put students under more intense pressure to perform well on tests. (CITE) Consequently, the phenomenon of test anxiety has become a prevailing problem in today’s educational system.
The inclusion of the importance of high stakes testing outlines the benefits of high stakes testing, as well as how it effects teachers and students. High stakes testing helps make changes to a more standardized curriculum throughout the country (David, 2013). A standardized curriculum means that students transferring between states will receive the same education across the board. High stakes testing can also teach students confidence (Dankiw, Johanson, Loder, & Watson, 2014). Though students can be stressed out during the testing process, they can have a sense of accomplishment and a confidence boost if they feel they have done well. This confidence will be validated when the student receives their results. High stakes testing also teaches students, especially those who are behind academically, test taking skills. It is highly important for students to understand the language used on the test. Students also benefit from practicing test taking strategies such as eliminating
Stecher, “The net effect of high-stakes testing on policy and practice is uncertain. Researchers have not documented the desirable consequences of testing—providing more instruction, working harder, and working more effectively—as clearly as the undesirable ones—such as negative reallocation, negative alignment of classroom time to emphasize topics covered by a test, excessive coaching, and cheating. More important, researchers have not generally measured the extent or magnitude of the shifts in practice that they identified as a result of high-stakes testing.” Which means that in completion no test is truly valid or reliable for there are too many mistakes to be had by either the test takers or the Test
“Teaching to the test narrows the curriculum, particularly in low-scoring schools, and forces teachers and students to concentrate on memorizing isolated facts and practicing rote skills, ignoring higher order thinking. Arts, foreign languages, social studies, physical education and recess have been squeezed from the curriculum, especially in schools with high numbers of minority and low-income students” (Fairtest,
“64 percent of Americans (and 67 percent of public school parents) say there is “too much emphasis on testing (Walker).” Standardized testing assess how well schools are teaching the content that a state believe is necessary knowledge. Schools place so much emphasis on scoring well on state tests because the state governments began “specifying goals, measuring outputs to ascertain whether the government was spending money wisely, and holding educators and students accountable for their performance.” This idea has continued to be used, even though it has been refined (Firestone). The emphasis can cause issues in students, teachers, and school districts.
For my research paper, I will be delving into the idea of standardized testing. Standardized tests are every student’s least two favorite words. They are tests you take to determine “how well your teacher taught you”, the kind of student you are, or for college preparation. The main point of my paper will be to get educators to understand that standardized tests have no place in school. From elementary to high school and everywhere in between, standardized testing is not only is useless and have no place in schools, it is also unethical. I will analyze primarily state testing to prove my point. To further it, I will analyze tests that are required or will increase your odds of getting into your local or dream college. The main point of including tests such as the SAT, ACT and AP examinations is because I want to show we prepare so much time for nothing. In college, there are no standardized tests to prove a teacher did their job, or a student is proficient at math or english.