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Throughout my educational career, I remember taking standardized exams since I was in second grade. My experience with the standardized test was never a pleasant one. At a certain point, I thought that it would hinder me from going on to the next grade, graduating high school and going to a college of my choice. I always felt that standardized test did not measure my actual intelligence and was frustrated with the concept that comparing students to others, by giving all students a basic multiple choice test, is enough to measure how well each child would do throughout the school. After I had started understanding the ranking system, I started doubting my ability to keep up with my peers, not just in my school but the state. The first exam that …show more content…
Needless to say, I did poorly on that exam, and that set the tone of how I viewed standardized exams henceforth. Unfortunately, throughout elementary to high school, I did not know what my learning preference was. In high school, I was taking classes that did not give me a variety of learning and assessment techniques so I became accustomed to the same thing and even most of my teacher’s exam became predictable. It wasn’t until I entered college that I started paying attention to my learning preference, simply because most of my professors did a great job incorporating a variety of resources, materials, and assessments to facilitate their classroom. From this, I learned that I am truly a hands-on learner, and I'm able to do things that allow me to do what I am learning physically, I retain the information a lot better and can easily rely on my memory and experiences to help me pass exams. I also learned that I am a creative person, so I also tend to do extremely well on assessments that allow me to use different tools to reach an answer. For example, I enjoy putting together an oral presentation, doing big projects, labs, and group
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.
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...
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.
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.
Standardized testing assesses students, teachers, and the school itself, which puts a great deal of pressure on the students. High scores show that the school is effective in teaching students, while low test scores make teachers and schools look as though they are not teaching the students properly. This is not always the case. There are teachers who do teach students what they need to know to pass the test, but their students are still unprepared. Although teachers try to improve instruction, student performance is still variable to other factors that the school cannot control.
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.
Standardized tests should not be used to measure student proficiency. These tests are becoming much more challenging and high stakes, resulting in a significant amount of stress and anxiety in students. Standardized testing has become a huge weight on students which is leading to test anxiety. Jasmine Evans writes in her article “Problems With Standardized Testing,” from Education.com about critics of the No Child Left Behind, an act passed in 2001 one under the administration of George W. Bush, who say that there is a lot of pressure on teachers, students, and parents, and school officials as a result of these tests. They say the pressure to...
His hands are shaking, his palms are sweaty, he is afraid his heart is about to beat out of his chest. The rectangular thing is placed in front of him. A bead of sweat drips from his forehead. he wipes it away. Soon after that he faints. This is all because of a simple rectangular piece of paper that has the words standardized test written on it in big, bold, black letters. These are just some of the signs of test anxiety, all so teachers, schools, and students can be compared to one another. Standardized testing is wrong and uneducational. Some would ask why this is erroneous, when the schools get money if the students do well on these tests. This is amiss because of three simple reasons. One, standardized testing does not work. Two, standardized tests only measure a small portion of why makes education meaningful. Finally three, standardized testing causes severe stress in younger students.
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
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...
Standardized testing is something all students fear no matter what grade they are in. Whether they are in elementary school and middle school and have to fear the ELAs or Regents exams, or in high school and fear the SATs, PASTs, APs, ACTs etc. Even with standardized testing being as feared as they are students are still being conformed to take them. There are many ways students are being confirmed to take them, one being that they are impulsed. It 's either a student takes the standardized test or fears that 's they will be left behind. For instance, some colleges will not even accept students if they have no taken SATs. This helps prove the point that each adolescent is taking some sort of standardized test, even if they do not want to. Also, they begin to conform students to take standardized testing as early as kindergraden. Thinking on kindergraden many think about coloring, reading on the big red carpet with the teacher as well as just having fun being a kid. But now even kindergraderners are feeling the wrath of conformity down their necks because of standardized testing. With prep books to help them prepare for the standardized testing they are unable to go outside and play and just be kids because they are inside studying for an exam. (book cover) Furthermore with standardized testing there is also an upwards trend of students being
According to Fyona Rose, “Not only do these tests belittle students' and teachers' hard work, they also leave them with negative feelings toward school and drain their love of learning” (Rose, 2015). This means that standardized testing can ruin the enjoyment of learning for both students and teachers. The reason standardized testing still happens is because it has become a standard for schools each year. But if the standard is bad something should be changed. Many who do not like standardized testing to do not believe that testing should be done away with, but rather be changed to accommodate the growing needs of society as a
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
The overall purpose of schooling is to advance one’s knowledge and skill base and through standardized testing the belief is that one’s knowledge and skill base can be assessed and analyzed, but what occurs many a times is a teacher's difficulty to expand upon the learning process due to the confinements that testing has on his/hers ability to teach. In a qualitative study performed by the Morehead State University it was determined that in a particular rural school standardized testing had implemented a limit on the amount of time that teachers were able to instruct, as well as limitations on the “instructional resources and the types of assessments teachers employed” (Thomas, 2005). Even if a teacher was content with teaching the state
“If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn't be here. I guarantee you that.” This quote by Michelle Obama illustrates the idea that standardized testing should not have such a large influence on education in America. However, a majority of people are under the impression that standardized tests are an accurate method to measure a person's intellectual ability. I believe that standardized tests have developed into a very critical part of the American education system; that is hindering the growth of students and teachers instead of providing a tool that can accurately measure knowledge.