Recall your years in Grade school through High school. You must have taken some form of standardized test in one grade or two. Can you recall on how you felt about it? Did feeling of Panic, Anxiety, Stress, and when the results came back did you feel Disappointed or relieved? If so then that is a good thing for that means that the test is functioning, it’s purpose. The purpose you may ask is beside making students feel stressed out (although it is beneficial) is to help you improve and for teachers it is a way to see if the student is learning and if not then which area to focus on. Even if the test seems formidable they are beneficial for a student and teacher.
One of the benefits of Standardized test are that they aid in student’s education
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Such claims consist as they focus on one part of the subject. That alone would be idiotic but they also have the audacity to also claim that they cause stress to the students and teachers. In the first-place test, do sometimes cause stress however there are ways to prevent test anxiety and why stress at a young age can prepare them for the future, In the article called “Are We Stressing Out Our Kids?” they have stated “Driving children from one activity to another, day after day, while cramming homework into whatever time is left over, teaches children to over schedule themselves. On the other hand, if parents have personal goals for themselves — that they can realistically achieve — are comfortable with their own stress levels, and know how to relax, then their children will grow up learning to do the same. ” this and “It’s impossible to live in a stress-free world,” says Pope. “A little bit of butterflies before a test may improve performance. Our definition of bad stress is that a student feels the situation is impossible or [they] feels [they are] not able to meet the demands upon [them]”. The information was trying to say that stress is natural but it is up to the parents and child to find a middle ground. It also improves performances for you are on guard and attentive to the problems at hand which in turn causes you to get a better test result. The claim of the tests being a limiting agent of children's education is absurd. An article that has a balanced judgment offer “Focusing on content and skills, standardized testing can eliminate a waste of time in doing activities that do not produce learning gains and motivate students to excel. As stated by the Department of Education, “If teachers cover subject matter required by the standards and teach it well, then students will master the material on which they will be tested–and probably much more.” [12 Primary Pros and Cons of
Standardized tests, such as the SAT and the SOL, have been implemented for many years now for individuals in grade school to take. The SOL’s, or Standards of Learning tests, are Virginia’s version of standardized tests that students are required to take in order to pass a class, evaluating their knowledge on a specific subject. SOL’s are mandatory for students to take as soon as they reach third grade. Additionally, the SAT is a test taken in the final years of high school that colleges look at when comparing students for post-secondary school. People concerned with student’s education can come to the common consensus that education is important and there should be some way to compare a student’s achievements to one another. However, the process
Michele Obama once stated, “If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn 't be here. I guarantee you that.” The First Lady is, in other words, to say that standardized testing was a major factor into her life’s outcome and her scores could have potentially not put her in her position of power that she is highly recognized in today’s society. Although standardized tests do play a large role in any college application, standardized testing may not count as much toward one’s college admissions or success because standardized tests are not the only factor toward college applications, these tests only benefit a specific target group of people, and standardized tests are better used for giving insight on one’s
The current education system implemented by most schools measures a student’s progress using two methods: letter grades and standardized tests. However, the pressure put on students to achieve high grades causes standardized tests to be overlooked throughout the school year. Because of this, students enter tests with false hopes of scoring well when in reality they are severely underprepared. Honor roll students with perfect GPA’s can score in the average percentile if they are not adequately exposed to the test material. Schools should put a larger emphasis on preparation for standardized tests so students will be better equipped to take these tests and receive a score that more accurately reflects their knowledge.
Imagine walking into school on day one of the Transitional Colorado Assessment Program, or better known as TCAP. You are rushed to your proctor’s room. This is just day one of the six long grueling test days. The school board is counting on you to score high enough to reflect positively on your school district. Each session will last up to sixty minutes with just enough time for most students to finish. There are usually three sessions per day. For most students, this process is one which is dreaded with each coming year. TCAP results are scored by advanced, proficient, partially proficient, or unsatisfactory (Time4Learning). The TCAP tests students from 3rd through 10th grade. This test happens the same time each year. There are four different tests that constitute the TCAP: reading, writing, math, and for the 5th, 8th, and 10th grades science.
Do you like being bombarded with the stress of having to take so many tests? In 1845 the US brought standardized testing in the subjects spelling, geography, and math into public schools (Standardized Testing 1). Standardized tests were made to swiftly assess students abilities (Standardized Testing 1). The No Child Left Behind Act in 2002 mandated testing in all 50 states. In the article, “Standardized Tests,” it states that “US students slipped from 18th in the world in math in 2000 to 31st place in 2009, with a similar decline in science and no change in reading” (Use of Standardized Tests 5). Blame of the decline in rates are on poverty levels, teacher quality, tenure policies, and increasingly on the pervasive use
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 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.
As in an incoming freshman in high school, not only was I introduced to standardized test but my fellow classmates as well. Standardized test is any form of a test that requires all test takers to answer the same questions or a selection of questions from common bank of questions, which is also scored in a standard or consistent manner. These particular test are given at the end of each school year to the particular students who are enrolled in the the classes of the given test. The standardized test include Algebra I, Biology I, English, and History.We also found out that in order for anyone to graduate those particular test had to passed if not you were not eligible to graduate. However, out of all four test History was the most difficult for students to pass as well as myself. This test in particular was known for being the hardest test to pass. Since the test was so hard to pass we were introduced to that one class specifically History our ninth grade year so that we could take the test for the first time at the end of our freshman year. Not all students had problems passing you had some pass all four on their first try, but then you had the other set of students who could not pass which hindered many from graduating. In the end I do not believe that
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.
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...
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
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
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...
First, standardized testing is stressful and gives kids anxiety. An article about the subject states, “six in ten psychologists said the Common Core learning standards, which include the state exams for students in the first through eighth grade each April, has increased students anxiety” (Joseph Spector). Students get stressed about standardized testing and worry about their scores, but the children are not the
I knew a good amount of kids that were so stressed to take a big test like the atc or the finals of the year that they would take some sort of medication they weren’t prescribed just so they could do better on the test. An investigative report stayed at the school for one year and he said that before Christmas it was a normal and good middle school, however after the kids came back from the break the teachers stopped teaching the curriculum, stopped reading out of the text, going over class discussions and engaging the kids in fun learning activities. Instead they would just teach out of the prep book, 22 percent of the year was spent teaching out of a test prep book, an even sicker side of standardized testing is the way teachers focus on the group of kids that are set to pass and left the kids that were at the top of their class to their own help but even worse they left the kids that were at the bottom of the class to fend for themselves, how do you expect a middle school who is already struggling to pass as it is to pass a test prep book? It gets rid of the acknowledgment that the little prodigies get when they excel in their subjects.