Standardized tests do not measure intelligence Standardized tests play a major role in education today. Each step forward in one’s educational career means passing series of tests and exams. The best known test of this kind is the Scholastic Aptitude Test. People put too much credence on the SAT test (and the ACT). Once SAT test scores are released, high-scoring students will tout their scores in the hallways at school and receive congratulations from teachers, parents and friends. But the students who get low scores will feel ashamed, upset, or even depressed. Parents are used to say that in order to understand student achievement, talking about scores on standardized tests is enough. However, there are many things the standardized test does …show more content…
For example, the SAT are college entrance exams designed for high school students. They measure English, math, reading, science and writing. Some people may argue that these standardized tests will determine how well students will do in the college, or how clever students are. However, New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolby states, “ The standardized test like SAT, only measures ‘those skills — and really only those skills — necessary for the SATs.’ ”(Moss). Moreover, one might believe standardized tests are not tools to measure intelligence of people. The standardized test scores don’t provide very much useful information for evaluating a student’s achievement and intelligence. Jill Tiefenthaler also contends that “Standardized tests are never intended to measure the complexities of intelligence.” (Tiefenthaler). Standardized tests are, of course, designed to measure students’ knowledge and determine whether they have acquired the necessary expertise to move on to the next stage. Jeremiah Gawthrop declares his opinion that “Test are created to access a student’s knowledge base.” (Gawthrop) He means test results are not representatives of the students’ total ability, not to mention the …show more content…
Standardized tests clearly do not measure aspects of intelligence like dialog, physical tasks and speech. Recent studies conducted by educators and psychologists have begun to show that there are actually, multiple forms of intelligence. Jeremiah Gawthrop gives an example. A student with greater intellectual aptitude would be able to look at answers A, B, and D and come to the realization that C is the correct answer. “However, not only does this require greater intellectual ability, this sort of question is also based on the assumption that academic intelligence only has one form.” (Gawthrop). He thinks “A child that has less aptitude in quantitative or verbal tasks may possibly have greater interpersonal intelligence.” (Gawthrop). Therefore, students who have different types of brain function will do poorly on a question specifically designed to measure the standard intelligence. If a computer were able to pass standardized tests, would it be intelligent? From Clark and Etzioni’s point of view, they think “Not necessarily, but it would demonstrate that the computer had several critical skills we associate with intelligence, including the ability to answer sophisticated questions, handle natural language, and solve tasks requiring extensive commonsense knowledge of the world.” (Clark, Etzioni) Intelligence can definitely not be defined by standardized
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...
Standardized testing is a widely debated aspect of America's education system. There are many issues with the manner that we judge a child’s intelligence. After merely 10 years of schooling, the average student has endured an average of one-hundred-twelve exams. In certain situations it would be fine to argue that two sides exist to this story, yet that’s not the case here when it comes to aptitude. A grouping of questions is in no manner substantial enough to rank the caliber of any student regardless of its parameters. “These tests are dreadful” (Klodell) are the words of a 16 year old girl after she wrote about standardized tests. Should America continue to rank their students with such a dire test?
Standardized tests are very common throughout the United States. They are used to measure students’ academic performances in school. These tests vary from state to state in all grade levels. However, these tests are believed to be biased towards those students who come from higher-class neighborhoods, simply because they have more educational resources. “The absence of standards virtually guarantees stratified resources and access to knowledge, based upon income, color of skin, and the community and neighborhood in which one lives” (French, 2003). The resources in the suburban areas differ from those in the urban areas, because of the gap within the difference of incomes. Families living in suburban neighborhoods have a bigger income, which enables them to have more resources than those living in urban neighborhoods. Most educational resources come from taxes, which plays a big part in the gap between urban and suburban neighborhoods.
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.
Standardized Tests are not effective at measuring student achievement (“Standardized Tests Do Not” 1). They also cannot tell what your main abilities are, or what you even know. Standardized Tests are bad for the classroom because they restrict learning, force teachers to teach to the test, and they do not effectively measure students’ abilities.
Today, in the United States, standardized tests are administered every year by states to their Kindergarten-12th grade public school students. Different states place different weight on their standardized testing results where some states differ their funding based on results and annual improvement, whereas other states allow schools to simply gauge where their students are scoring relative to other schools in the state. These tests, however, are only standardized within one state. One of the few tests standardized throughout the entire country is the SAT, the Scholastic Aptitude Test, administered by College Board and required by, “More than 800 of the nation’s colleges and universities,” (Comras, 1984). This test will be the standardized test focused on in this paper. While standardized testing is that, standardized, and enables the comparison of one student to another, the meaning of the score does not equate to a test of intelligence. Therefore, while standardized testing should be applied in the education system, it needs to be more indicative of the material learned in school and should hold less weight than it currently does in the college admissions process.
Intelligence has been defined in many different ways including ones capacity for logic, abstract thought, creativity, and problem solving. Standardized tests play a major role in education systems today. Although these tests do exemplify a student’s ability to read and write English, this test promotes “teaching to a test.” I have first handedly experienced this in my own life. Standardized tests undermine critical thinking and innovation and are not the best example of intelligence.
Standardized testing is a deeply flawed system. The American government continues to throw money at a program that has little or no hope of achieving the goals it set at its inception. The important message is that no test is valid for all purposes and “high stakes” decisions should not be made on the basis of a single test score. Test scores provide only a small picture of student achievement or potential (APA 2014).
“Sometimes, the most brilliant and intelligent minds do not shine in standardized tests because they do not have standardized minds.” – Diane Ravitch.
It’s an age-old question. Do standardized tests really show what students know? Some may think they are a great way to measure education and others may think that one test does not justify a child’s knowledge. What is this test exactly? A standardized test is any test that requires all test takers to answer the same questions, or a selection of questions from a common bank of questions, in the same way. They are used to “judge” or “measure” the knowledge or skills that students learn in school. The problem with these standardized tests is that they measure all students on the same material, leaving out special skills the student may have. It also puts a great deal of stress on a student to know that they will be timed on these questions that
Deceivers, Demons, and God, Oh My; Descartes and Whether the Evil Demon Exists Descartes would not think that having an idea of the Evil Demon proves that the Evil Demon exists as it does with God. To explain why, I will first explain the logic behind the Evil Demon, discuss his reasoning of God’s existence then show why the Evil Demon would not apply with Descartes logic. René Descartes is a famous French philosopher known for writing his meditations in the 1640s. In his meditations Descartes deal with what beliefs are true, and absolute, he uses his meditations to create foundations of true knowledge and thought.
“The Advantages of Standardized Testing” One might find themselves asking, What’s the point of all these standardized tests? Are they even beneficial? Although standardized testing has its issues, like the pressure it adds on to both the students and teachers to perform, and the time it takes away from the classroom. However, the benefits outweigh the cons by far. Standardized tests are extremely helpful to both students and teachers for several reasons.