“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. For one, assessments allow them to see their strengths and weaknesses. They provide teachers with an end goal, which they can create lesson plans for. Also, they are unbiased tests, which created the ability for all students that participate to have an equal opportunity.
Despite some of the
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Students and teachers should look at this testing not as a stress or burden, but instead as an effective way to measure their strengths and weaknesses. They are ultimately being given out to measure teacher’s effectiveness and a student’s success in the classroom, which shouldn’t be a problem for either who is putting in the proper effort and time. The results of their exams are compared amongst others who took the same exact test. If a student got a higher or lower score than the “standard” score on the test, then that is considered his or her strength or weakness. If every student is having the same issue in the same subject area, then that shows the teacher they need to reevaluate and make an adjustment to their lesson plan (Aycock). It is great tool for teachers because they can then make specific accommodations to the curriculum. They would be made to focus on that student’s, or the class a whole, weaknesses. So, this turns out to be a huge benefit and learning curve. Moreover, standardized tests provide a clear lesson plan for teachers. Teachers plan a lesson by writing the test first and then work backwards from there (Aycock). The test provides the teacher with a clear end goal, once they see the information on the test they then have a clear idea of what their students need to know. For instance, this allows a teacher to outline the important and key elements of the subject. This kind of curriculum guarantees that the students will be prepared for the test. Standardized tests are key for teachers because they allow them to see what their students need to know to understand and pass. To those in favor of standardized testing, “that’s good teaching” (Aycock). For those who praise standardized tests, these assessments are more than just tests. President Obama said that “In moderation, smart, strategic tests can help us measure our kids’ progress in school, and it can help
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
Although standardized testing is supposed to reflect what the students have learned, they often times do not to the fullest potential. What some educators may not take into consideration is the limited resources and ways that teachers are able to get the information across. Standardized testing not only has a negative effect on the things listed above but also a negative impact on the learning styles. Many standardized test are created to improve student achievement, but studies show that the testing format has not improved this at all. Standardized tests also do not incorporate all of the different types of learning, and since this is the case not all of the testing results are measured accurately, which can make the results be very incorrect.
Having a standardized test can keep everyone at an equal level in our education system. For example, a teacher by the name of James Ayoc wrote on an online blog, “ the purpose of testing kids is to figure out what they know and are able to do.” (Aycock) Mr. Aycock uses these standardized tests to assay what his students know and are capable of doing. Another reason Mr. Aycock uses his test is to mark his ability to teach. Mr. James also argues that without the use of standardized testing, he would be unable to compare scores to measure
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.
Standardized testing is not the best way to measure how well a teacher teaches or how much a student has learned. Schools throughout the United States put their main focus on standardized tests; these examinations put too much pressure on the teachers and students and cause traumatizing events. Standardized testing puts strain on teachers and students causing unhealthy occurrences, Common Core is thrown at teachers with no teaching on how to teach the new way which dampers testing scores for all students, and the American College Test determines whether a child gets into college or not based on what they have learned during high school. Standardized tests are disagreeable; tests should not determine ranking of people.
Many people agree that standardized tests are a reasonable evaluation of a student’s capability. Standardized tests originated in the mid-1800s, in the American education system. W. James Popham defines standardized testing by “any test that’s administered, scored, and interpreted in a standard, predetermined manner” (“Is the Use of…,” 2013). After the No Child Left behind Act (NCLB) came about in the early 2000s, the use of standardized testing became popular. NCLB required yearly testing for specific grades and subjects. If schools did not demonstrate adequate improvement, they were either closed or run by the state. This was done so the state and the tax payers of the schools knew that students were learning and knowing the material. Tax payers especially wanted to make sure their money was going to good use (“Is the Use of…,” 2013). High scores on standardized tests can result in funding for the school, along with bonuses to the facility and staff of the school.
Students spend the majority of their time preparing for standardized tests, instead of spending their time learning. In addition, standardized tests give students anxiety, and could lead them to want to drop out of high school due to all of the stress. I believe that standardized tests should not carry so much weight in the education system. They should serve as checks of the educational system rather than as a determinant of the future of
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.
There are many arguments that are pro standardized testing, such as standardized testing prepares students for their futures and gives all students equality with what they have been taught. As I stated above, even though all students may be given the same standardized test, their education is not equal, and therefore the standardized testing is extremely unfair to use the scores to assess whether or not the students prepared. When we had class debates one of the topics was standardized testing and how it affected our schools, one of the arguments against standardized testing was that the tests are not true to showing off the student’s ability. Many students have severe test anxiety and because of that, their testing scores are not what they
standardized testing has been in use since the 1930s. Originally, it was used to test for kids who may have special needs for education. Now, it is used more as a requirement to receive federal funding and as a measure of students’ education. The “No Child Left Behind” Act of 2001 especially caused this. A standardized test is defined as a test, “…that is given to evaluate the performance of students relative to all other students with the same characteristics… In the United States, standardized testing is one of the primary methods used to measure the performance of educational institutions (and often teachers) and to make decisions about the distribution of funding,” says “Standardized Testing: An Overview” (Issit and Maureen 1). These tests have gone from assessing students for specific fields they may need help in to essentially acting as the basis of our educational system. It was believed that standardized testing would make the quality of every student’s education better by enforcing that specific amounts of information for specific topics need to be covered, but what they are really doing is limiting educational
The National Education Association (NEA) conducted a survey, wherein teachers were asked various questions about the impact standardized testing has had in their classrooms. According to Tim Walker, “Forty-two percent of the surveyed teachers reported that the emphasis on improving standardized test scores had a ‘negative impact’ on their classroom, while only 15 percent said the impact was ‘positive,’” (para.5). According to this survey, fifty-two percent of teachers said that too much time on test prep, with it being estimated that the average teacher spends about thirty percent of class time focused on preparing for the test (Walker para.7). Despite the majority of teachers, the people who see the effects the most, reporting that standardized testing does significant harm to education, the results of the exams are still stressed far too much. It would appear that the stress on standardized testing has taken its toll on the educators, too, as forty-five percent of surveyed teachers reported that they had considered quitting due to the rising importance of standardized testing and their results (Walker para.
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
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.
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).
Have you ever tripped and fell in front of a huge group of people? Ever walked halfway across campus without realizing that your dress is up in the back from being attached to your bookbag? Have you ever gone out on a blind date and the date turned out to be your mom? Have you ever completely blanked out while introducing yourself to someone? Have you ever walked in on your parents doing the “naughty”? Or have you ever dropped your entire tray in D Hall and everyone that saw, laughed? You’re probably sitting there secretly shaking your head because something like these have happened to us all. Embarrassing moments happen all the time, and yes, they are not the most fun if you’re the butt of the moment, but when it’s not you, it’s hilarious right? I mean, I know I’ve had my share of embarrassing moments. I might not have had something that has drastically made me hate my life, but I’ve definitely had my share. I’ve done everything from slipping on a wet floor and making face to face contact with marble tiles from getting down to the “Stanky Leg” to actually thinking I was big enough to jump into a circle of football players while “Knuck if You Buck” played, only to be knocked out of the circle. Now, everybody’s embarrassing moments don’t always seem to be as musically inclined as mine, but each person has a moment, that shameful moment, where they want to say “Why Me? Why Now?”. But what really qualifies an embarrassing moment? Is it a moment that makes you feel like jumping off a cliff? Or is it a moment where you just laugh it off, because while it was embarrassing, you know you could live with it? I feel like they encompass all of those. All of them; from the most outrageous moment of peeing on yo...