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Effectiveness of standardized testing
How standardized testing damages education
Debate surrounding standardized testing
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People assume that standardized tests are a good way to compare performance levels of various students from different schools and locations. Without standardized exams, this would not be possible. What supporters do not know is that standardized tests are an unreliable way of measuring the success of a student. “Proponents of traditional intelligence testing argue that it is still the most accurate and useful way to measure human mental ability...advocates say...that such testing is scientifically valid and can aid research efforts in fields such as education and psychology.” (“Intelligence Testing” pg.2).This quote shows that some people believe standardized tests are a good way to measure a students mental abilities. While standardized tests …show more content…
may work well for some students, it is not beneficial to all of them. I myself struggle tremendously when it comes to participating in standardized tests. While I think I am what some would call a “good student” I always seem to do poorly when it comes to testing. Standardized tests only measure a small of portion of academic knowledge. Although standardized tests are used in most schools and establishments nowadays, it is not an effective way to measure student knowledge.
Lyndsey Layton has been covering nation education since 2011, she has written on many different topics in education, and has been employed by the Washington Post since 1998. In her article about standardized testing she states, “...students should be judged by multiple measures, including student work, written teacher observations and grades. And they overwhelmingly think teacher quality is the best way to improve education, followed by high academic standards and effective principals.” (Layton pg.1). This quote shows that standardized tests only judge certain measures of a student's intelligence. Students should be graded in multiple areas not just how well they can answer multiple choice problems. Standardized tests only grade students on one way of thinking and discourage creative, out of the box thinking. Kira Zalan is an editor for the U.S. News Weekly, she first appeared in September of 2011, and has been writing since. Zalan states, “...there are multiple paths to the same outcome and that engagement is an extremely important aspect of the equation.”(Zalan pg.1). Standardized tests only allow for one path of thinking. There can be multiple different ways to find an answer, but if students do not answer the “correct” way they will be graded as wrong. Because these tests are graded by machines and not people, the participants answers …show more content…
must be exactly the same as the machine, even if there could be multiple ways to solve the problem. Many people assume that high test scores mean high intelligence, while this often proves to be true even students with low tests scores can still be “gifted”, standardized tests should not be the main way to assess knowledge, in her article on standardized testing Zalan discusses this by saying, “We equate high intelligence with giftedness, and we use standardized metrics like tests and IQ scores as the most predominant method of testing giftedness.”(Zalan pg.1).Standardized testing is the main way to determine “giftedness”. There are more ways to determine intellectual knowledge that are not found on multiple choice standardized tests. For standardized tests to be useful for instruction, teachers need the tests returned as quickly as possible, and they need to be able to see the actual questions that students got right and wrong. Sometimes test scores may not be received until after the school year over. Standardized tests are used to monitor not educate, and this can cause many students and teachers to become uninterested in school, and education. “The opt-out movement is nascent but growing, propelled by parents, students and some educators...They argue that the exams cause stress for young children, narrow classroom curricula, and, in the worst scenarios, have led to cheating because of the stakes involved - teacher compensation and job security.”(Layton pg.1). Standardized test may be causing more bad than good. Standardized tests are placing too much pressure on students that can lead to serious stress. Many teacher’s job security relies on tests scores which can cause teachers to cheat, so their students receive better grades. The article “Counterpoint: National Education Standards Overlook Individuals And Local Communities” was written by Eric Badertscher and Heather Newton, Newton served as Articles Editor for The Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics in Georgetown University Law Center, she has worked as an attorney at a large, international law firm in Washington, DC, and an editor for a legal publishing company. Prior to law school, she was a high school English teacher and freelance writer and her works have appeared in numerous print and online publications. Badertscher and Newton explain their article that rather than focusing on boosting a students learning and teaching subjects, teachers are forced to “teach to the test” instead.(“Counterpoint: National Education Standards Overlook Individuals and Local Communities”pg.1). Teachers are forced to “teach to the test” for fear of their job security. Kids are being denied access to subjects that foster creativity, problem solving, resilience, and many other skills necessary to students when they enter the “real world”. When teachers teach to the test, students are only learning a small portion of information. Teachers should broaden their lesson plans to beyond standardized test questions to improve student education. The article “Tests decimate love of learning” discusses how high-stakes testing obsessions decimate the love of learning for millions of students.(“Tests decimate love of learning” pg.1).Standardized tests are putting too much pressure on students, which in turn is causing them to become uninterested in learning at all. Schools should do their best to keep students excited to learn and excel in academics. Standardized tests are placing too much pressure on students and teachers both. The article “Teach to the test?” discusses the role teachers and administrators play when it come to cheating. One way of cheating is called the blueprint scam. During test's development, a contractor typically produces a "blueprint"--a document that matches education standards to the test items written for them. These blueprints are normally kept secret but, some states make them public indicating that some standards are meant to be emphasized more than others.(“Teach to the test?” pg.3). This shows that many people, not just students cheat when it comes to taking standardized tests. Standardized tests are placing too much pressure on students on teachers, and as a result of this, administrators are cheating. Every state is able to set their own limits and requirements for standardized test scores. Emma Brown is an author for the “Washington Post”, she writes about national education and people who have a stake in schools. Before becoming a journalist in 2009, Brown worked as a wilderness ranger in Wyoming, and as a middle school math teacher in Alaska. In her article “Scoring Standards Differ Under Common Core” Brown discusses how the vast majority of states have adopted common core academic standards but each individual state has a different definition of “proficient”. (Brown pg.1). Every state should have the same minimum requirements, for determining proficient or advanced scores. Brown states, “And in many states...annual tests set a significantly lower bar for "proficient" than the National Assessment for Educational Progress, or NAEP”(Brown pg.1). If every state sets different definitions of proficient, there is no way to actually determine a students level of academic knowledge. Of all the states, Florida, New York, and Kansas had proficiency expectations as high as NAEP’s (Brown pg.1). Many high schools require exit exams in order to graduate and receive and a diploma. If every state has different requirements this means that some students may have an unfair advantage over others. If students pass all of their classes, and meet all of the minimum requirements they should be able to graduate without having to take additional tests. Some people believe that standardized tests are useful to track student knowledge and hold teachers accountable, however more often than not these tests are not informative.
Many times after taking a standardized test, neither the teacher or student are able to see the test to determine what questions the examinee got correct or incorrect. Because of this, teachers and students do not know what areas need more more practice. Each year money is wasted on standardized tests that could be put towards more useful things to help excell a student in their education. Andrew Ujifusa is a reporter for Education Week. He covers education policy at the federal and state levels and writes for the Politics K-12 blog. He states, “The report...calculates that the test spending by 44 states and the District of Columbia amounted to $65 per student on average in grades 3-9 based on the most recent test-cost data the researchers could gather.” (Ujifusa pg.1). Each year schools around America are wasting money on standardized tests for no reason. The money spent on standardized testing should be used for more pressing education matters, not wasted away on a single test for each student. Standardized tests cost schools about a quarter of 1 percent the total k-12 spending, or $1.7 billion annually. (Ujifusa pg.1). Schools are spending an unnecessary amount of money on standardized tests, often times these tests can be scored inaccurately. There is no point in wasting money on standardized
tests that will just be created and graded incorrectly. “In 2000, NCS Pearson gave about 8,000 students in Minnesota incorrectly low scores on graduation tests, and the error prevented some students from receiving their diploma along with the rest of the graduating class. In previous years, the same company had incorrectly scored 12,000 tests for Arizona students, miscalculated essay scores for students in Michigan, and missed deadlines for reporting test scores in Florida and California”(Scoring Errors and the Standardized Testing Industry pg.3). This quote shows The demand for standardized tests is too overwhelming for test companies to be effective at their job. What good does it do to spend money on standardized tests if they will not be graded accurately. “In December 2002, a Massachusetts high school student discovered that a question on the previous school year's exit exam had a second correct answer not accounted for by the testing company during scoring. Ninety-five students who had been prevented from graduating because they missed the required test score by one point received their diplomas after the mistake was uncovered” (“Scoring Errors and the Standardized Testing Industry” pg.3). This quote proves that scoring errors are a serious problem. Each year many students do not graduate and receive their diplomas due to mistakes in grading. Standardized exit exams should be used to determine if a student can graduate or not. Spending money on flawed tests is wasteful. “What about all the time spent on schooling students in the techniques of test taking--how to fill in answer sheet bubbles, whether to guess or not, what to do when time runs short, and so on? This kind of instruction has been known to eat up weeks, even months, of class time during which students study old examinations or practice test-taking skills. It should occupy less than a day.”(“Teach to the test” pg.1).Teachers spend many hours teaching students how to be successful when it comes taking tests. A lot of time and effort is put into test preparation that could be put in elsewhere. Schools should be putting their class time into lessons that will help students once they enter the “real world”, and be less concerned about wasting money on tests. In conclusion, standardized have become a universal method meant to set a high standard and measure knowledge. However, this method is not perfect and involves numerous flaws. Standardized test do not provide the in depth information about teaching and learning that educators, students, and parents deserve. Standardized testing present numerous problems in American education. It fails to take in account that everyone learns differently. This is especially true in primary grades, or when children are still new to school in general.Even children with high intelligence may find themselves in remedial classes because they did not perform well in standardized tests (“Counterpoint: National Education Standards Overlook Individuals and Local Communities” pg.1). Standardized tests are informative and offer no feedback on how to improve for teachers, students, and parents. There are more ways to measure academic achievement, that can not be found through standardized testing. Report cards and grade point average measure years of work, standardized tests measures one day. Schools should be focusing more on the development of a child rather than judge them based on the score they receive on a test. Not only are standardized test an unreliable way of measuring knowledge, but also, it does not promote useful skills students will need to know in the “real world”. Testing is not teaching. Test preparation is not learning.
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
This is precisely the problem. Standardized tests are old and outdated, and the harm they cause to America’s education system by far outweighs the benefits. These tests were intended to monitor and offer ways to improve how public schools function, but instead they have impaired the natural learning ability of students and imposed upon the judgment of experienced educators. Although a means to evaluate the progress of public schools is necessary, it is also necessary to develop more modern and effective ways of doing so. Standardized testing mandated by the federal and state governments has a negative effect on the education of America’s youth.
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.
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.
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 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.
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...
Overall it is evident that standardized testing has affected the education in the United States negatively. The main flaw is that policymakers made standardized testing the center of our education system, which intern led to vast changes in curriculum where educators were forced to teach to test rather than teaching materials that fosters creativity, and enhances knowledge. Howard Gardner, famous for his work on multiple intelligences, stated he was unconcerned that American children were ranked last among the major industrial nations in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. He reported that tests measure exposure to facts and skills not whether or not kids can think (Ritter 5).
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.
Argument Against Standardized Testing President Bush is promoting annual standardized testing for all students in grades three through eight. This bill is currently being considered in Congress, and has garnered much support. As of right now, 15 states test students in those grades, and more than 20 have high school exit exams, which look only at the test score of a student, not at his or her academic achievements. Standardized testing is an unfair and inaccurate form of judging a person’s intellect. In many cases, people are either over- or underrepresented by their test scores, partly because America does not currently have the capabilities to fairly score the increasing number of tests.
Standardized testing has become a dominant element in the education world. It is now used not only to judge a student’s knowledge but to judge the effectiveness of a school system’s teaching. Standardized testing is not an accurate or efficient way to judge a student’s intelligence or a school system’s instructional abilities.
Standardized tests are examinations administered to the children of the United States. Some states have exit exams, meaning a student must pass the test to continue or finish their education. Here in Virginia, students are tested from 3rd grade to 8th grade on the Standards of Learning tests also known as the Virginia SOL’s. Students from Kindergarten on up will take the Cognitive Ability Test or Cog AT and Benchmark tests throughout the year. High school students have their choice of taking the SAT’s or ACT’s or if they would like to join the military they will be given the ASVAB. Unfortunately, these tests are not completely to blame for poor results. The education standards are different in each case; some areas like in South Carolina depend on federal aid and grants to function. Their practice is the lower the grade of the results of the test the more money they will receive. Whereas in Virginia, the lower the score with no improvement the less funding they will receive and if there is no improvement within five years the entire school staff is replaced. From an early age, society has encouraged the practice of examinations from the entry to school to work employment. The real question that needs to be asked is are these tests benefiting the youth in the United States or are they just encouraging them to memorize large amounts of information. In turn, how much are they actually learning and can we as educators, parents and concerned citizens guarantee these children are receiving the best education possible. Testing is necessary but we are over testing our children and slowly removing all of the creativity from them and the teachers. Turning the youth of today into memorizing machines and not comprehending the material that th...
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.
“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.
Standardized testing puts unnecessary pressure on students and does not have any real benefits to helping students learn better. Standardized testing places all students in the same category of intelligence and does not show the individual’s true potential. Schools spend weeks before the test are administered to prepping students, so students will not fail. If standardized testing was a method that worked well children would not weeks of classroom time to prepare for the test. If the tests were organized according to the right age group it would not take hours to prep students they would already have the information necessary to perform well on the test.