Have you ever been stressed out in your life? Have you ever taken a standardized test? You most likely answered "yes" to both questions. Well, so are many children (across the country) when it comes to school because of standardized testing. Standardized testing is a state-given exam that can determine the students educational life. It is becoming more and more common in the class room, and you may not like the results. Standardized testing should be lessened in schools due to the fact that students will be less stressed, teachers will not have to 'teach for tests,' and standardized testing only tests for certain speeds of intelligence. Although standardized testing can cause problems in school, there is still good to it. Standardized testing can regulate the students learning. This can help teachers learn what subjects to focus on to help the student(s). An other pro to standardized testing is it will hold …show more content…
This stems from the theory of Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner. Dr. Gardner states that the mind learns at different speeds and ways depending on the mind. The seven ways Dr. Gardner has concluded to how the brain learns are "language, logical-mathematical analysis, spatial representation, musical thinking, the use of the body to solve problems or to make things, an understanding of other individuals, and an understanding of ourselves"(Lane). Through these seven different kinds of intelligence, a person can be (for example) stronger in musical thinking, but be weak in logical-mathematical analysis. Dr. Gardner believe that "Students learn in ways that are identifiably distinctive... students would be better served if disciplines could be presented in a numbers of ways and learning could be assessed through a variety of means"(Lane). This means that students should be learning at there own pace, and not at the majority's
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.
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 restrict student learning in the classroom (Cole, Hulley, and Quarles 17). The teachers in a classroom cannot teach what they would like to teach, but rather they are forced to teach what will be on the test. Often, when teachers teach what will be on the test, many students will begin to zone out and do other things, rather than listen to the teacher drill them with memorization for the tests (Willis 59) Teachers are graded based on how well their students do on these standardized tests, so they will teach only what is going to be on the test, to keep their jobs, or even get raises. Whenever this happens, students are hurt because they lose out on many opportunities to learn, and they even lose critical thinking skills. The testing curriculum often also places too many goals for students and teachers to reach, which will force them to move more quickly and not properly address every topic (Popham 71). Which, in the long run with further encourage only teaching the test, and nothing else.
Don’t you think students should take standardized tests? To start with standardized tests make sure schools are doing good. It also helps students prepare for later on in school such as elementary school, middle school, high school, and even collage. Even though it takes a while to get the test results back it only takes about 2 days to test. If students didn't take standardized tests how would you know how much they have progressed through the year.It will also give you preperation for next year.Sometimes the time depends on how long the students take to test. It not only tells you how good kids are doing but how well the teachers are teaching. It also shows and helps to know what subjects students are struggling in and what they're succeeding
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
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
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
Lastly, standardized testing is stressful for students, teachers, parents, and schools. Some students are very intelligent, but the test makes them nervous, so they do poorly. When the kids get stressed, the schools cheat on the scores because the school’s funding is tied to their test scores. One principal and a few teachers from one school were fired and sent to jail because of a scam they pulled involving tests. Why would you want a test that encourages cheating? Standardized tests need be less stressful.
Standardized testing is occuring more often in a year than it should be. The tests stress out students and give kids anxiety. On top of that, standardized testing is not for the purpose of working towards a higher education. Standardized testing also takes away creative thinking from students.
One test throughout an entire school year does not define a student’s final grade or a teacher’s ability to do their job. Likewise, a standardized test score should not determine whether or not a student is a good student. The tests put so much pressure on students that they may not perform at the best they could be. Teacher are under an inordinate pressure too: “They spend an inordinate amount of class time preparing for them, and know that doing poorly could ultimately cause a school to close or a teacher to lose a job.” says Frenette. Schools and teachers focus so much on the standardized tests that they may not be properly preparing students for other challenges.
Standardized Test are not helping students perform in school or out of school in anyway or possible manner. Students should not be required to take theses unnecessary test to provide evidence for school boards to see if the schools are teaching or not. Standardized Test has it reasons though.It helps teachers in the school board know what needs to be taught and what doesnt.
First of all, standardized tests gets you ready for college or a job. Like if you go for a job interview they will look at your background to see if you are responsible or not. For example when you go to college they will ask you what is your IQ or what is your average in each class, and once again they will look at your background to see if you are responsible or not. So we need standardized tests for that reason.
Standardized tests are continually wasting large amounts of students’ time by requiring them to study and take many tests over the course of about a week or so. This waste of time does not positively effect students’ performances at all. According to The Washington Post, the amount of time used by standardized testing in the 8th grade is 25.3 HOURS! That is more than one whole day! However, there are people who say that standardized tests do positively effect students’ performances just because the students do not want to get bad grades on their tests, therefore, they work hard in school.
It gets rid of the acknowledgment that the little prodigies get when they excel in their subjects. The standardized testing sets the bar so high that when a kid who is unnaturally good in a field like math or science than it is lost in the sea of “skill, drill and kill” method as it drops their ability to advance in their best subject and instead sit there and be force fed the answers of the tests. It takes away the ability for kids to grow and increase their knowledge and proficiency in their best subjects. Another problem with how the teachers teach the kids the answers and such in one specific way is that not every kid learns the same. Sure some kids can learn better from the methods the teacher is using but then in the same class there is kids that aren’t retaining any of the information because they can’t learn half as well from the method being used. Blanket teaching either covers kids or suffocates them. The standardized testing prep is basically teachers just going over the answers and skills how to take tests, that kind of takes away kids from using their natural skills they need just as much as math or science, it takes away their natural curiosity, their common sense, their reasoning and logic gets shoved to the back of their minds and instead are taught to just memorize and answer instead of understanding the question and working out the answer from reasoning
More specifically, standardized tests typically measure how useful or not a certain school is (Popham). If taught the proper subjects, students would be prepared for the world outside of public schooling; however, they are usually taught enough to pass the annual standardized test. When “studying” for the end of the year test, students hardly learn anything; the information is simply spat back out and forgotten rather than stored away for future use. Considering a majority of schools only prepare students for annual testing, it would make sense to continue using these tests since they are studying for a single set of tests at the end of the year and have a higher chance of scoring in a way which helps with school