Standardized Testing Argumentative Essay

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Standardized tests were first brought into schools to evaluate students and keep schools and teachers accountable, but instead of helping, these tests only harm student development. These tests make teachers change the way they teach. For example, instead of enforcing creative and critical thinking, students now are taught in a superficial and generic way. Students are not receiving a broad education like they once were. The tests try to treat all students the same instead of focusing on how well they work, how they communicate with their peers, or what piques their interest. According to research, standardized tests do not improve education because they drastically reduce the curriculum, and make students uninterested in school.
One of the disadvantages of standardized tests is they have reduced the curriculum; therefore, students learn less since the inception of the tests . Williams points out that instructional time is …show more content…

One problem with this statement is the tests do not measure student growth throughout the year they only measure students knowledge on that day (Pros and Cons). This means the scores for these tests do a poor job of calculating how well the students have worked throughout the year. Also, it does not take into consideration what a student is going through at the time, whether it is a loss of a family member, anxiety, depression or any number of things which could affect how well a student performs on test day. Moreover, the information tested on is too generic and superficial (“Accurate View”). These questions do not allow students to be graded on how well they think critically or how well they can problem solve. Thus, test scores only assess a small portion of what students actually know. This clearly proves that standardized tests do not accurately measure student

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