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Why standardized tests are not effective
Why standardized tests are not effective
Why standardized tests are not effective
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From young ages, students are introduced to the number 2 pencil, the fill in the bubble, and the pressures of standardized tests. The practice has become an unquestionable tradition, that appears to have always been around. On the contrary, the standardized test made its great debut in western culture during the Industrial Revolution—1800’s. This was due to the laws that pushed kids into the classrooms and out of the fields. Quickly the tests became the focal point of measuring student understanding and teacher ability.
First, the role of standardized tests in the classroom has subtracted from the time that teachers use to teach lessons based on their own instruction that can be beneficial to the students’ development. This is due to the expectations placed on teachers to preform tasks and activities based around the institution. Along with this, the time put aside to prepare students for the
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We live in a world where knowledge and information resides at our finger tips. Instead of instructing the students on how to sift through and apply the vast array of information, teachers are forced to assess a narrow sliver of what the technology and Information Age has to offer. Students learn not only from the technology that has been developed. They learn from life experiences—situations that occur in and out of the school. The knowledge gain from these experience shape and guide how the student preserves and interacts with the world. However, the standardized tests do nothing to analyze what students can logically apply to their life. This further shows the limitation that institution put on student learning. If students are constant told and tested over a slim selection of information, the rest of the relevant world gets ignored and disregarded. So, once the student grows and gets out into the “real world”, they are faced with parts of the world that school didn’t prepare them
Students dread the time of the year when they stop with their course material and begin to prepare for test. Everyone is in agreement that some type of revolution is needed when it comes to education; eliminating standardized test will aid the reform. The need for standardized testing has proven to be ineffective and outdated; some leading educationalist also believe this because the tests do not measure a student’s true potential. This will save money, stop labeling, and alleviate stress in students and teachers.
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 is not a new concept; it has been in use since the mid to late 1990’s. However, the “high stakes” focus on standardized testing is. The practices that accompany standardized testing have long been in debate. Those in favor of standardized testing will argue that the testing creates a system that increases grades and accountability among teachers, students and school districts across the country. On the other hand, those that oppose standardized testing will argue the ill effects that standardized testing can have on students, teachers, and schools.
Standardized testing has taken over the education realm and led to a shift in the institutional goals and values of education. In the last 40 years, standardized exams have changed; they were once used to determine the learning level of students, but now they are being used to determine the teacher’s ability. Standardized tests do not measure education quality and are incorrectly used, leading to the wrongful evaluation of teachers and the limiting of education for students by schools.
Standardized testing piles an immense amount of pressure onto all parties involved. A report compiled by Joan L. Herman and Shari Golan entitled Effects of Standardized Testing on Teachers and Learning– Another Look explains the main causes of pressure from standardized testing. School districts use the scores to evaluate teachers and hold teachers accountable for the scores. Insufficient performance could endanger the teacher’s job and poten...
In the United States of America, Standardized testing has become a way of life for students and children, especially in public schools. Many argue that standardized testing does not measure the students as a whole, takes up valuable classroom time, and creates drastic mental health problems in students and teachers. In recent years, a controversy surrounding the idea of standardized testing has been brought forth as something that needs to be changed or adapted to the growing needs of today’s students and this can be examined when exploring the negative effects, the testing has had on society’s future.
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
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.
Teachers who lack passion and desire to teach what they are given can translate and manifest its way to students as they also lose aspirations to come to school and learn only what will be on exams they are supposed to take to show that they are “learning.” Students come to school to learn things they did not know prior and with the acquisition of knowledge it can many a times create a drive for students to expand upon a particular subject, which can ultimately determine their careers and goals, but this whole process is shutdown with standardized tests, as many topics and subjects are limited to a few basic ones that put out the fire students are expected to have.
Standardized testing in the United States is not always a common practice. In the Mid-1800s, Horace Mann, an education reformist, developed a test to administer to a group of students. Its purpose was to determine how students were performing at their current level and whether they were capable of proceeding to a higher level of education, although the student’s success on the test had no negative repercussions. These tests were a necessity at that time because the idea of public education was still being molded and these tests were the only means by which student progress could be measured. Within 35 years of the first recorded examination in 1845, testing became the factor which determined whether students were able to be promoted to the next grade.
You walk into school and you’re calm and relaxed feeling okay and ready to do the work in school. Once you walk into your english class you find out the class has to take a test, multiple choice and a few short answers. Once you hear that, your heart starts racing, you get shaky and you’re nervous. You suddenly forget everything you’ve known on the topic that the standardized test is on. You sit in your seat, waiting for the test to be handed to you, thinking if it’ll be too difficult or a piece of cake. Your teacher hands out the tests to the class and announces: “Okay everyone! This test is counted as a big grade and will let me know if you’ve been paying attention all these months. Do your best! You may begin.” The moment that is said you hope to do well so that you won’t fail and are more nervous than you were when you first started, and that’s how you begin and end your test.
The author addresses paper and pencil tests with no special accommodations, and analyses trends throughout past decades. He also writes of the new era of standardized testing and accountability. Stiggins suggests that while standardized testing may be useful and effective in some aspects, most are not used correctly and that the high-stakes put intense pressure on teachers, making it difficult to actually complete their job which is to teach students new skills. They simply spend their time reviewing already learned skills to ensure good scores on exams.
For many years, students should take standardized tests in elementary and secondary schools for measurement of their performance. By preparing tests, students learn and study subjects like History, Art, Science, and Society in the school. National standardized tests are a economical assessment system having many students in order, the result can be used for entrance of college. However, in the middle of this process, nationwide standardized tests throughout elementary and secondary school have a negative influence on education both for students and school for the following reasons. Firstly, standardized tests is an obstacle to students when they develop their ability and find their aptitude trough education.
“If the purpose of learning is to do well on a test, we’ve lost sight of the real reason for learning.” - Jeannie Fulbright. Students should be required to take standardized tests, but with a limit. Not only is there a slow return on results, but they take take up too much time and it puts too much pressure on students and teachers.
Standardized testing is defined as any form of test that requires test-takers to answer the same questions in the same style and is scored in the same way. But for students and educators all over the country, and all over the world, standardized tests symbolise a source of yearly stress. The use of standardized testing is not improving education in America, and should be abolished. It is expensive, time consuming, and misleading, which leads to student stress, improper teaching methods, and alienated teachers.