Standardized Testing In Education Essay

There are many components of teaching and one of those is assessments. I feel as if assessments have become the sole focus of learning. Standardized test has become solely empowering in the classroom, and can be considered high-stakes testing (WOOLFOLK). Many things rely on the scores of standardized test such as incentives, and money for the school. I believe that this is creating a problem that educators are spending a majority of time preparing students for the test and nothing else. One teacher stated that, “I believe that our students are over tested and many schools feel pressure to teach the test, which is actually a very low bar” (WOOLFOLK 600). I completely believe that this statement is true and that we are only hurting our students

if we focus our teaching on the standardized test. With this being said I understand that standardized test is important within the district. I still want my students to perform well on the standardized test, but I will do so by ensuring they are learning how to apply the skills needed for the test throughout the school year through other lessons.

One way I believe I can help my students prepare for the standardized test, is by providing more test throughout the year. Research shows that, “taking more frequent test improves learning” (WOOLFOLK 579). There are different ways that I can test my students, such as using traditional or authentic assessments. In my opinion I believe authentic assessments will be more beneficial to my students. By using authentic testing, I will be asking my students to apply what they have have learned to real life situations. This will help them more because they will understand how to apply the concepts they’ve learned in situation other than the classroom. This will also help students on the standardized test because they will have had different examples where they have had to apply the skills they have learned and will be prepared for different questions on the assessment. Another problem with testing is that many kids are beginning to only focus on learning information for their test. They are beginning to become content with surface learning rather than taking the time to fully understand the material they are studying. While tutoring at a junior high this became relevant. As I was working with a group of girls I realized they weren’t studying all that they had in front of

them. When I asked why they weren’t studying the other information they informed me that their teacher had told them that only the particular information they were studying was going to appear on the test and that they just need to have the material memorized. By using this method, the girls were missing out on a lot of the material and didn’t thoroughly understand the material they were learning. I believe that authentic assessments could also help with this problem because it will show students that what we are learning in the classroom will be beneficial in the outside world and that is important to comprehend it. Assessments have become a major part of the classroom and sometimes take the focus away from learning and comprehending and put it on doing well on assessments. When stressing on the importance of doing well on assessments and putting the focus on them, it can sometimes cause students to do worse. Testing has become a major component of education today and are very valuable. To ensure that the main focus is to learn skills and comprehend what is being taught, I plan to use these different test taking techniques.