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Standardized Testing
Standardized testing is used in countries as a means to assess students, teachers and schools. Controversies of standardized testing include test purpose, design, implementation and use of test results. Standardized testing in the United States deeply affects the students and the school education system. They are unreliable and there is minimal increase of student performance of these tests. It is more than just a test. It has become a direct impact on how someone's future will look. Tests like the SAT or ACT should be a low-stake test to only be looked at to see a student's academic progress. Standardized testing should be revised because of the negative impacts on schools, schools are already opting out of accepting and taking certain tests, and the money aspect has affected everyone at the schools.
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In today's schools, standardized testing has created a negative impact.
The testing causes unnecessary pressure on the teachers, administrators, students, and families. Five schools gave statements about standardized testing and data revealed that, "of all the statements made regarding standardized testing, 77% were negative and 23% were positive" (Klein). Negative impacts of standardized testing include teachers having to change their lessons to fit the test, low self-esteem conquering students, and the hopelessness of having a good future. Standardized testing being a high-risk test, one bad grade from one of these tests can affect your whole future. Standardized testing, "only shows a snapshot of student success and does not look at the whole development of the child (Durham). These high-stake tests have corrupted everything students have learned and have just put it all in one single test. There are times when a student can be a 4.0 plus student throughout high school, but because of one test, they have problems getting the needed scholarships. Additionally, schools are already standing up to standardized
testing. Some schools feel like standardized testing has no value in determining how intelligent someone is. Columbia University will join the University of Pennsylvania as, "the only Ivy League schools that chose to not accept SAT Subject Tests or writing portions of the SAT or ACT" (Holmes). Also, many schools in Illinois rejected the new Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test. It is stated that, "10 times as many students, or 20,000, opted out of taking the state's new standardized test this year than as in 2014"(Madhu). Many people thought the standardized test, PARCC, was an illegitimate test and had no beneficial reasoning. Standardized testing is being rejected by parents and students, who feel that there is no use for the test. Another big reasoning for this rejection is the money aspect that comes along with standardized testing. A lot of schools get funding through how they perform on certain standardized tests. Also, standardized testing can influence how much the principal actually makes. Consequentially, "teachers are stripped from their daily lesson plans and told to spend up to three months teaching the students items that are going to be on a standardized test" (Miner). Using standardized test scores to reward and punish teachers and schools encourages them to cheat the system. In July 2011, it was reported that, "178 Atlanta public school teachers and administrators from 44 schools were found to be cheating on standardized tests" (Procon). Standardized testing has changed how teachers educate, what teachers teach, and how much time they spend focusing on tests. Ultimately, even teacher will cheat in order to circulate the money through their schools. Despite all the negative characteristics of standardized testing people still believe it is beneficial to our country.
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.
Some may say standardized tests are a wonderful thing for schools to test their students but I'm here to tell you why they are bad. The standardized tests have too many problems that need to be changed. There is problems with how many are taken and they need to be fixed. There are too many problems with these tests and the government needs to modify them. So this essay will explain that standardized tests are bad and they need to be fixed, because kids take too many of them, countries who take less are outscoring us, and they are too low quality.
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 a down fall to many students but also an opportunity for many others. Standardized testing has its pros and its cons. It can be the make it or break it factor into getting into colleges you are hoping to attend or the scholarships you want to earn. Some people may have their opinions about the test, whether they hate it or not but the fact is that it’s here to stay.
Standardized tests are very common throughout the United States. They are used to measure students’ academic performances in school. These tests vary from state to state in all grade levels. However, these tests are believed to be biased towards those students who come from higher-class neighborhoods, simply because they have more educational resources. “The absence of standards virtually guarantees stratified resources and access to knowledge, based upon income, color of skin, and the community and neighborhood in which one lives” (French, 2003). The resources in the suburban areas differ from those in the urban areas, because of the gap within the difference of incomes. Families living in suburban neighborhoods have a bigger income, which enables them to have more resources than those living in urban neighborhoods. Most educational resources come from taxes, which plays a big part in the gap between urban and suburban neighborhoods.
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.
Although there have been legitimate arguments supporting the benefits of standardized testing, such as their ability to successfully measure students’ proficiency, in recent years there have been concerns and disadvantages regarding how their misuse poses a serious threat to the American education system. Despite the belief that standardized tests should be used to measure students’ proficiency, there are more reasons outweighing this statement regarding why they shouldn’t be used for this purpose. Not only is this a particular issue with standardized testing, but the tests are becoming more high stakes and are being used unfairly to determine things such as graduation, or placement in a school, resulting in a significant amount of stress and anxiety in students. Testing corporations are also profiting from the design of these standardized tests, while standardized testing is also forcing teachers to all teach the same thing, leading to a lack of creativity in the students. Aside from these arguments, standardized tests have been found to be becoming flawed and have poor design.
As child growing up some of the frightful memories include a visit to the dentist; an evil man with scary drill whose solve purpose is to hurt you or the first day in elementary school you finally leave all behind the cozy classrooms and nap times of kindergarten and enter the big leagues. All of these are considered a cakewalk compared to standardize testing. Since the start of elementary school students in the United States are taught to test. In many instances students are held back or placed in remedial classes because of lower grades. But many don’t realize that some students are not great at testing taking and because of the lower grades some educators believe that these students are lower achievers. This leads to lower self-esteem and encourage students to drop out in later years. Also students are forced to memorize information merely as facts without sparking their creativity or enhancing their knowledge.
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.
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.
You may not think about it but Standardized testing is quite expensive. According to Huffing Post and edweek.org Standardized testing cost 1.7 million dollars annually. That is a LOT of money with that we could be doing much more productive things. Also Standardized testing is very timely. According to wbur.org kids takes about 20-25 hours. With this time students are only reviewing things they ALREADY learned when they could be learning something new. Standardized Testing is also a bad situation that can be changed with a little bit of effort. If we stop standardized testing many good things will happen. For Example teachers will stop feeling pressured to teach to the Standardized test so they do not get fired. According to LAtimes.com Standardized tests do not help evaluate teachers. people are actually already trying to change this according to Radio,inc Republicain senate aids are drafting a bill to eliminate standardized testing. With the immense cost of standardized testing we could be putting money toward extra-curricular activities or better supplies. The possibilities are endless. That means that standardized test is something we could change and could make a better situation out
It is easy to see how colleges find standardized tests necessary for acceptance into their institutions. The SAT and ACT do in fact serve as a “metric for learning” (Nixon 2). Standardized tests provide benchmarks of learning for educators and parents, since every student takes the same exact test. The problem arises however, when we consider that every student is not exactly the same. As quoted by Albert Einstein, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.” College, unlike high school, is unique because not everyone is required to take the same exact classes to graduate. Thus, the claim of opposers rests solely upon the questionable assumption that everyone
Almost every school year students are expected to take standardized tests such as state tests, the SAT, and the ACT. A test qualifies as standardized if it is graded relative to others and relative to a score chosen as the standard for students. The tests can begin as early as third grade, where students scores may determine if they need to be held back, and through all years of high school where scores from tests like the SAT or ACT can determine if a student is accepted into a college. Controversy has formed around standardized testing, especially high stake testing. Some believe that standardized testing is helpful while others agree that the tests should be eliminated. Standardized testing should be abolished from the school curriculum
It can be stressful and a lot to handle. They should not be expected to know all of the material for their classes and for the tests. Standardized testing also has a negative effect on teachers. It adds unnecessary pressure and fear of judgement based on student performance. Because of this stress and pressure, students feel the need to compete with each other. This can have detrimental effects on their future. When looking at the negatives of standardized testing, it is easy to see that too much of it is more harmful than