Standardized Tests

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Ninety percent of secondary schools in the world today use standardized tests with only a 60% passing rate. Ankur Singh, a high school student, was ready for his Advanced Placement Classes (AP) but found that his excitement would soon turn into frustration and failing grades. Singh went into his class expecting to analyze character and themes of literature, but instead he found his entire year to be filled with 50 minute, questions based essays to prepare for the upcoming standardized tests. Rather than continuing his outstanding previous pattern of academic excellence, he began to do very poorly in his AP classes. Singh expressed his frustration by stating that all of his AP classes taught specifically around college preparation and standardized tests rather than focusing on genuine learning. He continued to state, “I’m not being challenged. My classes are easy. All I have to do is memorize the textbook and spew it out on the test. I’m not learning anything. I’m not growing.” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2012/11/09/one-teens-standardized-testing-horror-story-and-where-it-will-lead/) Not only do parents and students disagree with standardized tests, educators are finally standing up against it. At Seattle Garfield high school, the teachers unanimously decided to not administer the reading and math standardized tests. Teachers sent letters to the parents giving the parents an option to opt out of their student taking the test. Teachers comment that these tests are “inappropriate measure of teacher’s effectiveness of teaching.” (http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/11/when-parents-yank-their-kids-out-of-standardized-tests/281417/) Hiss, a former dean of admissions from Bates College in Lewiston, ... ... middle of paper ... ...c education in 1965, when President Johnson passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in an attempt to provide a better quality of education that was equal for all children, and a modern educational reform movement was ignited. In 2002, standardized testing increased even more when it became the most critical tool used to evaluate students, teachers, schools, and entire districts after the passing of the “No Child Left Behind” Act (NCLB). The NCLB was a direct attempt to improve how students from the United States ranked educationally as compared with other nations, and it led to a phenomenal increase in testing requirements and student assessments. Ironically, between 2000 and 2009, American students’ fell from 18th to 31st in worldwide standings in Math, with a similar decline in Science scores. (http://standardizedtests.procon.org/#background )

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