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The effects of standardized tests on students
Does standardized testing have negative effects on education
Decline in educational standards and its impact
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As students finish their last year of high school and get ready to take on college they will realize that they are not even close to being ready to take on the next step of life. As life advances in technology, classes are becoming harder and take more brain power to work out problems or write papers. Students are not used to using their brains because in high school their main focuses are on test and to maintain their GPA. When students move on to college to further their education and then suddenly fail, fingers are pointed at who 's to blame. Society standards continue to rise and many students can not keep up and begin to struggle emotionally. When schools are not as good as the neighboring schools, the school board must be at fault. While …show more content…
As students apply for colleges, many of the seniors fail to meet the requirements that are set because major universities are looking for the best of the best to attend. To attend a major university, students must take the ACT to see if they meet the standards set before they get to attend. College admission counselor, Kat Cohen,stated in an interview "...it becomes necessary to get an SAT/ACT score within the range of the averages at that school, or certain applications won 't even be considered." (Cohen 1)Each school across the nation has its own standard and many schools will twist the truth just to sound better than the other schools. Taking into consideration that every teacher in every school do not give the exact test, saying one school has better grades than another school is a false argument. Since schools do not have the same requirements to meet, the students will never be on the same level. Timothy Truesdale said "You 're potentially sending a message that it 's OK for some kids to not do as well…”(Popham 2) Its bad enough that students are constantly worrying if they have met the standards, when the standards are continuing to change. Students wanting to further their education should not have to worry about meeting a university 's …show more content…
Many teacher 's jobs are threatened when their classes test scores are not at the level they should be. Frances Banales says, "We must get the testing scores increased...Everything is overshadowed by one high-stakes test.”(Overman 2) A teacher must teach the material that is on the end of the year state test in the allotted time of a school year. To fit all the material in a school year, a teacher must prepare the students and themselves for the test. This is not teaching the students anything besides how to test and that is why students are not ready for college. Richard says, "...the time spent on schooling students in the techniques of test taking--how to fill in answer sheet bubbles, whether to guess or not, what to do when time runs short, and so on?”(Phelps 1) Teachers are so focused on the test scores reflecting back on the teacher and not focused on if students actually learn the material. Students are taught to use their short term memory to remember the material for the test in a week rather than leaning the material for a lifetime. Students get to college and are lost because they do not remember any of the coursework. Linda says, "Individual teacher 's scores do not accurately reveal their ability to teach.” (Hammond 2) Stressing over test scores is what every teacher does, while students are not
Almost state has gained federal funding from accumulating the test data from all of their schools (Ravitch 107). Data collected from multiple choice questions determines the intelligence of every student and their teachers. The test data is tracked throughout their lifetime in relation to their test scores, graduation dates and other statistics companies such as Amazon and Microsoft use to evaluate different groups (by age, ethnicity, etc) as a whole (Ravitch 107). Ravitch claims there are many problems with this, mainly, tests do not measure character, spirit, heart, soul, and potential (112). Not everyone is the same, and just because one may be weak in math or writing doesn’t mean they’re not smart, resourceful individuals with much to share with the world. For schools to be even seen with a slight amount more than just their test scores, they have to be in great standings with their students’ average test results. The government’s intense focus on test results hurts schools’ ability to be a well-rounded school immensely. In contrast to federal’s pinpoint focus on what students learn, educated consumers desire their kids to have a full, balanced, and rich curriculum (Ravitch 108). Schools need to be more than housing for test-takers. The Education Board may claim students’ proficiency in their testing makes them better people, prepares them for college, and ultimately, the workforce. What they are
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
We live in a society where we are surrounded by people telling us that school/education and being educated is the only way to succeed. However, the school system is not up to the standards we want it to uphold. There are three issues we discuss the most which are the government, the student, and the teacher. In John Taylor Gatto 's essay “Against School”, we see the inside perspective of the educational system from the view of a teacher. In “I Just Wanna Be Average”, an essay written by Mike Rose, we hear a student 's experience of being in a vocational class in the lower level class in the educational system when he was supposed to be in the higher class. Both Gatto and Rose give their opinions on how the educational system is falling apart. Today the government is only trying to get students to pass, making it hard for teachers to teach what they want. Students are affected everyday by the school system. They sit there - bored - and do not think that the teachers care, making the
...achieving high scores on standardized tests” (Solley).Because of this, teachers take more time to teach test preparation skills than valuable information (Neill, 165). Although standardized tests have been trusted for years to assess the progress of students, there is little evidence that they measure progress accurately.
One time I heard a teacher at my old high school tell a new teacher that their job is to teach to the test and nothing else. I did not really know what she meant, but I knew something about what she said sounded very wrong. I thought why are they just teaching us how to pass the test instead of just teaching us what we need to know? Later I found out that whether or not I graduate depends on passing the test. The idea of standardized testing to say whether or not students graduate is a bad one. Not just bad for schools, principals, and teachers, but it can mean the end of a student’s future before it begins. That means not only does schools suffer, but everyone in our communities, states, and country suffers. It used to be that students had to take standardized tests every year. The results of these tests said what school districts would get more money or less money for the next school year. And it would also tell schools and teachers if some students needed to be put into higher level programs such as gifted and talented or advanced placement courses or if they were having problems and should be put in special education.
Schools, Teaching, and Learning; Not Good for Everyone Never let going to school and taking classes get in the way of learning. There is more than enough blame to go around regarding the education and preparation for the recent generations of students entering adulthood. Some people, like Michael Moore blame politics on the poor state of education, others like Davis Guggenheim, blame the powerful teachers union putting their own needs before the students. I place the blame squarely at the feet of the parents, students and over all society for the current state of education.
Another example of this phenomenon took place in Toledo, Ohio. Nathan Card, a graduate of the 2017 class of Ottawa Hills, received a 35 ACT, but was rejected by schools such as Harvard, Princeton, Brown, Dartmouth, and Cornell. All of these students met or exceeded the requirements for both of these schools yet they were somehow rejected even with high test scores. These are not the only students that have come across this issue, countless students across this Nation have experienced these similar issues. These tests can have a negative impact on students, as Columbia University recently stated that “Standardized testing evaluates a student’s performance on one particular day and does not take into account external factors.
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.
Today, schools are making it a priority for teachers to follow the strict guidelines of a “one size fits all testing curriculum.” Educators must prepare students for the tests that could make or break their future. This curriculum is focused only on teaching students what they need to know in order to pass the test. “Because the test is based largely on the memorization of facts, teachers will have to teach their students these specific facts instead of teaching for deep comprehension and understanding of material.” (Martin, 309) As a result, students do not learn the true lesson. Although it is highly important that students pass “the test,” this strictly based curriculum is ignoring the important academic skills and fundamentals needed for their future, even beyond the years of high stakes testing; without these needed skills students will be left in the dark once they have graduated from high school. Students often learn on different levels and their educational requirements are not being met with the “one size fits all” approach. Those who create these tests tend not to include those who learn on a different educational level; rather their focus is pointed towards the money rather than on the success of all students. Children need to learn sk...
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.
There are many things that influence our behavior from internal influences to social norms. Social norms are implicit or explicit rules that govern how we behave in society (Maluso, class notes). Social norms influence our behavior more than any of us realize but we all notice when a norm has been broken. Breaking a social norm is not an easy task and often leads us feeling uncomfortable whether we broke the norm ourselves or witnessed someone else breaking it. Sometimes however, you just have to break a norm to see what happens.
Students and teachers both can have anxiety about testing. Teachers can be worried about the students’ performance on a test – a test that does not measure a student’s intelligence unless the student is good at taking tests. A student might be a gifted musician, artist, or athlete, but if they do not pass a standardized test, they are considered unfit for most colleges. Moreover, since the test is so important and they do not want to fail, students might be nervous while taking this test and because of this, they might not perform as well as they could. Also, a student’s self-esteem and self-worth can be lowered if they do not do well on a standardized test. This can be for two different reasons. One, a student might have thought they had done better on the test and the results could not be what they expected and they could feel like a failure. This can cause a student’s self-esteem to be lowered. Two, they might become worried about their future if they don’t receive a high score. There are many students who have the pressure of their family to do well and if they do not, they might become depressed. Even President Obama thought that standardized testing was not a good way to do things. Taken from an article written by Jonathan Glover (2016) of The
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.
Education is free it is not appreciated as much as it should be,anything just given is worth nothing. Students don't take school seriously and expect to be rewarded for minimal effort. The goal of schools is all wrong the goal for school now is to hold students’ hands through high school with an end goal of college. College, because of this is now viewed as a right and the only way to succeed in this world. A student that goes to college feels entitled to receive a job that pays good money right when they get out of school. They are expecting things they haven't shown, they are capable of or earned. Students feel entitled to this because the school mentality is influencing them. The real goal of school should be teaching students the how and why of things and teaching the basic skills of how to be productive in society. Students not being taught how to be productive citizens are crippling the
Testing is one of the big issues in our education system. The idea that the whole school curriculum should be planned around tests is a foolish one, if we want to get a quality education that we can actually learn something valuable from. Having students cram empty facts and memorize test answers is not teaching them it is just encouraging more stress and late nights. On some occasions, tests are a necessary evil to see if the student has actually learned anything from what they have been taught, but to gear the whole class a...