The Problems With College-Entrance Testing

2610 Words6 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Why is standardized testing unreliable

One of the most stressful experiences for a high school senior is the search for the college. So once these senior students finally develop a plan, why is it that they may not be able to achieve what they desire? Colleges and universities today are becoming more and more competitive, sometimes to the point of exclusive. With that it is fair to say that entrance to certain schools may be more difficult and extensive than the others based on popularity and demand. When this happens, colleges are looking for the best of the best in academics, the student who will represent and be the best for their institution. So what is the determining factor for college acceptance for students? The most accurate answer would be standardized test scores. While other factors are considered in acceptance, the ACT and SAT scores are what is most crucial to a student’s acceptance. Colleges put too much stock in standardized test scores when considering admission. Standardized test scores: limit diversity and creativity, represent skill more than progress, cause test taking anxiety, and result in inaccurate placement due to differently interpreted results. Due to these reasons, admission should be based on equal representation on all aspects of the applicant rather than a number that only defines how well a student can perform in their basic knowledge.

One of the biggest problems with standardized testing is that it limits diversity and creativity. When preparing for these standardized tests, teachers are expected to be responsible for a majority of student’s success. This causes teachers to teach to a test and does not allow for growth far beyond the minimum requirement. When one class has a broad range of students, academic wise, t...

... middle of paper ...

...: Help Or Hindrance?" University Business 7.12 (2004): 25-26. Web. 7 Apr. 2014.

Hoover, Eric, and Beckie Supiano. "Wake Forest U. Joins Ranks of Test-Optional Colleges." Chronicle of Higher Education 54.39 (2008): A21-A22. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.

McKoon, Katie. "The SAT, the ACT, Or…Neither?" Careers & Colleges 28.4 (2009): 10-11. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.

Olson, Lynn. "In More States, It's Now ACT Or SAT For All. (Cover Story)." Education Week 26.3 (2006): 1-25. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.

Popham, W. James. "Branded By A Test." Educational Leadership 63.7 (2006): 86-87. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.

Sternberg Robert J. "College Admissions: Beyond Conventional Testing." Change 44.5 (2012): 6-13. Web. 7 Apr. 2014.

Syverson, Steven. "The Role of Standardized Tests in College Admissions: Test-Optional Admissions." New Directions for Student Services 118 (2007): 55-70. Web. 7 Apr. 2014.

Show More
Related

  • (Introduction Paper) The Impact of Formative Assessment and Feedback on Student Learning Using the Student Response System

    2141 Words  | 5 Pages

    Current educational policy and practice asserts that increased standardized student testing is the key to improving student learning and is the most appropriate means for holding individual schools and teachers accountable for student learning. Instead, it has become a tool solely for summarizing what students have learned and for ranking students and schools. The problem is standardized tests cannot provide the information about student achievement that teachers and students need day-to-day. Classroom assessment can provide this kind of information.

    Read More

  • It’s Time to Abolish the ACT and SAT

    1047 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... a tedious process, but the change can have immense, positive effects for the future college student. The ACT and SAT that supposedly measure a student's learning potential through multiple-choice questions should be replaced by a test of a student's desire to learn determined through the analysis of essays, recommendation letters, and school or community involvement. This change can result in a more academically motivated freshman class. Standardized testing in its current form does not accurately measure most students' learning potential. It does not allow for diversity and creates a huge hurdle for many potential academic achievers. An adjustment to a diverse, open testing format of the ACT or SAT and a stress on the student's other academic accomplishments can accurately measure the student's desire to learn, therefore measuring the student's learning potential.

    Read More

  • Standardized Testing: The Real Threat to American Schools by Alfie Kohn

    1319 Words  | 3 Pages

    Standardized testing requires student to answer same or similar questions with given answer choices that are often in multiple choice or true or false form. Dating back from 2200 B.C standardized testing is recorded being used in China ,where people applying for government jobs had to take an examination ,testing their knowledge on confucian philosophy and poetry.During the mid-1800s in Industrial Revolution ,soon after child labor laws were enacted taking children out of farms and factories and putting them into schools the use of standardized test was introduced to America in Boston. Standardized testing was being used to compare schools and teaching quality; Boston’s program was soon adopted nation wide. Types of standardized test including the most common achievement tests and aptitude test. Achievement test measure the progress a student has made academically in a time period. Whereas an aptitude test attempt to predict a student’s ability to succeed academically.Standardized test are used on a large scale because computers can score them quickly, consistently, and inexpensively rather than open ended essay questions which need to be evaluated essay by essay, though essay questions allow for deeper thinking.The purpose for standardized testing is to create a standard on which all students can learn equally,but in “The Real threat to American Schools” by Alfie Kohn, the author claims that idea of standards might not be true. The author makes an interesting point in that if the possibility that all students met the state standards and passed all the tests would those students be considered ‘perfectly educated’ of would the politicians and test takers believe instead that the test was too easy and the standards were too low. B...

    Read More

  • The Shortcomings of Standardized Testing

    1649 Words  | 4 Pages

    Since the U.S. Congress passed the No Child Left Behind program, standardized testing has become the norm for American schools. Under this system, each child attending a school is required to take a standardized test at specific grade points to assess their level of comprehension. Parents, scholars and all stakeholders involved take part in constant discussions over its effectiveness in evaluating students’ comprehension, teachers’ competency and the effects of the test on the education system. Though these tests were put in place to create equality, experts note that they have created more inequality in the classroom. In efforts to explore this issue further, this essay reviews two articles on standardized testing. This essay reviews the sentiments of the authors and their insight into standardized examination. The articles provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate that standardized tests are not effective at measuring a teacher’s competency because they do not take into account the school environment and its effect on the students.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of The SAT

    1046 Words  | 3 Pages

    Standardized testing has been proven to be biased towards those of ethnic and socioeconomic disadvantaged groups. Wealthy students become more prepared for standardized tests through better life experiences, such as top-quality schools and test prep tutors. Steven Syverson implies that students with high SAT scores are presumed to be “bright” and encouraged to consider the most selective colleges, with no regard to their academic performance in high school (57). Those students that were considered elite, but did not perform well their parents suggested to admission counselors that they were “not challenged” in high school (Syverson 57). According to Marchant and Paulson, race, parent education, and family income were found to account as much as 94% of the variance in scores among states (85:62). Students that belong to multiple disadvantage categories suffered greatly in the scoring criteria. The majority of students with socioeconomic disadvantages are discouraged from attending college. However, those that choose to further their education are more than likely the first ones in their family to attend college. Due to the large debate involving the admissions process using the SAT score, more colleges have adopted the SAT Optional policy because it is “consistent with their institutional mission and

    Read More

  • High Stakes Testing in the Public School System

    1197 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Standardized Testing In Schools

    1494 Words  | 3 Pages

    SATs and ACTs are two major standardized tests. A University in California discovered that if colleges did not require SAT...

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Standardized Tests

    1201 Words  | 3 Pages

    Standardized tests have been a scourge of student life in America for more than fifty years. Throughout the United States, high school students prepare for months for the day in which they have to take out their No. 2 pencils, to endure four everlasting hours of bubbling-in answers. The ACT, American College Testing, and its counterpart, the SAT, Scholastic Assessment Test, are known as the high school exit exams, in which they have become one of the largest determining factors in the college-admissions process. Both standardized tests judge a student 's performance, in which it measures how well students learned skills to meet state standards. Although standardized tests are meant to measure what one learns in high school in order to determine

    Read More

  • How Standardized Testing Effects the Education

    2676 Words  | 6 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Standardized Testing

    1634 Words  | 4 Pages

    “SAT I: A Faulty Instrument for Predicting College Success.” Standardized Testing. Ed. Cynthia A. Bily. Detroit: Greenhaven, 2011. 106-11. Print.

    Read More

  • Should Curriculum Be Standardized for All?

    761 Words  | 2 Pages

    By having a standardized curriculum schools are not challenging students. They are creating students that do not challenge what they are learning. Holt (2013) thought that standardized curriculum destroyed student’s freedom of thought, right to question, and the freedom to spread ideas. Every student is the same in a way. Every student is tested the same. The problem is that every student is not the same and every studen...

    Read More

  • Standardized Testing is NOT Effective

    2388 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Standardized Testing: A Qualitative Study

    1416 Words  | 3 Pages

    It has been seen that factors like one’s economic and racial background can heavily influence one’s performance on a tests, as they are not given the same opportunities as those given to more affluent students. A student’s emotional well-being is also at stake as many students come out of tests doubting their overall intelligence, even though they were quite confident in the material and so much is hinged on test scores that it places a great deal of pressure on students to do well. Standardized tests also restrict teacher’s ability to learn due to the restrictions that standardized test place on the material being taught, which makes it very hard for teachers to go beyond the required and teach more interesting things. Due to the issues that have arisen from standardized tests many alternative solutions have been used and have been proven to be successful. Some good alternative solutions have been limiting the amount of standardized tests given by sampling a few students, shortening the length of exams, and allotting more time to complete these tests. Other alternatives look to more qualitative approaches in learning by implementing things like projects and portfolios that give an excellent insight to a student’s performance and

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Standardized Testing

    987 Words  | 2 Pages

    “If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn't be here. I guarantee you that.” This quote by Michelle Obama illustrates the idea that standardized testing should not have such a large influence on education in America. However, a majority of people are under the impression that standardized tests are an accurate method to measure a person's intellectual ability. I believe that standardized tests have developed into a very critical part of the American education system that is hindering the growth of students and teachers instead of providing a tool that can accurately measure knowledge.

    Read More

  • Standardized Testing and Social Interaction

    1388 Words  | 3 Pages

    The need for an indicator of academic preparation and college placement yielded the American College Testing. Since the early 1900’s, standardized college admission test has been the forefront of getting into college. Student success in college has used standardized testing as an effective tool for predicting success. Various studies have shown the importance of ACT testing as being a reliable source in predicting a student’s success. However, other studies have shown the lack of importance and ineffective indicators that come with standardized testing. Examining the history, research studies, pros and the cons of the standardized testing will conclude of why some colleges and post-secondary education systems are moving away from this type of testing just as they adopted it.

    Read More

More about The Problems With College-Entrance Testing

Open Document