The Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing

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Argumentative Essay: Standardized Testing
“Standardized testing has become the arbiter of social mobility, yet there is more regulation of the food we feed our pets that of the tests we give our kids ” (Robert Schaeffer quotes)
Standardized tests have historically been used as measures of how students are compared with one another or how much of a particular curriculum they have learned throughout the semester or year. Consequently, standardized tests are being used to make major decisions about students, such as grade promotion or high school graduation, and higher education evaluation. Various numbers of students across America have had to repeat classes because of the way standardized tests are used to pass or fail students. Although the tests require students to retain information until the end of the semester, I believe it is wrong to allow just a single test to decide whether an entire semester’s work will be rewarded with the credits that may have been well-earned. Some standardized testing such as the SAT, are not fair to students who may come from a poor educational background and do not retain information as their fellow peers. Students are at a disadvantage if they have test taking anxiety, which is a condition that many students suffer from “a feeling someone might have in a situation where performance really counts or when the pressure's on to do well” (Test Anxiety). Standardized tests give a false pretense of objectivity and consequently of equal opportunity. However, "the only goal of standardized tests is the scoring, which is done by machine" (Facts on Standardized Tests and Assessment Alternatives). It is made clear that the purpose of testing is to provide information to be used in conjunction with, not in pl...

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... Alternatives. Eircom. Retrieved December 3, 2010, from homepage.eircom.net/~seaghan/articles/10.htm
Pros & Cons of Standardized Tests. (2010, November 14). eHow.com. eHow | How To Do Just About Everything! | How To Videos & Articles. Retrieved December 2, 2010, from http:// www.ehow.com/facts_5157095_pros-cons-standardized-tests.html
Robert Schaeffer quotes. Find the famous quotes you need, ThinkExist.com Quotations.. Retrieved December 2, 2010, from http://thinkexist.com/quotes/robert_schaeffer/
Test Anxiety . (n.d.). KidsHealth - the Web's most visited site about children's health. Retrieved December 4, 2010, from http://kidshealth.org/teen/school_jobs/school/test_anxiety.html
Young, K. (n.d.). Pros: Standardized Testing. Michigan State University. Est. 1855. East Lansing, Michigan USA. Retrieved December 2, 2010, from https://www.msu.edu/~youngka7/pros.html

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