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How standardized testing damages education
How standardized testing damages education
How standardized testing damages education
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I.Introduction
A. In recent years, the State of Tennessee has changed standardized testing, in many ways that are not benefical to students or teachers.
B.Thesis
II. Current state of Testing
A. Ever since the Fall of 2015, the state of TN has not had Test scores out to districts on time to make those scores part of the students grades, or for teachers to see where they can improve for the next academic semester.
B. Since the beginning of TNReady in 2015 the state has not provided teachers or students with adequate resources to prepare for the state.
C. The new testing has also been a strain on local resources, which has lead to less money been able to be put into the education that students are receiving.
D. TNReady is a waste of time, money,
middle of paper ... ... 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. Works Cited Miltich, Matthew.
The state controls the curriculum and the funding for schools, therefore, making it difficult for the teachers and school administration. There will be less and less local discretion over the content of what goes on in the classroom and over the curriculum. On-the-other-hand, more and more
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.
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.
“Students are taking between ten and twenty standardized tests, depending on the grade. A total average of one hundred thirteen different ones by graduation.”(Locker) A few years ago the United States, along with other nations, was given a test to assess the academic strengths and weaknesses of each nation and rank them accordingly. When the results were released and the United States was ranked near the bottom, it was decided to start incorporating more testing through school. Between benchmark, TLI, PARCC, and common core standards, teaching technique was forced to change. Standardized testing has had a negative effect on teachers and students, implementing inadequate grading standards and the common core curriculum, such testing has made
Providing states with more flexibility in determining how standardized tests are weighed. States are now allowed to include other forms of measurement of student and school performance.
The State of Ohio is letting down their students with some of the lowest test scores in our country. According to OSU Research News, reporter Doug Downey states, “up to three-quarters of U.S. schools deemed failing based on achievement test scores and would receive passing grades if evaluated using a less biased measure, a new study suggests” (“Many Failing Schools Aren’t Failing When Measured on Impact rather Than Achievement" par. 1). Above all, teachers feel that all they do is just teach students how to pass assessment tests. Thus, some students feel stress and frustrated, as if all they do is practice and study on how to pass achievement tests. In addition, with the economy effecting property taxes, which have been going down in recent years has affected the school funding. Furthermore, Ohioans are starting to see more states moving towards a year-around school system. Therefore, Ohio fails the students in education, due to lack of state funding, classroom time, and quality teachers.
Standardized tests, such as the SAT and the SOL, have been implemented for many years now for individuals in grade school to take. The SOL’s, or Standards of Learning tests, are Virginia’s version of standardized tests that students are required to take in order to pass a class, evaluating their knowledge on a specific subject. SOL’s are mandatory for students to take as soon as they reach third grade. Additionally, the SAT is a test taken in the final years of high school that colleges look at when comparing students for post-secondary school. People concerned with student’s education can come to the common consensus that education is important and there should be some way to compare a student’s achievements to one another. However, the process
To begin with, the problem with the American system of funding schools is the variations that exist among different districts or states. Underfunding exists because the United States federal government allows it to exits by allowing state and local governments to decide what their contribution to education will be. Such variation is exemplified by the state of Hawaii, “the whole state is a single school district and only 2% of funding comes from local sources”(Connell) and the state of New Hampshire, “the state shares only 8% of the costs of public education, so schools depend almost entirely on local property taxes”(Connell). Each state has its own funding policy and even among districts there are wide variations in spending. Urban and suburban schools with a high student population who qualify for free or reduced typically receive less funding for schools than their counterparts due to the differences in each districts’ local property taxes. Variation of this type and of this degree hinders American education.
Even way back then, the whole thinking of giving more money to schools that score higher than schools that score lower seemed like a really dumb way to do things. Now, students have to do testing every time they turn around. The testing not only affects the money the government gives to the school district. It affects the individual students much more. Students that test low are not able to graduate even though they have completed and passed all of their classes.
...ry little for the school to buy the proper material for their students. This issue leaves the students of the urban schools at a disadvantage to students who attend a suburban school.
High-stakes testing is for the cookie cutter student not the unique individual student. High stakes testing was started in 1905 by French psychologist Alfred Binet. He began developing a standardized test of intelligence which was named Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test. During World War I, standardized testing was standard practice, it was how U.S. servicemen jobs were divided and assigned. Years passed and the first test to come into play was the SAT, it was founded in 1926 as the Scholastic Aptitude Test by the College Board. Years passed again in 1959 and to compete against the SATs, the ACT (American College Testing) were created. The test was made up of questions that geared students to a course of study by asking about their interests. In addition to math, reading and English skills, the ACT assesses students on their knowledge of scientific facts and principles. These tests have become just geared toward college as the decades went by. Decades past and new tests came were created, in 1980 the Texas Assessment of Basic Skills (TABS), 1984 the Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills (TEAMS), 1991 the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills
Too much time is being devoted to preparing students for standardized tests. Parents should worry about what schools are sacrificing in order to focus on raising test scores. Schools across the country are cutting back on, or even eliminating programs in the arts, recess for young children, field trips, electives for high school students, class meetings, discussions about current events, the use of literature in the elementary grades, and entire subject areas such as science (if the tests cover only language arts and math) (Kohn Standardized Testing and Its Victims 1).
Standardized testing in the United States is not always a common practice. In the Mid-1800s, Horace Mann, an education reformist, developed a test to administer to a group of students. Its purpose was to determine how students were performing at their current level and whether they were capable of proceeding to a higher level of education, although the student’s success on the test had no negative repercussions. These tests were a necessity at that time because the idea of public education was still being molded and these tests were the only means by which student progress could be measured. Within 35 years of the first recorded examination in 1845, testing became the factor which determined whether students were able to be promoted to the next grade.
State tests are important; they are one of the most important things during school. State tests are used by the state to test how one compares to their peers and determine whether or not the student is ready. For example, the OAA, Ohio Achievement Assessment is there to see exactly that; whether or not one is ready to pass on to the next grade. When teachers have more time to teach, the can have assign less homework, leading to more after school activity, and less stress. The Ohio Achievement Assessment is just one test that students have to take to prove that they are smart enough to move on to the next level of