Standardized Testing: For Better or For Worse?
Almost everyone in the U.S. recognizes that standardized testing is a central part of the education system in our country. What many people don’t know though is the history of where it came from. Beginning in the mid-1800s prestigious universities decided they wanted to give more students across the country a better chance at going into higher education, but at the time there wasn’t a way to measure the capabilities of students in both high class and low class families. This is how standardized testing came into play. If a student could do well on these tests regardless of their financial position than their scores would hopefully speak for themselves. Although, now standardized testing performs many more roles compared to its simple origins.
In today’s society standardized tests not only shows the capabilities of the students, but they also show how much they’ve learned, and the results can even decide how much funding a school will receive. Due to these factors, a tremendous amount of pressure it put upon both students and teachers. For students the pressure is to do well, and for teachers the pressure is to teach your students well enough to perform their best. These requirements have become part of what shapes the classroom mold. The goal of schooling is to not longer just teach, but is now also to prepare students for taking exams.
One argument that has become prevalent is the debate of whether or not standardized testing should be used at all. Ultimately this is a personal decision; there’s no right or wrong answer considering that an argument could be made for either side. One thing that’s for certain though is that there has to be some standard for determining one’s abilities...
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...ociation for Supervision and Curriculum Development's Update, 1987) puts this issue into a perspective that presents both the good and bad of this issue.
Regardless of whether standardized testing is replaced entirely or if it’s just edited to become more accurate the fact that changes are needed are obvious. It comes down to what one considers more important. Some say that the tests need to become more consistent, some say that the tests need to be more fair to those who had less of an opportunity for education, and some may even say that the changes aren’t worth the expenses needed to make the changes. In the end standardized testing can’t be blamed alone, and other factors will have to be considered as well. Though, hopefully by the end of the debate the U.S.education system will have learnt, grown, and improved for the sake of future generations of our people.
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
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.
High-stakes standardized testing greatly impacts the environment in which students learn. When such a huge emphasis is placed on these tests and scoring well on them, it often creates, in excess, unnecessary anxiety and stress. In Florida alone the number of different standardized tests given to students spanned across kindergarten through 12th grade has increased to over sixteen. Often students are faced with the harsh realization that not scoring well can mean the difference from a pass and fail grade. That kind of pressure can lead to a complete shutdown of their learning. Although students are heavily impacted by the pressure and anxiety that accompanies standardized testing, they are not the only ones. Teachers not unli...
Standardized tests do not cover all the things students need to know. They also do more harm than good to students, teachers, school systems, and to states. Over a million dollars every year could be spent on more for classrooms and schools and it could help the funding issues most schools face. The stress levels and “drill like” teaching would lower and teachers could focus on teaching in more creative and outgoing ways. Also teaching things that will help students outside of the classroom. Schools could also stop relying on the students scores for federal funding, keeping jobs, or the school. Schools will take chances and teachers will try new ways of teaching using their students personal learning styles, not the needed curriculum for the
Standardized testing is a down fall to many students but also an opportunity for many others. Standardized testing has its pros and its cons. It can be the make it or break it factor into getting into colleges you are hoping to attend or the scholarships you want to earn. Some people may have their opinions about the test, whether they hate it or not but the fact is that it’s here to stay.
Standardized testing is a type of test usually serve to determine how well you understand a concept which is often used for placement. These types of test include questions in a form of an essay, short answers, multiple choices, or a combination of these together and are given out as early as in kindergarten. This practice has been used for so long that it has become a part of the American culture. Every year, high school juniors and seniors worldwide take the SAT or the ACT in the hope that they score high enough to get into their dream school. However, there has been a lot of ongoing debates revolving around the idea of the use of standardized testing in college admission and the whether or not they are effective in determining a student’s
The world is no longer concerned with educating whole human beings, but instead, it is focused on collecting “data.” “Standardized testing robs students and teachers of using their creativity and critical thinking. It holds everyone accountable for meeting this one standard when that is nearly impossible to do. It turns us into robots, dehumanizing both teachers and students.” (Gettysburg College, 1) Standardized test are given to schools by the government. The problem with that is that the government is not in the classroom with students every day. They do not know what the students need. Standardized testing takes away time from student learning experiences where they are not able to think critically or be creative. Standardized tests take place in an artificial learning environment. They are timed, students are not allowed to ask questions, use references, talk to another student, and they cannot even get up and move around. All of these things do not mirror the reality of the real world at all. These tests are reducing the richness of human experience and human learning to a number/ set of numbers. A student may have a deep knowledge of a particular subject, but receive no acknowledgement for it because their test score may have been low. Maybe if students could draw a picture, lead a group discussion, or make a hands-on project, they could show all the knowledge that they really have. They cannot do any of these things in a standardized test. As stated before, testing also creates “winners” and losers.” The “winners” get to move on with their life, but the “losers” often suffer from loss of self-esteem and the damage of “low expectations.” Standardized tests do not value diversity either. There are a wide range of differences in the people who take standardized tests. People have different cultural backgrounds, different levels of proficiency in the English language, different learning and thinking styles, different
Standardized testing is not the best way to measure how well a teacher teaches or how much a student has learned. Schools throughout the United States put their main focus on standardized tests; these examinations put too much pressure on the teachers and students and cause traumatizing events. Standardized testing puts strain on teachers and students causing unhealthy occurrences, Common Core is thrown at teachers with no teaching on how to teach the new way which dampers testing scores for all students, and the American College Test determines whether a child gets into college or not based on what they have learned during high school. Standardized tests are disagreeable; tests should not determine ranking of people.
Students spend the majority of their time preparing for standardized tests, instead of spending their time learning. In addition, standardized tests give students anxiety, and could lead them to want to drop out of high school due to all of the stress. I believe that standardized tests should not carry so much weight in the education system. They should serve as checks of the educational system rather than as a determinant of the future of
standardized testing has been in use since the 1930s. Originally, it was used to test for kids who may have special needs for education. Now, it is used more as a requirement to receive federal funding and as a measure of students’ education. The “No Child Left Behind” Act of 2001 especially caused this. A standardized test is defined as a test, “…that is given to evaluate the performance of students relative to all other students with the same characteristics… In the United States, standardized testing is one of the primary methods used to measure the performance of educational institutions (and often teachers) and to make decisions about the distribution of funding,” says “Standardized Testing: An Overview” (Issit and Maureen 1). These tests have gone from assessing students for specific fields they may need help in to essentially acting as the basis of our educational system. It was believed that standardized testing would make the quality of every student’s education better by enforcing that specific amounts of information for specific topics need to be covered, but what they are really doing is limiting educational
In the United States of America, Standardized testing has become a way of life for students and children, especially in public schools. Many argue that standardized testing does not measure the students as a whole, takes up valuable classroom time, and creates drastic mental health problems in students and teachers. In recent years, a controversy surrounding the idea of standardized testing has been brought forth as something that needs to be changed or adapted to the growing needs of today’s students and this can be examined when exploring the negative effects, the testing has had on society’s future.
Standardized tests are examinations administered to the children of the United States. Some states have exit exams, meaning a student must pass the test to continue or finish their education. Here in Virginia, students are tested from 3rd grade to 8th grade on the Standards of Learning tests also known as the Virginia SOL’s. Students from Kindergarten on up will take the Cognitive Ability Test or Cog AT and Benchmark tests throughout the year. High school students have their choice of taking the SAT’s or ACT’s or if they would like to join the military they will be given the ASVAB. Unfortunately, these tests are not completely to blame for poor results. The education standards are different in each case; some areas like in South Carolina depend on federal aid and grants to function. Their practice is the lower the grade of the results of the test the more money they will receive. Whereas in Virginia, the lower the score with no improvement the less funding they will receive and if there is no improvement within five years the entire school staff is replaced. From an early age, society has encouraged the practice of examinations from the entry to school to work employment. The real question that needs to be asked is are these tests benefiting the youth in the United States or are they just encouraging them to memorize large amounts of information. In turn, how much are they actually learning and can we as educators, parents and concerned citizens guarantee these children are receiving the best education possible. Testing is necessary but we are over testing our children and slowly removing all of the creativity from them and the teachers. Turning the youth of today into memorizing machines and not comprehending the material that th...
Having a standardized test can keep everyone at an equal level in our education system. For example, a teacher by the name of James Ayoc wrote on an online blog, “ the purpose of testing kids is to figure out what they know and are able to do.” (Aycock) Mr. Aycock uses these standardized tests to assay what his students know and are capable of doing. Another reason Mr. Aycock uses his test is to mark his ability to teach. Mr. James also argues that without the use of standardized testing, he would be unable to compare scores to measure
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.
“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.