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Standardized testing in Texas public schools has parents and teachers furious. It is an argument of Texas Legislature versus those who oppose. Student will take about 17 of these tests before entering high school (Smith A17A). Texas schools are currently conflicted with taking the STAAR tests as it brings upon many arguments. The disadvantages seem to rule out the few advantages test makers tried to pass. Rather than helping students see where they stand, it makes students feel as if they do not stand a chance.
The reason for high stakes testing in schools was to see where students stood academically. It was made to check on the progress and status of whether teachers and staff were doing their job as they are responsible for a child’s learning. In 2002, George W. Bush passed the No Child Left Behind Act. Each state had to come up with their own testing systems for students to meet certain standards. This was influenced by Red Paige who was superintendent at Houston I.S.D. Accountability was their main goal with this kind of testing. Texas tests are created by Sandy Kress who teamed up with Pearson. The current test outraging the opposed side is the STAAR (State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness) test. Kress came up with this test because people felt that the previous TAKS test was not helping students with college readiness. The STAAR test counts towards 15% of a student’s grade (Blakeslee 126). It is a harder test and Texas is a state with the most exit level exams as it is. Even though people disagree with this test even more, Kress and his followers believe that the test is not failing students, but their teachers are. Defenders can be pretty harsh and blunt about why the STAAR should stay. Bill Hammond made a stat...
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...public education. Now, after a revolt by teachers and parents who claim
that high-stakes testing is ruining classroom instruction, the legislature is poised to undo
many of its own reforms. Does anyone have the right answer?" Texas Monthly May
2013: 124+. General OneFile. Web. 15 Mar. 2014
Smith, Morgan. "Texas' Bid to Ease Mandatory Exams for Public School Students." New York
Times 26 July 2013: A17A(L). General OneFile. Web. 15 Mar. 2014.
Star-Telegram, Fort Worth. "Academic shift is crucial for Texas." Fort Worth Star-Telegram
(TX) 15 Mar. 2014,: NewsBank. Web. 20 Mar. 2014.
Cesar, Maria Luisa. "SAISD grad requirements harder." San Antonio Express-News (TX) 18
Mar. 2014, State, Metro: 3A. NewsBank. Web. 20 Mar. 2014.
Cagle, Daryl. Digital image. The Cagle Post: Cartoons and Commentary.
www.PoliticalCartoons.com, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
Every year students in each grade level are required to take standardized testing to determine their level of competency in the course. The schools use it as a tool for passing students to the next grade level and ensuring they have been taught adequately. The Texas Education Agency or TEA supplies and monitors these tests given to students each year. According to the results received this past year, in 2013, 35 schools out of 456 campuses in Texas performed poorly on the STAAR test. The 35 campuses belongs to Dallas Independent School District which is 8% of the total and more than half of Houston’s sc...
This is precisely the problem. Standardized tests are old and outdated, and the harm they cause to America’s education system by far outweighs the benefits. These tests were intended to monitor and offer ways to improve how public schools function, but instead they have impaired the natural learning ability of students and imposed upon the judgment of experienced educators. Although a means to evaluate the progress of public schools is necessary, it is also necessary to develop more modern and effective ways of doing so. Standardized testing mandated by the federal and state governments has a negative effect on the education of America’s youth.
Standardized testing is not a new concept; it has been in use since the mid to late 1990’s. However, the “high stakes” focus on standardized testing is. The practices that accompany standardized testing have long been in debate. Those in favor of standardized testing will argue that the testing creates a system that increases grades and accountability among teachers, students and school districts across the country. On the other hand, those that oppose standardized testing will argue the ill effects that standardized testing can have on students, teachers, and schools.
Standardized tests compare students in different states, districts, and schools. The comparisons lead to “unhealthy competition among the schools” (Pros and Cons 2). In the article, “Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing,” it is stated that “Federal funds are given only to those that perform well” (2). This makes the pressures in schools very high and makes the schools evaluate the performance of the teachers and students constantly. “Low scores can prevent a student from progressing to the next grade level or lead to teacher firings and school closures, while high scores ensure continued federal and local funding and are used to reward teachers and administrators with bonus payments” (Use of Standardized Tests 5). Standardized tests give parents a good idea of how well their students are doing and learning. It also leads to exaggerated reports of success. In Jonathan Pollard’s article he says “Consider this passage taken directly from Kohn’s book:” Then it states how when a test is first administered and scores are low, headlines are bad. Then in a few years the scores go up and the headlines are good. Finally, the scores level off or they substitute a new test and the scores drop. Causing the headlines to be bad again. Kohn then states that “This is not due to a change in the competency of teachers, or level of instruction. This is simply the process of students and teachers acclimating to the tests” (Pollard 4).
Standardized tests should not be used to measure student proficiency. These tests are becoming much more challenging and high stakes, resulting in a significant amount of stress and anxiety in students. Standardized testing has become a huge weight on students which is leading to test anxiety. Jasmine Evans writes in her article “Problems With Standardized Testing,” from Education.com about critics of the No Child Left Behind, an act passed in 2001 one under the administration of George W. Bush, who say that there is a lot of pressure on teachers, students, and parents, and school officials as a result of these tests. They say the pressure to...
High stakes testing has taken over every school curriculum from kindergarten through twelfth grade; teachers are often expected to “teach to the test.” Students are suffering due to a strict curriculum that is based solely on passing “the test.” Many wonder if high stakes testing is really worth the many sacrifices students and teachers must make. The high stakes testing curriculum deprives many students of valuable learning opportunities and much needed academic training.
Many times after taking a standardized test, neither the teacher or student are able to see the test to determine what questions the examinee got correct or incorrect. Because of this, teachers and students do not know what areas need more more practice. Each year money is wasted on standardized tests that could be put towards more useful things to help excell a student in their education. Andrew Ujifusa is a reporter for Education Week. He covers education policy at the federal and state levels and writes for the Politics K-12 blog. He states, “The report...calculates that the test spending by 44 states and the District of Columbia amounted to $65 per student on average in grades 3-9 based on the most recent test-cost data the researchers could gather.” (Ujifusa pg.1). Each year schools around America are wasting money on standardized tests for no reason. The money spent on standardized testing should be used for more pressing education matters, not wasted away on a single test for each student. Standardized tests cost schools about a quarter of 1 percent the total k-12 spending, or $1.7 billion annually. (Ujifusa pg.1). Schools are spending an unnecessary amount of money on standardized tests, often times these tests can be scored inaccurately. There is no point in wasting money on standardized
In 2002, President George W. Bush passed the “No Child Left Behind Act” which tied in schools’ public funding to standardized tests and enforced the tests in elementary and high schools every year by state education departments. This law also began to put more emphasize on standardized tests which has diminished our level of education and the law “made standardized test scores the primary measure of school quality” (Diane Ravitch 28). Bush hoped this law motivated more students to do well on these exams and teachers to help them prepare better, but it ended up hurting many schools in the process. These exams like the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) should not play such a prominent role in schooling and the government should not make tests the main focal point.
Standardized testing is something all students fear no matter what grade they are in. Whether they are in elementary school and middle school and have to fear the ELAs or Regents exams, or in high school and fear the SATs, PASTs, APs, ACTs etc. Even with standardized testing being as feared as they are students are still being conformed to take them. There are many ways students are being confirmed to take them, one being that they are impulsed. It 's either a student takes the standardized test or fears that 's they will be left behind. For instance, some colleges will not even accept students if they have no taken SATs. This helps prove the point that each adolescent is taking some sort of standardized test, even if they do not want to. Also, they begin to conform students to take standardized testing as early as kindergraden. Thinking on kindergraden many think about coloring, reading on the big red carpet with the teacher as well as just having fun being a kid. But now even kindergraderners are feeling the wrath of conformity down their necks because of standardized testing. With prep books to help them prepare for the standardized testing they are unable to go outside and play and just be kids because they are inside studying for an exam. (book cover) Furthermore with standardized testing there is also an upwards trend of students being
Argument Against Standardized Testing President Bush is promoting annual standardized testing for all students in grades three through eight. This bill is currently being considered in Congress, and has garnered much support. As of right now, 15 states test students in those grades, and more than 20 have high school exit exams, which look only at the test score of a student, not at his or her academic achievements. Standardized testing is an unfair and inaccurate form of judging a person’s intellect. In many cases, people are either over- or underrepresented by their test scores, partly because America does not currently have the capabilities to fairly score the increasing number of tests.
Low stakes testing is a testing structure similar to HST, except the results are not used to penalize or praise. Using standardized testing appropriately and in a smaller capacity can be a welcome change. This would alleviate many issues that branch from the use of HST. The results can then be utilized to watch for damaging trends. None of these low stakes tests would determine funding or compensation. These would only give a roadmap on how the leaders are to advance. Once this change has taken place, the task would be to find out where the break in leadership is. The school systems are top heavy. Highly paid administrators that are disconnected from the vision of education are rampant. These aren’t villains, but ignorance isn’t a defense. Leaders are meant to passionately lead teams toward a common purpose. People in the education system are not there for the money, and are willing to put in the hard work involved with a change of this magnitude. “One of the most popular reasons (75%) for joining teaching was a desire to make a difference, and 80% said they taught because they enjoyed working with children. Contrary to popular belief, just below 20% went into teaching because of long holidays” (Marsh). HST eradicates this passion. Low stakes testing can be used to discover and remedy the problems it indicates. However, finding solutions for the issues in our educational system cannot be provided with
Testing is a way to measure what students have learned from their teachers. Standardized/High-Stakes testing is a tool used to measure the performance of students and the quality of teachers in public school systems. High-Stakes testing is an inaccurate measuring stick of teaching quality and thus is detrimental to the educational system.
Stecher, “The net effect of high-stakes testing on policy and practice is uncertain. Researchers have not documented the desirable consequences of testing—providing more instruction, working harder, and working more effectively—as clearly as the undesirable ones—such as negative reallocation, negative alignment of classroom time to emphasize topics covered by a test, excessive coaching, and cheating. More important, researchers have not generally measured the extent or magnitude of the shifts in practice that they identified as a result of high-stakes testing.” Which means that in completion no test is truly valid or reliable for there are too many mistakes to be had by either the test takers or the Test
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 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.