Standardized Testing
While can be beneficial, standardized testing isn't improving American education. Standardized testing evaluates only the individual performance of a student instead of the overall growth of a student over the course of a year. In my opinion, Standardized testing is not enhancing education in America.
Not all students who are smart and take in all the information test well. For instance, there are many people who simply do not perform well on tests. Many students are smart and understand the content, but it doesn't show on test scores (Gregory J. Cizek, 2001). In essence, testing brings out stress in even the brightest of students, messing with their heads come test day. The facts show that from the 50 states, 700 school districts claim that standardardized tests are causing greater anxiety than the average everyday assessments (Joseph Spector, 2015). In conclusion, student achievement
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However testing isn’t proven exactly to be effective. Particularly, standard yearly testing has been a part of American education since the mid 1800’s, and is currently used in all the 50 states. Furthermore, excessive testing may teach children to be good at taking tests, but does not prepare them for productive adult lives (Knight Foundation, 2007). Since 2001, 44% of school districts had reduced the time spent on science, history and the arts by a total average of 145 minutes per week in order to have a full focus on reading and math (everettsd, 2014). With this in mind, chinese schools are very good at preparing their students for tests. For this reason they fail to prepare them for higher education and the economy. In today's world tests often have multiple choice questions. Many tests are packaged and sent to certain places where the tests can be graded quickly by automated test scoring machines, however in recent years computer software is being developed to grade written work (Knight Foundation,
When students could be learning meaningful information, teachers are using up that time and giving them tests and exams. Although, we want to be blaming teachers, states and schools are supposed to give out mandatory tests. Who is to blame? According to washington article post, Valerie Strauss, says “The average student in America’s big-city public schools takes some 112 mandatory standardized tests between pre-kindergarten and the end of 12th grade — an average of about eight a year, the study says. ” The state is to blame.
Since 2006, overall SAT scores have dropped by 21 points. It is safe to say that the increase in standardized testing has done more bad than good. When standardized testing became more prominent, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) saw a plateau in reading and math scores. Additionally, the NAEP saw no further closure in the test score gap. The test score gap affects all minorities.
In theory these tests are a perfect way to boost the education system but in reality it causes a lot of problems and hasn’t helped all that
Leslie Rayburn is a teacher in Santa Cruz, California, and she, too, believes that this is unfair to students, and to teachers who are graded based on their students’ grades. She explains that, ‘the children who perform poorly on multiple choice standardized tests (but perhaps might perform well on an open-ended form of test) are labeled as “less intelligent’ and the school suffers” (Rayburn) Since progress of a student is mainly viewed based upon the outcome of standardized test scores, the lower-performing students are seen as “not college- ready”, which creates a roadblock to a student about where they may want to attend college. The fact of the matter is that no two students are the same, learn the same, or test the same, so standardized tests are inaccurate measurements of a student’s full learning capability and
Standardized testing is becoming a concern for many. There are many pro and cons associated with standardized testing and students. In our present education system, standardized testing is view as a way to find out the progress the student has or is academically. However, this may not always be the case. Standardized testing is actually putting a lot of pressure on students, families, teacher, and the school system.
Standardized Testing “Sometimes, the most brilliant and intelligent minds do not shine in standardized tests because they do not have standardized minds.” That is a quote by Diane Ravitch. Some of the most brilliant and inspiring people such as Bill Gates the founder of apple, and Walt Disney, were not the best in school, and failed the first time. Failing teaches us a lesson. The real world isn’t about grades, it’s about experience and drive.
Although some might say standardized tests are useful metrics for teacher evaluations, the teachers can not make students do well on a test. Standardized testing has a stigma that if one does not do well on the tests then their future will be at stake and they will probably not do well in life. This is simply not true, taking one moment, one day, one hour of someone's life and making them take a test will not show you how well a student will do in the future. The tests
School’s are using standardized testing for the wrong reason. “A standardized test is any examination that’s administered and scored in a predetermined, standard manner. There are two major kinds of standardized tests: aptitude tests and achievement tests” (Popham, 1999). The most common examples of aptitude tests are the SAT and the
Over two hundred parents claim to not let a student go through standardized testing. The earliest records of standardized testing come from China, for the subjects of philosophy and poetry. America “copied” the European education system. In the early 20th century, immigrants took “standardized tests”. To determine possible career and where each person stood socially.
One of the biggest flaws is standardized testing has not improved student achievement. " Despite using them for several decades, policymakers and educators do not yet know how to use test-based incentives to consistently generate positive effects on achievement and to improve education." So if these tests aren’t improving our students, then why do we have them? I believe we need to change the tests or improve them somehow so that we do see some sort of improvement. Tests are very crucial to education because they show what a student knows, if we took these tests out completely then we would have no idea if students are improving or declining.
The room is silent, cold, and bleak and the anxiety in the air could be cut with a knife. It is hard to imagine another time in anyone’s life when they will be under these same circumstances and required to take a test. There is little to nothing about this experience that can be taken and applied to a student’s life in the future. A fundamental reason for attending school is to learn skills that will help growth and success in the future, yet how is standardized testing accomplishing that goal? Students simply spit out answers on multiple-choice questions with no critical thinking or collaboration.
In fact 70 percent of educators surveyed in 2015 say that tests are not developmentally appropriate. Furthermore many students suffer a great deal of stress because of standardized tests. What’s most shocking is that instead of lower income schools getting better after tests were implemented they have actually gotten worse. School could essentially be taught by robots. At this point most teachers in my district have to teach a curriculum that is developed by the state instead of their own curriculum.
Standardized tests are useful because they provide quite a bit of information. Students mainly believe that they are fair. There have been studies done with students while they are taking the tests and they have found a positive effect on academic achievement. Is the use of standardized tests, improving education in America? The use of standardized tests is improving education in America because they are fair, reliable, and objective measures of student achievement.
Parents are stressed because they want the best for their children. Like parents, teacher are stress for the same reason but they have another factor affecting them. How their students perform on this test affects their paycheck. Though parents and teachers have a lot to worry about, there is no one else more pressured than the students taking the tests. Standardized tests scores are used to compare students and these students are aware of the importance of the reading and math standardized tests so they worry greatly about their performance on the test.
Pictured this: a bird, a monkey, an elephant, a fish in a fish bowl, a seal, and a dog all in a front facing line standing in front of a tree and facing a man at a desk-most likely signifying a teacher-. The teacher gives the instructions “For a fair selection everybody has to take the same exam: Please climb that tree”. This is a basic implication of how standardized testing is not the answer to better America’s education. Not only are these government mandated tests not improving education and negatively effecting teachers and students, but they are also inaccurate and can be easily altered. There are two types of standardized tests, the aptitude and the achievement.