A truly inspiring woman once said, “If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn't be here. I guarantee you that”(Obama). This quote is an excellent example of how even a person so high up in the political world can disagree with the ways of standardized testing and she is Michelle Obama. Even she can admit that if her career was decided on what percent she got on a standardized test she would not be where she is today. In the future if kids just keep believing the test score they get on these tests is what they truly will be then they are definitely not reaching their full potential. Kids often believe that these test scores will decide their future but that is hardly the truth. If these kids really …show more content…
Schools should not be teaching them how to fill in bubbles on a test and brain washing them that these scores will make or break the rest of their lives. Standardized testing should be cut down in schools across America in grades k-12 since they cause easy avoided stress over the grades, they do not improve students abilities, and the system used is harmful to education. The stress caused by these standardized tests can be really easily avoided. The problem with this is that students tend to obsess the letter grades they get on the tests and they obsess too much to the point where they disappoint themselves and their parents if the get a bad grade on the tests. Testing should never be this way, but it still is and we are not doing anything about it. An example would be, “A high-stakes standardized test is precisely that thing that causes the threat. So a student who can do excellent on the same test if it's not told that this is a standardized test will underperform on the same test if he's told that it's …show more content…
This is a good point and it is awesome to have easy accessible grades but this only proves our laziness to put easy to read grades over meaningful and truthful ones. If the grade that you see is the true representation of the understanding and knowledge on that topic then it is definitely a worthwhile one. “Proponents argue that standardized testing is the most efficient method of assessing the performance of students and institutions and of maintaining the quality of education.”(Standardized testing).Standardized testing may be the most proficient and the best looking test scores but that does not mean that they are the best for the students and how the teachers teach the students on the topic. These testing methods often sways teachers just to teach according to what’s going to be on the test but this is not good because there is much more understanding outside of the test. Sometimes tests only show a small portion of what is being teached and don’t truly test kids on their understanding but what they can pick from a little multiple choice bubble. “Tests were used in ancient China, Greece, and Rome to determine fitness for public and government service. Many early testing systems attempted to evaluate reading and writing abilities as well as qualitative characteristics such as creativity. Attempts to codify testing procedures eventually made it
The test is an effective way to not only evaluates students’ objective skills in reading, writing and math skills, but also helps students to become more globally competitive (Walberg). Those against the use of standardized testing argue that the test do not truly teaches students, but creates problem solving tricks and artificial ways of thinking. They also argue the test is biased, they point out the correlation between test scores and external factors such as family income, location, and race. On the other hand, supporters say testing is both a genuine tool for knowledge and an objective way to measure academic performance, thus needed to be reinforced more (Walberg). The controversy over standardized testing creates an incentive for every students, parents, and educators to be involved.
Time and preparation is “needed” for the younger grades. “Even though first-grade students would not be made to take any standardized tests until the third grade, they would spend the next two years practicing and preparing for the test” (Malott, Marie, and Curry). Not all of the time will be used to “teach to the test.” Students will gradually work towards the test, but teaching the young kids all the information needed will take time, slower students may need more time than others. Time is nearly everything when it comes to standardized testing.
A 2001 study conducted by the Brookings Institution found that 50%-80% of year-over-year test score improvements were simply "fluctuations that had nothing to do with long-term changes in learning". Standardized testing doesn't tell really help colleges who is better prepared and who isn't. Because of this, students that might actually be better equipped for college might slip through the cracks, not even considered because the standardized test proved an unfair barrier. Next, standardized testing doesn't test some things that are important to be a good student. I feel that the test cannot measure our creativity, our intuitive ability, nor our critical thinking, among many qualities that can define a truly worthy student.
The tests narrow down the curriculum to focus on the subjects that are on the test, forgetting about the other subjects. Standardized tests cannot measure all that schools teach like how to be a problem solver. Standardized tests have not improved America’s education system. Every once in a while the world will submit their schools performance and they will be ranked with
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,
Standardized assessments to many others can be considered an important role in the educational system and they believe that they have brilliantly positive effects on improving a student’s learning based the results of these tests. “My appreciation of having had the privilege of introducing standardized tests in my school cannot be too strongly emphasized… No school can accurately determine the progress of its pupils, either as a group or individually, without using these tests” (E.M.W. 126). It is true that these tests can review results of standardized tests, but does it hold accurate results of how effectively these children are learning educational material? It’s important to understand that these results can only tell one side of the story.
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
Standardized testing is something very familiar to anyone and everyone who has experienced public education since 1926. Teachers hate it, students loathe it, and test makers just get paid for it. A student 's ACT and/or SAT scores are often the deciding factor in which a student is accepted into a college or not. It can also decide how much scholarship money the student will receive if any. According to The Washington Post, lost learning time, loss or curiosity and love of learning, harmful stress, and altered school culture are just some of the negative by-products of these standardized tests.
Phelps” (Standardized Tests - ProCon.org.). Furthermore “debates about standardized testing are wide-ranging, nuanced, and sometimes emotionally charged, many debates tend to be focused on the ways in which the tests are used, and whether they present reliable or unreliable evaluations of student learning, rather than on whether standardized testing is inherently good or bad” (Standardized Test Definition). In addition, “proponents say standardized tests are a fair and objective measure of student achievement, that they ensure teachers and schools are accountable to taxpayers, and that the most relevant constituents- parents and students- approve of testing” (Standardized Tests - ProCon.org.). However “most test developers and testing experts for example, caution against using standardized-test scores as an exclusive measure of educational performance, although many would also contend that test scores can be a valuable indicator of performance if used appropriately and judiciously” (Standardized Test Definition).
It is average for a student in high school to take multiple standardized tests that judge how successful they will be in the future. Students tend to be stressed out, under pressure and try to cram everything they’ve learned from the past 18 years of their lives into their head for a test that may mean success or failure. In my opinion, standardized tests should not be mandatory to take for multiple reasons such as people may not be excellent test takers and other factors that come into play when an important day comes up; illnesses, stomach ache, stress, homework, studying and lack of sleep. Standardized testing does not truly test one’s intelligence. It does not let one think for themselves or develop their own thoughts or intellectual
There is a doctor, Thomas Armstrong, that focuses on youth development, and he believes that standardized tests don’t help or let anyone, whether it’s teachers or students, improve. He wrote that “Standardized tests don’t provide any feedback on how to perform better. The results aren’t even given back to the teachers and students until months later, and there are no instructions provided by test companies on how to improve these test scores” (Armstrong). Since the test companies of standardized tests don’t give feedback to teachers and students, it is impossible for them to know what they need to work and improve upon. If students can’t improve their scores, they are stuck either staying in the same spot or downgrading in the education system.
(FairTest). Standardized tests do not allow students to think creatively and encourages teachers to teach to a constricted curriculum instead of more depth of knowledge. Most students are able to achieve a proficient score to meet requirements, but for some it has become a hurdle that has kept them from achieving their diploma. Some at risk students feel overwhelmed and defeated and choose to drop out of high school without receiving a diploma. Trying to be meet a “standardized” test score now limits these students in achieving their full academic potential and may limit their career
Let’s face schools have put too much emphasis on standardized tests. Schools make too much unnecessary tests which was judging them by students test scores. If schools have less test we will have more high achieving students. There is also a lot of unfair logic about the students and the schools. That’s why I think schools are placing too much emphasis on standardized tests.
Many people have different opinions on whether or not standardized testing should be continued. There have been many disagreements on if standardized tests accurately measure student accomplishments or if they have helped students in the long-run. Numerous teachers do not like “teaching to the test”. Even students are tired of being deprived creativeness in the classroom and they are only learning certain objectives that
There is no need for standardized testing in today’s schooling, due to the amount of work the students already have a lot of work on their plate as it is and something like that is the last thing they need. One major problem I have with this is that teachers have to build there syllabus around a test that depends if you’ll go on to the grade. Since the early ages of school, they make it seem if you do not pass this your life is over and nothing else matters except for passing this standardized test. According to Diane Ravitch, a historian of education, she states in her essay The Essentials of a Good Education, “An educated parent would not accept a school where many weeks of every school year were spent preparing for the state tests.” (108) In schools over America they spend weeks of school focusing on standardized testing and how that time spent away from learning the material is taking away from the students