High Stakes Testing Persuasive Essay

Effects of student test taking are said to lead to test related nervousness. (Wei, Pecheone, and Wilczak, 8) The importance of the tests put pressure and stress on the student which leads to inaccurate scores. With the low scores from having anxiety over tests comes the teacher competition (Morgan, 69) Some teachers who are competitive want to do better than the others and that is the result of "RTTP, or Reacting to the Past Innovative" trying to get teachers to make the students do good on assessments, looking to

With higher education becoming more and more expensive an increase in pressure to perform has also lead to students cheating more in the classroom. Lucy Clark the Author of Beautiful Failure, states, “There is too much focus on academic outcomes and a very narrow view of success with a one-size-fits-all approach that negates individuality.” Lucy Clarks daughter was a student who could not meet the standards she get the education system had setup for her, resulting her in being a failure. It is believed that other kids fear this failure and will do anything to avoid it, resulting in cheating and doing anything to prove they are successful and they will that cookie cutter standard of a student. The school is not always the one setting up these expectations, often there are even higher expectations at home. “Parents cause children to cheat because of the pressure they exert on them,” playwright Francis Owuor said, who conducted a highschool play regarding a boy who would get reprimanded every time he did not meet his parents academic

Standardized testing has become a very controversial topic amongst the nation. There are two sides, one that agrees that these tests are doing well for students and school officials, and another that argues that these tests are hurting the students taking them and should be put to a stop. Norman R. Augustine wrote an article for the need of standardized testing, and Jessie B. Ramey States the ways that the tests are impairing the learning capability of the students. Norman uses three arguments that people opposing the standardized test would most often use. The first is that these test encourages the teachers just to “teach the test”, but he ensures that, this is exactly what the teachers should be doing.

Studies show that this numerical score, otherwise known as VAM (value-added modeling), is both unstable and unfair. The overwhelming tendency for the same teacher’s scores to fluctuate between multiple years concerns the critics of standardized tests and is a major flaw in the system. As stated by Diane Henningfeld, author of Standardized Testing- At Issue, “the true quality of a teacher is likely to change very little over time” (54). The current system, however, frequently penalizes educators when natural fluctuation occurs. Constantly replacing seemingly ineffective teachers is harmful because it does not leave the opportunity for teachers to get comfortable in their position.

Standardized testing is a fundamental part of the American education system and that has been the case for many years. During those years, such testing has provided the education system with some benefits. However, for the most part, this testing has had a detrimental effect on the quality of schools, how teachers teach, the education of students, and the American education system itself. As such, this kind of testing has proved to be more harmful than it is beneficial. As a result, standardized testing should be removed from the American education system because it influences schools to inefficiently use classroom instruction time, encourages inefficient teaching methods, produces inaccurate scores, and restricts the creativity of students, a quality that they need.

All this joyful news of how standardized testing supposedly creates miracles of our knowledge, increasing student achievement, may be proven wrong or right, but that is not our deepest concerns. A student’s mental/physical health and future as an authentic learner is most at risk here. No matter how many cries from multiple students are heard, they continue to be silenced. Simply put, all standardized testing should be abolished for they are hurting students both in and out of classrooms. As students we deserve the ability to access authentic learning, however, with standardized testing heavily relied on, students are deprived of this interaction.

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. Personally, I can agree whole-heartedly, seeing as I have testing anxiety and have also been a part of a public-school system for my whole life. Standardized testing puts pressure on even the best students. Degrading and demanding tests such as these should be abolished due to the stress it puts on students, inaccurate success measurement, and critical post-test self judgement. Anika Manzoor, an editor of Magoosh, an SAT (Scholastic Achievement Test) and ACT prep website, counted the pros and cons of the SAT and found remarkable results.

In the article written by Tommy Raskin,titled,”Why Students Cheat?” he states, “When you see good test results, you think that cheaters have learned, when that really isn’t so” (2). Cheating gives the student a false state of mind, thinking it is the right thing to do so. If a student cheats and they pass that test or assignment, they have not really passed because they do not know the material enough on their own. Not only is it crazy the amount of students who cheat, but how they cheat. The number of ways a student can cheat is ridiculous.

It can lead to problems about school. For example, it can increase the amount of stress, it can affect your child's natural enthusiasm to learn or be educated. Here are my reasons why I think paying your child for good grades isn't one of the best ideas. Initially, parents shouldn't pay their children due to high levels or issues or stress. According to the NEA article it states, "Many teachers, also paying students for good grades leads to practical problems in the classrooms, those of which include pressure to inflate grades

It can lead to problems about school. For example, it can increase the amount of stress, it can affect your child's natural enthusiasm to learn or be educated. Here are my reasons why I think paying your child for good grades isn't one of the best ideas. Initially, parents shouldn't pay their children due to high levels or issues or stress. According to the NEA article it states, "Many teachers, also paying students for good grades leads to practical problems in the classrooms, those of which include pressure to inflate grades and conflict