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

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.

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.

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.

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. In order to comprehend the authenticity being compromised, we must first understand, what is authentic learning.

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. To summarize, the cons of the SAT are that it is not a strong predictor of success in college, there is too much importance placed on the SAT, there are race and class biases with the Sat, the test pep requires money, energy, and time, and the takeaway from your score is not always beneficial.

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.

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

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

Most teachers have great relationships with their students and want them to succeed. Some students struggle and end up cheating. Having an Honor Code would destroy these resected student-teacher relationships non existent due to the fact that students would have to tell on other students. The balance that had been established would be destroyed and could never be recovered. Having an Honor Code will fracture the trust that students have with teachers.

As “Education week 's” Ron Wolk’s has said, “The system failed to educate them adequately, and now it punishes them for not being educated. " Ron Wolk is stating that with a school district failing to educate its students, these students have to pay the price by failing the test. High Stakes testing may also affect the district. Low scores could result in the reorganization of schools or a shift of resources to charter schools or private-school vouchers. Who knew that one test could severely damage a community and school

Claire Wyatt-Smith is Dean (Academic) in the Arts, Education and Law Group at Griffith University. The authors promote the same ideas as the Australian Primary Principals Association (APPA) have on high stakes testing programs, such as NAPLAN, suggesting that they have unintended and negative impacts on teaching and learning quality. The article includes research which admits that the increased pressure on teachers to ensure improved test results has led to cheating and narrowing of the curriculum because teachers only teach that which will be tested. The article also reveals other consequences of high-stakes testing, such as; threats to teachers’ jobs if results don’t improve, more attention given to students who are more likely to achieve better grades, neglect of students who have the greatest need for support and increased absence of low performing students on test days. The article reinforces the negative impacts of high stakes testing as the sources above, thus illuminating my topic of the impact of high-stakes

It creates an obsession with test scores as a chief “accountably” metric for students, educators and schools. This system has led to the exams becoming an end instead of a means to an end. For instance, according the Joh Holt, within the learning environment “the air practically vibrates with suspicion and anxiety, the child learns to live in a daze, saving his energies for those small parts of his life that are too trivial for the adults to bother with, and thus remain his.” (E) This represents the crucial and harsh environment students experience when facing tests. It puts unnecessary stress on the minds of students and degrades their self worth into nothing.

But the real question is, will we really get smarter? Smarter Balanced is basically a normal summative assessment that goes over everything we’ve learned so far. What makes it better than our regular assessments we have in school? The company of Smarter Balanced states, “Smarter Balanced is designed to measure whether underlying concepts have been taught and learned, rather than reflecting mostly test-taking skills.” SBAC is one way of making sure that we know these skills before we move on to the following grade.