I agree high stakes testing has an impact how we teach our curriculum, even in the military environment. We use high stakes testing for promotion to the next pay grade in our enlisted ranks. As educators, our primary goal should be developing curriculum and assessment procedures that improve learning outcomes for our students instead of deterring them. Test like high-stakes actual deters student learning. Amrein & Berliner (2002) suggest, the No Child Left Behind Act high stakes testing policy has caused some unintended consequence in student learning. Those consequences are higher school dropout rates, educator/schools cheating on test to keep or increase their funding, and teachers leaving the profession because of the consequences associated with the testing policy (p. …show more content…
As a result, some schools are finding it tough to score above average on these test giving teachers no option, but to focus solely on learning outcomes that meet high stake test requirements. Additionally, students with low test score were always pressured by their teacher to achieve high test, scores and when they did not produce higher results, some educator, believed, if they punished the student they would become more serious with schooling and work hard to avoid the pressure or humiliating punishments (Hurley, 2007). I used to be an advocate of high stakes testing, but now I oppose high stakes testing sine I have seen first hand myself the damage it does to a student. Also, I several educators and professional use high stakes test results as a single indicator for measuring a person's competence or determining their future outcome, even though research has proven these tests is highly
In addition to that,the Federal law policy of implementing penalties on districts that fall short of 95% students taking standardized tests may prove worse for that particular district as far as education aids are considered. If students are given choice to opt-out,then the wealthier and middle class may opt-out and reduce the funding available for students who are still interested in taking tests. So,the issue must be addressed accordingly leaving everyone happy rather than some part of people happy. So as to conclude,the policy makers or political leaders should consider this issue in a holistic approach and should not give the flexibility for students to opt-out of annual tests as it retains the conventional education standards of the country which in turn may help build a fairly considered society.
True high-stakes standardized testing was begun in 2001, as part of the No Child Left Behind Act, which was put into place to help make it so that all children would have an equal opportunity to learn, regardless of their race, ethnic background or their families’ income level. While their goals sound admirable, the problem began with the implementation of the act; they wanted to ensure that each child was at least proficient in the standards that they developed, so they decided that testing was the best way to do so (Aske, Connelly & Corman, 2013). The issue with this is that not all students excel at test-taking, and putting so much emphasis on it can cause a student severe stress and anxiety (Colwell, 2013). In 2009, Race to the Top was implemented, but instead of placing less emphasis on testing and more on learning, it made the stakes worse, ensuring that schools that had students who did not perform as well could be shut down, or individual teachers could be fired if they did not show what was considered to be appropriate progress in test scores, which might soon prove impossible since the optimal goal is to reach a level of 100 percent of the students in a school to the proficiency level (Tavakolian & Howell,
I applaud the American Evaluation Association (AEA) in taking a strong stance on the deleterious effects of high stakes testing, especially going so far as to promulgate their reasons and concerns. It is obvious from the statement that the AEA supports the importance of testing and accountability in improving education, but finds the current testing manipulation environment to be harmful for any positive improvements in education. Specifically, how the monolithic testing focus has increased dropout rates, created cultural insensitivity, turned the community against teachers and administrators, and driven curriculum writing with a myopic focus, of teaching to the test. In addition, the AEA highlights other adverse effects of narrowing the focus
Teachers may do this because of the consequences due to low scores on high stakes testing, which include negative labels for schools, potential loss of merit pay, and even the possibility of losing jobs (Enz, Bergeron, & Wolfe 196). High stakes tests also may distract teachers from inspiring their students to actually learn, by having students mindlessly memorize facts related to the test (Enz, Bergeron, & Wolfe 194). This teaches students to remember information until the day of the test, then after that, the content is not retained because the significance of it is not apparent. Teaching to the test also fails to encourage creativity and individuality in the classroom, since all students are expected to learn the same information in the same
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
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.
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
Teach. Test. Repeat. This is the simplified modification of teaching being done in a high school now-a-days. “We are going to take a pop-quiz,” are words that most probably will not be spoken in a real-life job after college is over.
In America, there is quite a lengthy history of standardized testing. It all began in 1838 when the American education system began to form ideas of having tests that would be transformed into formal measures of student academic achievement. They were originally created to hopefully show student improvement and academic knowledge, which is also their most common use up to today. The commonly dreaded standardized test, the ACT, was created in order to help more colleges improve their enrollment numbers, and colleges needed a new standardized test in order to do so. But lately, these forms of standardized testing seem to be causing damage to students.
Kane, director of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, compares this occurrence to be equivalent to saying, ”because there are some players that cheated in Major League Baseball, we should stop keeping score, because that only encourages people to take steroids”. As the third argument, people against these test say that, high stakes testing places too much pressure on students. Norman says he that these test can sometimes constitute cruel and unusual punishment, but surely there is a middle ground between the practices and full-scale abandonment of standardized testing can be found. “Those who argue against standardized testing are not only misguided, but are also leading U.S school and students in the wrong direction” (Augustine). Jessie B. Ramey disagrees.
The authors then introduce the topic of high-stakes testing, which increases a teacher’s incentive for cheating. If a teacher has students that receive poor test scores, the teacher can be passed over for a raise. In extension, if the whole school does not do well then federal funding can be withheld and the teacher could be fired. Teachers can also receive positive incentives for their students to perform better on the high-stakes testing, which include promises of promotions and bonuses (Levitt & Dubner, 2009).
Tests should be low-stakes, flexible questions and evaluations should ask for thoughtful responses and not multiple-choice guesses, and a reinforcement of the fact that tests are not the “be all, end all” when it comes to the goal of the education system. By doing this, we would give
In my opinion, public educational curriculums and accountability guidelines should be established at the state and local levels where parents/guardians play an integral role in the decision making process. I do not believe standardized tests alone are an accurate measure of a student’s knowledge; their classwork, projects, and literary works also represent a student’s talent and capabilities. In agreement with Robert Schaeffer, a representative for the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, that federal mandated programs such as the No Child Left Behind and The Race to The Top high-stakes tests foster the temptation to cheat because they serve as means to both punish and reward students, teachers, and principals based solely upon test scores (Schaeffer,
Their whole future may come down to one test. Standardized testing has become a controversial topic. Standardized testing originally started as entrance exams to get into college. Now it has moved into all grade levels. NCLB or No Child Left Behind requires all students to be tested every year in 3rd
This method will prevent students from gaining the knowledge they seek and will not work to their advantage later on in the future. Most high school classes are teaching students how to take tests rather than teaching them how to skilfully answer them and master them. This causes students to enter college and university unprepared as they develop little skill-making abilities. High-stake standardized testing, such as the SAT, is burdensome for students. The standardized test scores that a student receives determine which university a student can attend and this greatly impacts his or her future.