Standardized Testing Flaws

Standardized tests are jeopardizing countless students’ mental health and future career options, as such, should be removed from a student’s requirement to graduate. Several people become so stressed that they can not properly take the test. A majority of standardized tests are timed which hurts the students who know the subject, but read or work slowly. Standardized tests use knowledge that are not taught in class to help spread out scores which hurts numerous schools. Another issue with standardized tests that if a student do poorly on them, they will be rejected by the colleges or jobs that they want.

Should kids get paid for good grades? This simple question is causing a commotion to many school districts. While some people agree, using money to bribe students to learn is not right. While it may seem to work, it can have a great influence on the schools and the students. Students tend to get bored of school, and in order to get their attention, some schools have decided to pay their students.

So, the result of this approach—judging teachers by the score gains of their students—will incentivize teachers to avoid students with the greatest needs. This is just plain stupid as a matter of policy” (Germain). This quote is important because it relates to students not learning well because of issues at home or medical reasons. To explain, it talks about children with disabilities or who are homeless or something along those lines aren’t going to learn as well as other students. If teachers have these students in their class then they aren’t going to get paid very much from them.

She states “If students pursued education for its own sake… they would try to produce academic work that increases learning… But many students don’t especially value the process of classroom learning” (Blum 1,2). Therefore, instructors will struggle to teach the value in learning, and Students will continue to plagiarize because there is more concern about the product (the grade) than the process. Over all, students don’t grasp the gravity of plagiarism and need to be taught the correct ways to avoid it. Professors should not assume that students simply understand how to cite and know when and where to give credit too other writers work (Blum 3). This translates that students and professors need more encouragement and organization to decrease the thought of plagiarism and create better self- confidence for students to import their own work into

These effects are a far cry from their desired effects of pressuring staff to do their best in everything they do. Teachers seem to be the most affected by the need for students to score well on their assessments. This is true due to our school system today which has forced many into a rigid teaching guideline that is meant to prepare students for their big test that will ultimately reflect upon themselves as well as the students. This problem distracts from the teacher’s wishes and wants for their students curriculum. This does not even mention the large class portions taken up by test prep and test taking tips that distract from meaningful learning, making for more problems than a test would solve.

Paying students for grades is not a good idea, as it has lots of downsides to it; students will stress out, it wastes school money, and lowers academic performances. To begin with, students should not be paid for good grades since it causes lots of pressure to increase their grades. The NEA states, “Many teachers also say paying students for grades leads to practical problems in their classrooms, including pressure to inflate grades and conflicts with students and parents.” This means that when students are paid for grades, it places pressure on them to inflate

There are two major effects of the practices based on this perspective. First, the students are convinced that despite the fact that they will not work hard at school, they are guaranteed high scores because of cheating. This notion is flawed as dishonesty is wrong and unethical and gives them an unfair advantage over other students. The second argument is that it discourages the students that work hard in their studies since there are others that get better scores in examinations and tests through cheating (Royal and James 275). Indeed, academic dishonesty lowers the levels of motivation among students.

For example, the stress that students have due to the tests can encourage them to cheat, take performance drugs, and do other illicit acts. Also, students are not truly learning, since test companies do not give any feedback on how to do better and improve test scores. Another negative aspect of standardized tests is that they declare everything a student has learned and experienced over the years as a single number, the student’s score. The poor scorers would then lose self-esteem, while the well scorers are pressurized to keep scoring well, many of whom completely lose time for fun. Those well scorers might not even be as smart as they were thought to be.

“Such tests reward quick answers to superficial questions.” (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

In Massachusetts, administering standardized tests is a fiercely debated topic that most students oppose. There is a widespread debate around whether or not taking standardized tests is valuable to students’ education. Especially in Massachusetts, many students find that standardized testing is invaluable and unfair. They believe that standardized tests are biased because only students who are skillful at taking tests will do well on these exams. However, this perspective is false.