Standardized Testing: Helpful Or Ineffective?

Brief Analysis of “Two Cheers for Examinations” by Joy Alonso In “Two Cheers for Examinations,” Joy Alonso identifies the necessity of testing in higher education by debating both the valuable and harmful aspects of examinations. Alonso largely supports examinations, but also admits that there are some drawbacks that come with examinations. She states there are two purposes of examinations: “to test or measure achievements, and to stimulate learning.” In addition to those two reasons, she also makes the argument that examinations also benefit the professor by revealing their teaching strengths and weaknesses. However, an examination can also be impractical, ask a student absurd questions and cause a student unnecessary stress. Despite both

Standardized Tests and Final Exams: The Assessments Which May Determine a Student’s Future Intro: Excellent test scores show excellent schooling, while poor test scores show poor schooling. That has become the value of standardized tests in schools over the years (Popham, James). Additionally, those tests can write the entire future of a student, starting at the point when doing poorly on a standardized test can ruin your hope of getting into a good college. But the question is: is the stress that students build up from standardized tests truly worth it? The answer is debatable.

As Michelle Obama once declared, “If my future was determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn’t be here. I guarantee you that.” The performance of a school’s organization is based off of the results of standardized tests taken by students (Walberg). Standardized tests are a guide to the board of education on how a school can improve its curriculum in a way that is most beneficial to students (Walberg). “The scores of standardized tests are not the same as student achievement” (Harris). In spite of the people who believe that standardized tests are a key factor to determine a student’s academic abilities, standardized tests distract students from their current studies, they are only designed for one way of learning and comprehending material, and they are biased to students.

To begin with, it is extremely important that our educational system stops promoting false confidence and allowing students to unlearn their current outlook on life. Both Davidson and Twenge touch upon the flaws in the current education system. As Davidson describes, “Confidence in your ability to learn is confidence in your ability to unlearn, to switch assumptions or methods or partnerships in order to do better. This is true not only for you, as an individual, but for whole institutions” (Davidson 67). Davidson believes true confidence, allows one to not only learn important ideas, but also forsake the ideas that may harm him or her from reaching a goal; she also mentions that this notion does not apply just to an individual person, but also applies

Kneeling during the national anthem is completely irrelevant to the problem trying to be addressed. It only has caused disruption and arguments. People supporting the cause believe they are being treated unfairly in some way, but if you ask anyone, any group, or minority, they’re going to tell you how they’re being treated

What it comes down to is the question of how effective is the grading system and should it be challenged? Many people believe that grades are necessary as well as beneficial to students’ education rather than a burden to it. Liz Mandrell and Jerry Farber decide to put the grading system controversy up for debate. Mandrell portrays her argument in “Zen and the Art of Grade Motivation,” and Farber makes his case in “A Young Person’s Guide to the Grading System.” Both use their arguments to depict whether or not grades are needed in

Additionally, it can help them to show the teacher what they have learned in other ways instead of just taking a test. Teachers are cautious about using differentiated instruction because they think there is too much work involved or it takes too much time to plan. In fact, differentiated learning is proactive, qualitative, rooted in assessment, a blend of individual and group instruction and

Yet with all this coverage and anger toward this action only a handful of people tried to fix the problem while the others only vented heavy judgement, overall it sets people others against the opposing side. ¨Most censors do not read the book they are challenging, so they develop false fears¨ (Ezarik). This is one the bulky reasons of why books are challenged, ignorant people do not try to understand the material to the best of their ability or uses bias to critique how they view the source materials. It is the struggle for influence that is the most predominant factor in decisions for challenging the books. ¨The school board agreed and removed the book.

Cheating is a persistent problem in many schools all accross the world. School administrators have tried many systems to promote academic integrity with the hope of keeping grades fair for all students. Honor codes have been a popular way of trying to prevent cheating. An honor code is a system in which students agree not to cheat on assignments, and also report any other students they may see cheating, however although students agree they do not always follow through causing problems and allowing cheating to continue. Although honor codes are a noble idea in theory, their lack of effectiveness and practicality raises problems that can not be overlooked by school administrators; therefore, I urge my school not to adopt an honor code system

Standardized testing leads teachers to begin teaching to the test because of the fear of economic loss within the school system. Professors Herbert and Hauser stated that, “Standardized test scores promote rote memorization at the expense of critical thinking skills, pressuring teachers to spend most of their instructional time teaching testing material,” (Heubert & Hauser, 1999). Teaching to the test narrows the curriculum from a variety of complex topics to specifying material to what will be on a test. This narrowing of the curriculum can eliminate important topics that encourage critical thinking and can eliminate valuable lessons to students. Over time researchers have found a predictable pattern playing itself out in various states in the United States .When tests are first administered, the scores are distressingly low.