The United States’ education system sets kids up for failure. This is due to mandatory tests called standardized testing, which attempts to see where a child’s current cognitive abilities lie. However, standardized testing fails to do so, and is a detriment to student education, failing to prepare students for post-education life. These fallacies in the US education system are due to
While can be beneficial, standardized testing isn't improving American education. Standardized testing evaluates only the individual performance of a student instead of the overall growth of a student over the course of a year. In my opinion, Standardized testing is not enhancing education in America.
In 2015, a poll was taken from over 1500 National Education Association members, and more than 70 percent of those polled believed that standardized testing is not useful and helpful to students in developing any skills (Walker). Standardized tests have been taken since the early 1900s in many age groups. A standardized test is any sort of test that has both the same questions and the same answers to all people it is given to. They are usually given over wide areas, such as states or even whole countries, and can be used to see what knowledge a general population has gained from their educations. Some major standardized tests are the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the American College Test (ACT). These tests are taken by people that are
Standardized testing has not improved education in America. Standardized tests have been issued in schools all across the nation for years now. Some people like them and some people don’t. They do not help the student learn more information than they would without the tests. The U.S. has dropped from 18th highest scores in schools in the world to be in the 30’s on almost all of the subjects on the test. 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.
It would be nice to imagine that everyone begins at the start line together. Unfortunately, a majority of people start at a disadvantage. In most public elementary schools, there are students in every grade level that are reading behind grade level. Consequently, these same students will encounter tests throughout their whole academic career. Starting in elementary school, a literacy gap will begin to emerge among students. As this gap grows, standardized testing will remain or increase to a point where some students are so far behind that it becomes intimidating to be in an academic setting. While many factors can contribute to the literacy gap, there are companies and corporations that continue to profit off of distributing
Standardized tests are one of the most popular ways schools attempt to evaluate academic intelligence of students, school districts, and teachers. These tests are used more specifically to evaluate student performance in the education system by testing their abilities in mathematics, english and sciences. By giving every student the same test, they are setting a standard idea for how well every student should score on the test, such as the SAT or the ACT, no matter the school or educational process they are receiving. Allowing every student to take the exact same test, gives the state a way to generalize student’s academic intelligence without having to do much work to make the testing one hundred percent fair. Standardized testing in schools should no longer be required because it discriminates against the less wealthy families, does not effectively measure achievement and becomes a distraction to the student’s learning environment.
Increasingly today in America’s school system, there is a recognition of tension between individuality and conformity. The struggle between students’ personal needs and the needs of the whole continues to grow. This can be seen though the controversial issue of standardized testing. These are tests that are designed in a way, which are administered and recorded in a consistent method. In standardized testing, all test takers are required to answer the same set of multiple-choice, true or false questions, short answer, and essay questions. Standardized testing is usually used to compare the performance of individuals in a relative manner. Many people consider standardized testing as an objective way of grading a student, however, it is evident
Standardized Testing hurts children who think in different ways. This is quoted by Valerie Strauss, who makes a great point by saying children can only learn by the way it 's taught and it cannot be learned from other sources. Standardized Testing limits what children can learn and how they learn. Schools also spend an extraordinary amount on testing that could be going to better education and more funding to arts and extracurricular activities. Although, some say standardized testing is beneficial to the way students learn, statistics show that this is simply not true, standardized testing adds unnecessary stress on students, suppresses their creativity, and limits the creativity of teachers.
Often when the term standardized testing is used in the United States it is referring to the tests given in our public education system. However, standardized testing doesn’t only refer to multiple choice tests given to children at the end of the year to see if they can move on to the next grade. A standardized test is any test that is scored and administered in a constant, or “standard”, way (Procon.org, 2015). These tests are designed to control for as many of the variables that can influence the assessment (Thomas & Allen, 2012). Standardized tests are used in work settings, licensing, in addition to their use in education. Since the 1800s standardized testing has been used in the American education system
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.
Standardized testing: the nightmare of every student’s school year. There are many problems with the state using standardized testing as a measure of a student’s success in the classroom. One of these reasons is that some students are just not good test-takers. People are still not realizing the problems with standardized testing, as in the US, all 50 states require students to take these tests. Standardized tests are not just a worry for students, they are also an inconvenience to teachers. Eighty-five percent of teachers even go as far as saying that the school gives less attention to topics that are not on the standardized tests.
Students have learned since the beginning of grade school that grades matter. Once a student reaches middle school it turns into preparation for high school. Then finally once the student reaches high school it is preparation time for the universal standard test, for most, taken your junior year. Standardized testing should be removed from college standards because it only evaluates one day of testing instead of a student’s entire schooling career, teachers prepare students for the test and not teach to learn, and the testing does not define if a student will succeed in college.
Requiring High School students to pass standardized test before they can get a diploma is a debate that has been going on for quite some time. Should we be required to pass these tests? In my opinion, I don’t honestly think we should. For multiple reasons, but it simply puts too much pressure on a student telling them they have to pass or they don’t get a diploma after all the hard work they did for years. Standardize tests are an unreliable measure of one’s performance. Test scores can’t measure learning or tell someone how smart they are. These types of test are some of the main causes of students cheating off someone they want to believe is smarter than them. Another reason students drop out and/or give up on themselves is because they scored
Standardized testing has become one of the most popular types of testing in U.S. public schools to date. Students take numerous standardized tests throughout their childhood schooling. (Studies show that a typical student takes an average of 112 mandated standardized tests between Pre-K and 12th grade.) While standardized testing is one of the main procedures that Universities use to judge incoming students, it is not proven to be the most effective way to convey a student’s actual intelligence level. The U.S. should not focus so heavily on standardized testing because it is not a complete accurate measurement of a student’s intelligence.
A standardized test, according to W. James Popham of ASCD.org, is “any examination that is administered and scored in a predetermined, standard manner.” In standardized testing, examinees are instructed to precisely answer a specific set of questions, which are usually multiple-choices. Although standardized testing is believed to be an objective method to grade students, administers should understand that these tests are not only a waste of time, but also a waste of money. Standardized testing is irrelevant to a student’s education because it is an unreliable way to measure a student’s knowledge, causes stress, and hinders a student’s overall learning potential.