The Negative Effects Of Standardized Testing In The United States

We Should Start School Later It is 6:00 am, most high school students are either up or waking up and getting ready for school, knowing that they have a bus to catch at 6:40. The kids cannot stay attentive and cannot focus because they were up late studying for that important test and now they are going to have problems focusing and concentrating during school that day. Teens need more sleep. The kids today are not getting enough sleep due to either having to do homework assigned by the teachers or by having to study for tests the next day. “Insufficient sleep affects concentration, mood, and learning.

The year of the test, we had to take our normal Math and English class while an addition HASP prep Math and English so half of my classes where bases around this one test. Not only did it put stress on student it also pressure the teacher because if any student was to fail it would put the teacher in the line of question why the student wasn’t able to pass. Now think about standardized testing in a work environment. Picture it you come in to work every day on time do all the project your manger assign you. You’re the ideal employee and after three year they make you take a one test and you don’t pass the test by a few point.

Anne-Sophie Kim in her article, “Lack of Sleep Hurts Student Health”, does a survey with college students in which she asks what the students are giving up their sleep for. Eighty-seven percent of the responts said they gave up sleep to finish homework while another fifty-eight percent gave up sleep to study for a test. The results of this study show homework causes students to lose valuable sleep. This loss of sleep can negatively affect how students perform in class and their behavior towards their peers. As homework is the leading cause of the lack of sleep teachers should evaluate how much work they assign a night.

Kim later recorded, “Lack of sleep can upset one’s alertness, concentration, reasoning, and problem-solving abilities. Sleep also plays a key role in consolidating memories,” (Kim). Sleep is crucial in helping the student operate well at school. It will help with concentration, and other skills needed to succeed in school at any level. In a study done in 2009 focused on students at Carnegie Mellon, Kim indicated that seventy-two percent of the students in the study reported that they did poorly on a test due to inadequate sleep (Kim).

What do you mean by ‘too much’ you ask, well, experts say that after about 2 hours negative effects start to ensue upon the kids. Teachers give too much homework in schools, and the reasons why include the fact that homework has discouraged children from participating in extracurricular activities, leads to a lot more stress for the students, and can have negative implications, academically, instead of the desired positive ones. Homework takes up a lot of time. Sometimes teachers give up to 3 hours worth of homework in one night. Kids want time to have some fun as well, such as electronics, video games, books, and etcetera.

Many early starting high schools have changed their starting times because students grades were dropping and they were not as prepared and focused. The start time here at Mentor is affecting the student 's grades and overall mental health, however, there are many ways that we can fix this issue. Mentor High School starts at 7:22 A.M. and at that time the sun is still rising so some students have to walk to the bus stop in the dark. With extracurricular activities, sports, and homework most students do not have time to relax and spend time with friends and family. According to the national sleep foundation it is natural that teenagers are not able to fall asleep before 11 P.M.

The days teachers take off cause students more stress as a result. Furthermore, if year-round school was established, teachers will not be under as much pressure, which could impact the number of days they take off work positively. With year-round school teachers will have to spend less time reviewing and more time teaching lessons required by the government. Teachers need to follow guides and requirements for the classes they teach. They often feel rushed in teaching all the required information in one school year because of the time spent reviewing forgotten information (Priddy).