What Are The Pros And Cons Of Being Standardized

This law was created to see all students in America improve in their academics. Standardized testing is an issue that keeps getting worse because, No Child Left Behind , requires an evaluation of schools and teachers by the student's test scores. Congress believed this would encourage the schools to ensure their teachers were preparing the students

They try to improve their score because everybody else has a better one than them so they feel they are not good enough. Should teachers be quitting due to the stress of testing? No, because they don't really go through as much stress as the students do when they are testing and the teachers should also be able to handle these things and not just quit because they think it is too complicated(Occupytheory). Does it affect the way teachers teach their classes? Standardized tests do affect the way teachers teach because they can only teach certain things and not what they think that the students might need.

These tests promised a way to identify kids who could go further in their education, while separating them from the kids who learned slower and would need extra help. The tests also came with the notion of academic tracking in order to steer students onto a career path deemed appropriate for them (Gershon, 2015). Attempting to measure a student’s intelligence through a standardized test is beyond absurd. All students learn at a different pace. This means that, even if a student may not know a skill at the time of the test, it doesn’t mean that they will never know it.

America’s high schools are in desperate need of help. Students should feel there is a purpose in going to school and getting an education. They need to be more motivated to go to school. The amount of tests students take in High School is ridiculous. Students need to take less standardized tests.

The growth mindset believes that their potential intelligence comes from learning, while the fixed mindset thinks they only have a certain amount of intelligence. Along with their differences in learning, these students also have a difference in school priorities. The students with the fixed mindset only cared how smart they would appear and turned down opportunities that were critical to their success. Students with the growth mindset thought about their efforts, and when they work harder it will show in their abilities and accomplishments. I agree with this because everyone will react differently to a setback, especially if they already react differently to education.

The standardized tests should not be eradicated from the school system, it should be a requirement in all schools, especially elementary schools. The younger they start the better they will do in the future. According to the article, titled “Testing…Testing…One, Two, Three”, it tells that “better performance-based tests will put a stop to the “dumbing-down” phenomenon” (Gluckman). This reference means that standardized testing benefits student learning by being able to identify their strengths and weaknesses; and focus on working on those weaknesses. Not only are these standardized tests unbiased, but they are also a way to monitor and promote both student and teacher achievement.

Farber believes that the grades create phony motivation and students only want to please the teachers. According to Farber, students only retain the material until they are graded on it. No longer having a grading system would leave students having no drive in school. Schools would no longer have a basic form of ranking the students and see how well they are doing. Students would no longer want to see the point in striving to be the best when everyone is ranked the same.

Additionally, the lack of seriousness transitions into students being uninterested in school because they have to take unnecessarily long tests. Not only do standardized tests cause lack of school interest but they increase students stress. Having to sit through a test that impacts your grade, represents your intelligence, and future adds a lot of pressure to oneself. Overall, when standardized tests aren 't taken seriously the data collected makes it hard for educators to improve education, students lack motivation, and adds a lot of pressure to people 's everyday lives. Typically, standardized tests are multiple choice meaning students can guess for every question without understanding how to solve the problem.

The accountability of the scores is meant to encourage teachers to adopt better and more effective methods of teaching, as well as to urge students to work harder. However the effects are more detrimental. Because of testing, students are more likely to be frustrated and discouraged at having to move so fast to cover all the ground needed. If a student is having a bad day or just is not a good test taker, all anyone can say is “tough luck.” The teachers will only focus on the select subjects tested on, and then only the select aspects they believe will be covered in the testing. Depending on how desperate a teacher is for good test scores, inappropriate preparations can be made before testing, sometimes even to the point of cheating.

Testing Standardized Tests Over the years, standardized tests have become the main source of information on how students and teachers are doing in schools all around the U.S. A standardized test requires all takers to answer the same questions, and they are graded in a consistent manner to compare the knowledge of all students and see the efficiency of schools and staff. Recently, standardized tests have become a subject of controversy due to the effects that test scores have in schools. Some critics say that these types of tests are not accurate and that do not really show a student abilities, some of the questions are not fair for students of different backgrounds. Many say that standardized tests are the best way to know if students are learning what they are supposed to be learning ,and if they have achieved the required learnings standards to pass their classes and grade level.