Why Is Standardized Testing Bad

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.

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.

Alliance of Excellent Education took a survey from high school dropouts reported feeling “Alienated at school and that no one noticed if they failed to show up.” Students also complained that,“School did not reflect real-world challenges.” and said they felt “Classes were uninteresting and irrelevant.” So all high school dropouts are not just students not putting in the work because they do not feel like it, but because they feel school is not giving them anything they need or want. Connecting back to our nation, providing what the students want and educating them, if the number of dropouts were cut in half the government would receive as much as forty-five billion dollars in savings and additional revenue. Everything goes hand in hand, less drop outs creates more money and jobs so than other citizens won’t have to live in a tough

After students have taken the standardized tests, their scores are then averaged up and published and the different schools are then ranked from highest to lowest score. Because of this, teachers and professors end up teaching to the test due to the terror of losing their jobs. According to Scholastic.com, “it is unfair for schools to be compared because the test-takers are different sets of people, which cause a biased manipulation in statistics.” Educators neglect to teach students the appropriate skills that go beyond the classroom and tests, since they are now too caught up in preparing their students for these standardized tests. Educators are now using their time explaining the topics that will be a part of the tests, which leads them to forget to teach the students life lessons that go beyond the classroom walls. Another reason why standardized tests pressures mentors, is because the test results are used to examine their performance as an educator, which should not be the

Students who are only trying to help others are being punished because they explain the work the way they understand it. The code is so strict that it gives no room for exceptions, which can ruin a student 's educational career if on a prime scale. In a survey of honor codes, 4 out of 7 did not have easy access to the honor code. In some cases It was hard to find on the homepage (Wade). If the schools expect the students to follow the honor code shouldn’t they have an easy access to it?

The older students in high school don 't care for the test because it doesn 't affect their grades. This test is stressful but worth the stress. Students use the duh and foul method to answer questions. It 's official that this test is preparing kids for college. Standardized test is important because is shows

The Main argument the author makes is that both teachers and parents are not taking action. The teachers seem to feel sorry for their students and end up passing them, instead of using tools of negative reinforcement such as failure to determine whether the student should graduate. The parents are not supporting the teachers and may end up doing the work for their kids. The one contradiction I see is on the tenth paragraph where she talks about the students she sees at night living a hard life of unemployment, chemical dependencies, abusive relationships

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.

This can happen because some teachers label their students and tell them to their face; or the student realizes it. The student then creates a self-fulfilling prophecy for themselves and lives up to it. This is a major reason why we see students not listening to teachers, skipping class, and getting into bad things. These deviant students are only being, and continuing to be deviant because their teacher always has that label on them. Lazy, unmotivated, behavior problem, slow learner are just some examples of what teachers label their students in the classroom.

To get on the honor roll you have to get all A’s, right? So some kids will cheat to get on there. The pressure of school sometimes makes students do really bad things that will change their life forever. 64% of students have handed in work done by others and 72% of students work on assignments together. Also 53% of students have admitted to cheating on tests.