Faulty Reasoning behind Testing

Standardized tests are largely unnecessary, ineffective, and overused. Despite the enormous monetary resources and hours that companies pour into the making of standardized tests, the unholistic pen and pencil approach of these tests tends to assess students' test-taking ability rather than their actual intelligence. All this new testing leaves less time for classroom learning than generations past. This time may seem negligible at first; however, it adds up considering the number of ACTs, SATs, graduation and annual state tests students take over their academic career. What little time left is sacrificed for busy work and teaching for the tests. Nevertheless, who can blame teachers when the results of standardized tests determine their job performance? The tests were mainly designed to showcase the efforts of teachers and schools to the state, and a reduction of standardized tests is integral to fixing our educational

While a few standardized tests over a student’s school career can be helpful to make sure students are on track and teachers are educating their students, the United States education system has far too many standardized tests. The U.S should reduce the number of tests given to students each year. The current amount of testing stresses students and forces teachers to “teach to the test”. Standardized testing has not and will not improve the American school

After the implementation of the “No Child Left Behind Act” high risk standardized testing has become a pressure cooker of corruption in the United States due to often unrealistic expectations, abundant incentives, and harsh punishments placed upon educators and administrators, overall resulting in the essential need for reform. The concept that every student’s academic ability can be assessed by a single universal exam is a misguided notion.

The use of standardized examinations have long been debated in American society. In fact, the last several years have seen an immense shift from the prioritization of standardized testing to more holistic measurements of student achievement. Despite this shift, many school districts across the nation and college/university entrance requirements still place a significant, if not pivotal, emphasis on test-taking and standardized exam results. Throughout this paper, I will explore 1) the history of standardized testing, 2) arguments for and against its practice, as well as 3) situate the consequences of its use in one of the three philosophical goals of schooling. All of this will subsequently paint an investigation into the purpose of schooling in American society.

All citizens go through the kindergarten, all the way to their senior year. Hall, Hutchison and White (2015) report that teachers having less experience in the classroom have less acquaintance with the standards than those with more. Thus, there is the need for initiating pre-service teacher education programs in aide of the common core state standard in order to put more emphasis on the standard and generally in learning. At every level, the American education system allows students to be assessed using different evaluations on Science, Mathematics and English Language arts (Barnett and Fay, 2013). Nevertheless, a number of schools in the United States of America have upgraded their state standards and embraced the Common Core State Standard in the recent past. This development has given the entire world a platform for standardizing tests for various subjects such as reading skills, writing, and

Only recently with the addition of the Common Core Standardized Tests, students are being faced with more tests than ever. A typical student takes 112 mandated standardized tests between pre-kindergarten and 12th grade (Study says standardized...). In my opinion, the complexities of these tests are inclining to a degree where they are unreachable to the average student. These tests are an unreliable measure of performance with unfair instruction time. Student anxiety and stress has become so awful that the Standford-9 exam comes with instructions on what to do in case a student vomits on the test. While the tests are there for students skill-measurement scores, they aren’t the only one’s who need to prepare for the exam. Teachers are equally pressured by their overhead figures to insure student’s score well. Just like the students, standardized tests are an imprecise measure of teacher performance, yet they are used to reward and punish teachers. Teachers are being required to a more progressive teaching style with emphasize on reflective learning. The effects of this are being nicknamed “drill and kill” test prep. Developing a corresponding curriculum prior to these assessments can be tricky because of the ambiguous content the Common Core requires. A considerable majority of these tests are given to students online. These already pricey tests come at an expensive cost for schools. An underlining problem people are concerned about is declining student scores being used as an excuse to close public schools that already can’t afford for the computers to take the test, and open more voucher

Throughout a student’s scholarly career, they are tested nonstop on various subjects ranging from math and science to literature and history. Within the article “How The Obsession With Testing is Hurting Learners and Teachers” by Mike Crowley, one can recognize Crowley’s opinion—testing is bad—repeatedly argued though the work as a whole. Crowley uses powerful diction along with credible evidence and various rhetorical devices such as pathos to achieve his goal in convincing his readers that testing children constantly harmful to the children’s well-being.

What once began as a simple test administered to students yearly to measure understanding of a particular subject has, as Kohn (2000) has stated, “Mutated, like a creature in one of those old horror movies, to the point that it now threatens to swallow our schools whole” (p.1). Today’s students are tested to an extent that is unparalleled in not only the history of our schools, but to the rest of the world as well. Step into any public school classroom across the United States and it will seem as if standardized testing has taken over the curriculum. Day after day teachers stress the importance of being prepared for the upcoming test. Schools spend millions of dollars purchasing the best test preparation materials, sometimes comes at the cost of other important material. Although test

The topic of Standardized Testing is not only critical to the lives of students but also to parents, educators and those in control - government officials. The public has voiced its displeasure with today’s education system and a subject being discussed in the government and also the very popular presidential debates is the Common Core Standards and No Child Left Behind Act of modern America. These government issued Acts are mired in controversy as they have led to an education system governed by politics, with opposers claiming that education is now more focused on a school's’ statistics than an individual’s knowledge. Those involved with the introduction of the Acts, although they may have thought it would have brought about positive change,

The argument Jessica Lahey produced were words directly from any readers mind while deciding how one would and should prove to any audience that tests are needed in all Colorado School Districts. The removal of tests from any school district is truly devastating to Colorado’s schooling system. The knowledge of summative testing and formative testing will be presented to the audience for a better understanding. Tests are the main reason why we can see student’s true competency levels in certain subject areas. Jessica’s argument was very logical in the eyes of someone who wants growth within our multiple school districts and our world. I will produce an analysis of her critically convincing argument as to why our students need to be tested to show our rankings, and too improve the overall schooling of America’s children. In ‘Students Should Be Tested More, Not Less’ Jessica Lahey provides an extremely convincing argument that supports the increase of testing within all school districts. In this argumentative analysis of Jessica Lahey’s argument I will bring forth key points from her piece that support our extreme need for testing, I will also show readers how we are totally failing our students and their brains true potential.

The 1980s brought a new reform movement in education, accompanied by a new emphasis on testing. The effort to improve education at all levels included the use of standardized tests to provide accountability for what students are learning. Minimum competency tests, achievement tests, and screening instruments were used to ensure that students from preschool through college reached the desired educational goals and achieved the minimum standards of education that were established locally or by the state education agency. As we continue in a new century, these concerns have increased.

Welner (2014) states that “standardized assessments are linked to curriculum standards and performance standards and tied to specified consequences” (p. 39). Welner discuses that the standard-based testing in American schools are a mess and need to be untangled because of the consequences of underperformance. Schools are defunded, teachers and principals are laid off, and schools are marked as ‘failing’. There needs to be a reform in schools that need academic improvement and the way to figure out which schools need development is by testing the students. Jones & King and McLaughlin & Overturf provide different feedback on standard-based testing. According to McLaughlin & Overturf (2012), “Using formative assessments is not only an effective way to monitor student progress, but also a viable way to glean information for planning future instructions” (p.157). In order for teachers to know if their lessons are effective or not, teachers give standard-based tests and assessments to their students. Without tests, student progress cannot be tracked in a concise manner. Jones & King (2012) agree that by building new assessments and curricula, American schools are redefining success (p.37). That success can also come at a price when dealing with more rigorous standards that are new to the

Decades of research have documented the biases in standardized tests when it comes to students of color and culture. Cultural bias is an expression that means certain cultures are not given an equal chance to succeed in society because of an unfairness, prejudice, or partiality. Cultural biases involve practices and rules that put some minority groups at a disadvantage. In the public school systems, minority children are more likely to do poorly on state tests than the non-minority students are. A study by Jay Rosner in 2002 showed that sample questions, which were answered correctly by more African-American students, were not chosen for use in the tests. Although in the recent year’s test makers have attempted to discuss the concerns about test bias by establishing review committees to search the test for bias. Significant problems stay in the content of the

The educational system in the United States has gone through many changes over the last century. These changes are a part of a constant movement toward educational excellence for every child in this nation. One of the most recent acts placed on public school systems by the government is to create more accountability for schools in order to ensure that all children are receiving the proper education. Part of this mandate is that public schools will require students to take tests in order to gather information about their academic achievement. Although educators and administrators claim that the mandatory ability testing programs being initiated in America’s public schools will hold students and teachers accountable for academic

Today, it can be observed that society has shifted education drastically from the time schools were constituted, to now. Throughout history, schools have gone from private, where only the elite can attend, to public schools where virtually anyone can attend. One of the factors that goes along with education is standardized testing. Frederick J. Kelly, father of the standardized test, once said, “These tests are too crude to be used, and should be abandoned.” Not only has this shift occurred within education itself, but it has occurred within the testing concepts found within standardized testing so much so that the founder of these tests has chosen to give up on it.