A girl is sitting in her bedroom the second week of school, papers are strewn all over the room. Among all the papers is the one packet that nobody wants to do, the keystone prep packet. The month is September the keystones aren’t until spring of the following year. Still the girl must do a keystone prep packet in September. Some say standardized testing is beneficial and others disagree. Forcing students to start preparing for a test months in advance is inducing stress and tension on the student’s mentality. Students have enough stress as it is already. Most students have three to five tests every week. Majority of the tests are back to back test periods. Standardized testing required for graduation is causing students to overexert themselves.
When people think of the education system, most can say that there are some problems, though they might not be able to pinpoint what needs to change first. If you ask most teachers, they will say that the first thing that needs to be changed in the schooling system to help the students more is the standardized testing. They will say that while it can be helpful it has a lot of faults and needs to be updated or changed to help its students. Standardized testing has often been a topic for discussion, between parents and people in the schooling system. It seems that a lot of people either hate standardized testing for not giving every child a chance to succeed, or love it for being a fair way to test whether a child knows what they need to know at their age. There have been many articles, books, and documentary’s debating on whether or not standardized testing is doing more harm then good. There was a comic made that shows the brutality and bluntness of what standardized testing is really like. Standardized Testing causes too much stress by putting unfair expectations on teens and doesn’t give every single student the chance to succeed.
Each year high school students from around the country take the SAT or ACT. The ACT and SAT are both standardized test used by colleges to determine the knowledge of a student and predict what their performance will be in their first year of college. An immense amount of pressure is put on student to receive certain scores in order to obtain scholarships and admission into college. Even just one point on a student’s score can determine if they will be accepted into their dream college. However, the results from standardized tests, such as the ACT and SAT, are often inaccurate. Because of this one’s knowledge and academic ability are misrepresented, and they are denied certain opportunities. Standardized tests such as the ACT and the SAT
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.
Schools all over the nation have introduced standardized testing as a way to evaluate what the students have learned over the course of the school year. Exams can be administered online or on paper, depending on the subject. Test can be taken at different points of the school year; results can be used as a way to determine what areas are weaker than others. Most results are viewed by the school board, administrators, and teachers. In some schools students take one end of the year test with different subjects, other just takes one test. These tests can be graded by groups of people are computers. Standardized testing has become a part of America’s educational system and many don’t see the benefit of the test at all.
Do you think standardized testing is harmful or helpful? A lot of people are really stressing out over standardized testing, including me. I think that standardized testing is harmful for kids. A lot of other people think that it is helpful though, For example teachers, and administrators, and other people think it is helping our students. Standardized testing is harmful but some people think it is helpful, like me.
Students spend a lot of time stressing over standardized testing when they could be focusing their energy on more important academic and social activities that could benefit them in the future. Standardized testing are stressful for students for one that it is timed, students often times can not focus knowing that they have a certain amount of times to take this very important test. And if they start stressing out from not having enough time left then they are gonna start writing or bubbling in random answers and then that can cause them to do worst. Teachers are being told to “teach the test”,the teachers don't want to teach us the same basic things every year, but if they don't then students will be unsuccessful when it comes time to taking the exams. Which can lead to consequences ad problems for both the student and the teacher. Some of those consequences may include students being held back, teachers getting in trouble or possibly loosing their jobs because they have failed to meet the standards set and what people think students should learn and what type of material the teachers should teach.” Brain research suggests that too much stress is psychologically and physically harmful. And when stress becomes overwhelming, the brain shifts into a “fight or flight” response, where it is impossible to engage in the higher-order thinking processes that are necessary to respond correctly to the standardized test
Standardized tests are a positive way to look at student growth and if students are reaching national benchmarks. Many standardized tests are a useful tool when deciding what college to attend, for example, the MCAT is a medical standardized that is required for all admittees into medical school. Around the country, many children are able to conform to teacher-made tests and how to navigate through them, although with standardized tests, they are raw and able to show if a student is really struggling in a specific area. Standardized tests are useful in schools across the country because they help enforce growth and how students are meeting benchmarks, while making it an equal playing field for all students.
The consequences of the SAT have been seen as physically and mentally deteriorating for students. However, not only does the stress affect the students preparing for the SAT, but it also affects the instructors who are required to teach the material. Many students are being “forced into their respective testing rooms for up to three hours per day, slaving away on exams that most of us have struggled through (Ayers).” Likewise, “due to the pressures faced by administration, teachers [are] essentially [forced to] teach students how to approach and solve problems expected on standardized exams (Kokoszka).” Furthermore, according to Thomas Kellaghan et al, “testing pressures teachers into teaching for the test and thus leads to a narrowing of the
Believe it or not, standardized test are not meant to torture you. Physicians, lawyers, real-estate brokers, doctors, and pilots all take high-stakes standardized tests to ensure they have the necessary intelligence for their careers. Also, Standardized tests hold teachers and schools accountable for actually teaching the students and if they teach them well. It also gives the teachers a guide on what to teach the students. The results that are sent home give the parent a good idea of how well their child is doing in class and on tests.
Standardized testing puts unnecessary stress on students and teachers. With a limited amount of instruction time, teachers and students are both pressured to prepare for testing, leaving less time to practice and truly learn any information. With deadlines constantly looming, students are more concerned with memorizing, rather than learning. Standardized testing causes many students to worry excessively due to the amount of importance people put on test scores, causing many people to fear tests and
Imagine if you or a friend had a talent for art, music, or foreign languages, but the school you attend cut back on the time spent focusing on these multiple subjects and decided to focus on more “important” subjects. Standardized test scores show the academic standing of an individual student and are used to compare that student to others across the U.S. This can create an immense amount of pressure on students to do well. Standardized tests focus on the core subjects of math and reading, with a smaller emphasis on science and writing. If the tests only focus on four main subjects than how can they measure other important traits or skills? We all have so many talents beyond the core subjects that do not show up on a test. Standardized tests
All around the country, students, teachers and parents are preparing. Students are staying up past midnight for hours of fact drilling and studying. Teachers are giving extra homehork and cramming and extra information that may be needed. Parents are trying to help their children study in hopes they will pass, but they often only make it worse as they add to the ever increasing stress load of the impending doom of standardized testing. Standardized Testing is not as harmless as it seems. It often affects students on a mental level, making them extremely nervous, then breaking them down on a mental level. It also hurts the teachers in many ways, including temptation to cheat. Standardized testing is at a new high in America and is said to
Did you know that “Texas spends about 90 million dollars a year’’ (Scott Friedman 1) on a standardized test. 90 million dollars a year is an absurd amount of money to spend on a test when we could be using that money for something more beneficial to the state of Texas. That is just one reason standardized testing is not necessary in the state of Texas.
Tenth grade standardized testing in Pennsylvania is so unnecessary that makes a student complete in order to view their progress. This testing technique produces unpredictable results that allows one to review and come across their own judgment when accessing these tests. High school teachers sometimes tell students how their job depends on the results of the test. High school administrators tell the students that if they do not pass these tests, then they can not graduate on time. They make it seem like these tests are very important and make it a mindset to students that they need to try to conquer these tests just to meet the necessary graduation requirements. The shadows of the tenth grade Pennsylvania standardized testing needs to be overlooked
Standardized test are exams that are given to students to compare achievements and their ability of understanding. The development of Standardized testing came from an French psychologist, Alfred Binet, in about 1905. From that development until now all public schools in the United States are to participate in Standardized testing. The goal of these exams is to be able to compare students intelligence by analyzing their scores. Contrary to those believes, Standardized test lack to test student on important attributes like their creativity, dedication, and critical thinking skills, from those missing factors it can be understood that standardized test are irrelevant to the actual representation of a student knowledge.