Is A Good Education?

With college admissions relying so highly on these tests many bright and capable students are getting left with little options (Sternberg 7). These students are facing this because the ACT and SAT primary focus on a narrow segment of skills that are needed to become a person that makes significant differences to the world (Sternberg 7). College’s argue that the admission test give them a quick glimpse of what the students potential is because they do not have to time to individually evaluate each potential student. This may be true but we need a better way to distinguish a person’s abilities than just a simple score on a test.

Whether we realize it or not, test scores play a vital role in many people’s self esteem. A person who frequently scores high will be confident that they are very intelligent and will expect others to see them that way. Asimov attested to this when he stated, “All my life I’ve been registering scores like that, so that I have the complacent feeling that I’m highly intelligent, and I expect other people to think that too.” (Asimov, 536). On the other hand, those who score low on tests often write themselves off to be unintelligent. Emphasis on the importance of the ACT or SAT test scores can lead an adolescent to conclude that he or she is not capable of succeeding in college and lead them to not pursue higher education. The tragedy is that we may pass on opportunities because we have labelled ourselves unintelligent based on a test score which is not a true refelection of our

In his essay “What Does It Mean To Be Well-Educated,” Alfie Kohn challenges the current standards that people consider crucial in order for a person to be considered well-educated and explores some interesting questions that help provide the reader with a completely different understanding, perspective, and possibility for standards of good education. At the beginning, Kohn explains how people can argue about the purpose of education, but then fail to realize and recognize whether or not education has truly been successful. Then, Kohn provides the reader with an example of his wife, a successful physician who completed her study for doctoral dissertation in anthropology from Harvard, yet still lacks some educational basics that people consider necessary factors to possess in order for a person to fit in the defined group of well-educated individuals. (Kohn 231-232). After that, Kohn explores some definitions that people set as essential measurements for determining whether or not a person is well-educated and explains why all these standard definitions fail to either evaluate a person’s knowledge or make a person knowledgeable. For example, many people consider test scores, seat time, job skills, and memorization of facts as indicators of well-education. However, Kohn explains that sitting in class for a certain amount of time, “reducing schooling to vocational preparation…to suit the demands of employers,” receiving high results on tests, and memorization of pieces of

Additionally, Albert Einstein once said, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” There are different forms of intelligence that go beyond what our school system measures. Students are not a unit to be measured, and students cannot be assigned a numerical value to identify their intelligence. Students are diverse—they learn at different speeds, and they learn in different ways. Focusing solely on test scores is hurting our students and deviating away from building our society on success and excellence. Critics are slowly realizing the problems associated with standardized tests—they create anxiety, they are extremely biased, and they do not measure the ability to think deeply.

According to Diane Ravitch, “Sometimes, the most brilliant and intelligent minds do not shine in standardized tests because they do not have standardized minds.” Her point is that not every student’s mind operates the same way, so one test that all students must take does not measure the student’s actual abilities. Across the United States, standardized testing is a popular method used to measure a student’s academic ability and their college admission. These exams have multiple-choice questions and sometimes a writing section, which the examiners must complete in a certain amount of time. Every year the tests get harder and harder, which causes anxiety in the students. Standardized testing does not measure the skills students have learned

When comes to education in America, far to offer our society labels people as un- educated because the inability to pass standardized tests. In reality, we shouldn’t base a person's ability to determine if they're educated because that’s far from the truth. I believe that standardized test isn’t the only way to determine every student’s education knowledge. For example, high scores standardized test doesn’t signify that you are talented thinking or a student. The goal of education is more education, but the majority of people like this don’t get the opportunity like others. Just think they could have been people who made good grades and excelled in school, but didn’t get a full ride scholarship to a certain college. There are people who didn’t go to college, but are successful today. It doesn’t happen, for the majority of us, but we can’t just single out those people who have originated up with creativity, intelligence with ideas or investment with no college background.

In his essay “What Does It Mean To Be Well-Educated,” Alfie Kohn challenges the current standards that people consider crucial in order for a person to be considered well-educated and explores some interesting questions that help provide the reader with a completely different understanding of education. At the beginning, Kohn explains how people can argue about the purpose of education, but then fail to realize and recognize whether or not education has truly been successful. Then, Kohn provides the reader with an example of his wife, a successful physician who completed her study for a doctoral dissertation in anthropology at Harvard, yet still lacks some educational basics that people consider necessary factors to possess in order for a person to fit in the defined (fit the definition of well-educated) group of well-educated individuals (Kohn 231-232). After that, Kohn explores some definitions that people set as essential measurements for determining whether or not a person is well-educated and explains why all these standard definitions fail to either evaluate a person’s knowledge or make a person knowledgeable. For example, many people consider test scores, seat time, job skills, and memorization of facts as indicators of well-education. However, Kohn explains that sitting in class for a certain amount of time, “reducing schooling to vocational preparation…to suit the demands of employers,”

There are too many external factors that could influence a child’s test score, yet, we’ve allowed standardized testing to determine a child’s future. “For example, test anxiety has grown into a subfield of educational psychology, and its prevalence means that the tests producing this reaction are not giving us a good picture of what many students really know and can do.” (Kohn, 2000) The high amount of value American society places on standardized testing can cause a high amount of anxiety, which can be associated with a fear of failure. “While the pressure to perform well can act as a motivator, it can also be devastating to individuals who tie their self worth to the outcome of a test.” (Test Anxiety) Test anxiety can manifest itself in the form of an anxiety attack, which can cause symptoms such as difficulty concentrating and brain fog, among a multitude of other uncomfortable manifestations. Anxiety, along with many other factors, can alter a student’s ability to display their full potential. (Test

All of this pressure is caused by a single test that does not even truly display a student’s intelligence. Many researchers have found that the content on standardized test is much too narrow and the multiple choice format limits creativity (Herman and Golan 3). There are so many other factors that truly display a person’s abilities and qualifications, such as involvement in the school, extracurricular activities, and accomplishments in

However, standardized tests having such a major impact on students’ placement adds stress and pressures students to focus on memorizing things rather than actually learning them. This pressure causes students to be stressed and anxious. Alfie Kohn affirms that, “the more that anxiety is likely to rise and the less valid the scores become.” Tests are causing anxiety in students to rise, resulting in test scores being an “inaccurate” measurement of students’ knowledge. These test are not an accurate form of measurement, as some people may think. Kohn acknowledges that, “These tests care only about whether the student got the right answer..” These tests overlook the steps students took to get to their answer, so it is not known whether students had no idea about the answer or if they were close to the answer (Kohn, 5). Standardized tests should not be a major focus on students’ academic career so students’ can focus on learning skills rather than being

According to the Glossary of Education Reform (http://edglossary.org/high-stakes-testing), high-stakes tests are designed to measure student achievement and to determine whether a student is intelligent enough to advance in education. These tests can come in many forms; although the SAT and ACT are considered the most common examples of high-stakes tests in America, any test used to make important decisions about a student can be considered a high-stakes test. For example, students giving oral reports in front of a faculty panel to receive their diplomas would be taking a high-stakes test. However, because these high-stakes tests can only be taken a few times at most, and because these tests are supposed to accurately represent a student’s ability in the classroom, many students report anxiety before these tests. Because higher levels of test anxiety may be associated with lower test scores, one question arises: is high-stakes testing truly the most accurate way to assess a student’s ability in the classroom? To answer this question, researchers have begun to explore an alternative to high-stakes testing: low-stakes testing. Low-stakes testing is also used to measure student achievement; however, these tests are not typically used to make important decisions about students. I argue that low-stakes testing should be implemented in schools in hopes of lessening student test anxiety and encouraging long-term retention of course material.

More than 1.92 million students took the ACT in 2015 (Adams). Out of all of those students, only twenty-eight students met all four ACT benchmark scores indicating college readiness (2015). From 2011 to 2015 English, mathematics, and reading college readiness scores have dropped. More than 1.7 million students took the SAT in 2015. Scores on the SAT have gradually been decreasing. “…41.9 percent of recent high school graduates were on track to succeed in college—a figure that has not increased in five years” (Adams). Colleges focus so much on standardized testing , but the standardized tests only measure a small portion of one’s actual intellectual

As a society we have come to base our view of intelligent high schoolers off of a basic pen-and-paper test. Students who receive higher scores on the SAT and the ACT are considered to be more intelligent and as a result are usually admitted to more selective schools than those who receive lower scores.

What comes to your mind when you hear the word American Dream?. American dream can be achieve if you work hard and don’t give up when things gets in your way. Many people come to America to achieve their American dream. People want to achieve their American dream because they want to live a good life for them and their family’s. You hear many people say come to America and your dreams will come true and you believe it. Did that person also tell you that achieving the dream is difficult and that there will be many obstacles in your way?. In order to succeed and achieve your American dream, you need a good education. Now you 're probably thinking, that’s it, that’s the only thing standing in my way, oh I’ll just go get that education then.

“Here it comes. I’ve studied for hours. I am going to ace this!” These are the thoughts that ran through young Manda Bartlett’s mind every time a test was placed on the desk. Though I knew the material, though I studied countless hours, there were some things that just would not stick in my mind. Are high test scores an indication of someone who is well-educated? Does making a “c” on a test that covered over nine months of school material mean that I’m not smart? Or is it because I chose not to go straight to college after high school that makes me seem so “dim”? Is graduating from an Ivy League college what makes someone a well-educated individual? Is a successful CEO well-educated because he’s successful or is it because he graduated at the top of his class from community college? Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple dropped out of college, is he uneducated? Does memorizing the words of Shakespeare make someone well-educated, or are they just good at remembering what they’ve read? Being well educated should be based on how far knowledge that has been gained is pushed throughout life.