Major Findings From The Campus Equity Audit

With the added pressure to do well in school, standardized testing becomes a means to added stress, anxiety and further complicates the pressure to succeed in a student’s life. Rather than a focus on learning and understanding, school has become a massive rope skill memorization test designed to have students memorize subjects to pass the test, and forget the material the next minute for the next test. When asked to speak about standardized testing, education chairman, Larry Taylor, said “It’s heart-wrenching, and it’s also insanity when you see the level of achievement these kids are already doing and yet they can’t even pass this test.” (Smith). The utilization of standardized testing further exemplifies and validates the idea that no matter how hard or long you work in school, your work will never be worth the few answers you write for the

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

Measuring education effectiveness and student ability have fallen at the feet of standardized testing. Attempting to meet the ever increasing demand for improved performance has pushed the schools to forgo curriculum for test prep. Precariously placing the financial stability of a school district on the student body, when the allotment of public funding is directly tied to student performance promotes inequality within public education. The reliance on standardized testing in education over the past decades must adapt to reflect the inaccuracies and deficiencies in the testing industry. In this paper, I will discuss the overwhelmed testing industry and its use of substandard and inaccurate testing materials; the unreliable

“…only twenty-two percent of those surveyed said increased testing had helped the performance of their local schools compared with twenty-eight in 2007” (“Public Skeptical of Standardized Testing.”). Furthermore the poll indicated an eleven percent increase, compared to last year, towards the favor of discontinuing the usage of students’ test results for teacher evaluations. William Bushaw, executive director of PDK International and co-director of PDK/Gallup Poll also stated, “Americans’ mistrust of standardized tests and their lack of confidence and understanding around new education standards is one the most surprising developments we’ve found in years” (“Public Skeptical of Standardized Testing.”). All in all, not only are these tests a concern for students, who are forced to sit through them, hoping to get a decent enough score to place into a class, receive their diploma, or even get accepted to the college of their dreams, but they are a concern for parents as well, who only want the best for their children and to see them succeed.

The instructional setting is two eighth grade classrooms with class sizes of 28 and 32 students. Of the 60 students, ten are Hispanic, four are Asian, and one is African-American. All ten Hispanic students are bilingual with overall California English Language Development Test (CELDT) classifications of: one student intermediate, three early advanced, and one advanced. The remaining five Hispanic students have been reclassified to English proficient and do not require EL support. Four students are foster youth. Nine students receive special education support.

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.

In an attempt to create educational reform, pieces of legislation like the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) have been passed with the hopes of making schools “accountable” to the children within their walls. Although this piece of legislation was eventually overturned its effects are still being felt within Americas public schools and it is estimated that this generation will be less literate than their precursors (Kohn). Although well intentioned, the NCLB failed schools, teachers, and most importantly students all as a result of one key aspect of the law: high-stakes testing. According to the No Child Left Behind act, all states are required to give standardized tests to their students in the hopes of holding teachers accountable for their scores and ensuring all students become “proficient.” These tests have come to determine whether or not students can graduate, how and what teachers teach, as well as how much funding a school will receive. High-stakes tests can make or break a school, but with all this pressure are kids really showing sizable gains in areas like math, science, or reading? The answer is no and time and time again

Have you ever felt the pressure of high-stakes testing as a student, a teacher, an administrator or even as a parent? The goals of federal and state governments of high stakes testing are to improve schools. The government believes if there are negative consequences tied to standardized test performance then teachers and students will work harder which will increase test scores. The use of standardized testing dates back several decades but with the passing of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2002, high stakes testing is mandated nationwide. The article, High Stakes Testing and Student Achievement: Updated Analyses with NAEP Data, is a follow-up study about the relationship of high-stakes testing accountability and student achievement.

Pundits say testing prompts a narrowing class educational module, since educators may "instruct to the test" as opposed to investigating themes and ways to showing that may not deliver results on paper. The other side of the contention? Wayne Camara, Vice President of Research at The College Board, says the nature of schools influences testing, as well. "Accomplishment on tests in school is profoundly identified with the nature of training that children get," says Camara. It's no big surprise that this chicken-and-egg problem has folks, and policymakers, confounded regarding what to do

Standardized testing has for so long been the determinant of success and progress in many school systems around the world. Students get exposure to standardized tests at one point or the other, and the result from these tests are used to determine if a student can advance to a higher level or not (Moore, 2014). The school system in the United States has in place standardized tests for students who wish to join college and this need to be taken and passed for one to be sure of a college education. Even at lower levels of learning standardized tests remain to be the primary determinants of one’s performances, and in many instances, failure of standardized tests may be the reason why one is retained in the same class for a second consecutive

Are schools teaching students to broaden their minds and think creatively or are they just preparing them for tests? It is important to know whether standardized tests are actually beneficial for students’ learning. Over the last decade, standardized testing has been a more prominent focus for schools. Many students have to be tested every year in order to know what classes they would be placed in. Not only do tests determine what classes students will take but they may also determine whether or not they would be accepted into certain schools. These tests are a major factor that determines whether students advance in their education or not. This major focus on tests steers away from the actual purpose of schools: to teach students and ensure they understand the material. Standardized testing is not that beneficial because it hinders students’ full

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

Standardized tests do a wonderful job of supplying the evidence needed to make norm-referenced interpretations of students' knowledge and skills in relationship to those of students nationally. The educational usefulness of those interpretations is considerable. However, the achievement is not the same as learning. When we focus on achievement, we are talking about the test scores and we could miss out on whether or not the students are actually learning.

The tests require children to draw from knowledge they learn or experiences they’ve had outside of school, which is different for each student. According to W. James Popham, an expert on educational assessment, “If children come from advantaged families and stimulus-rich environments, then they are more apt to succeed on items in standardized achievement test items than will other children whose environments don't mesh as well with what the tests measure”. The biases in the development and administration of standardized tests often contribute to the achievement gap between whites and minorities. As a result students from low-income and minority families, English Language Learners, and students with disabilities are more likely to be held back a grade, be placed in unnecessary remedial education programs, and be denied a diploma (Reese, pg. 1). Another problem with standardized testing is the tests do not accurately measure teacher quality. Standardized tests are often used to evaluate teachers and schools staff based on their student’s scores. However, standardized tests are limited indicators of student knowledge and progress; therefore they do not reflect the wide range of knowledge and skills a teacher covers in the classroom. It is unfair to isolate the impact of one individual because teaching is a collaborative and developmental process (FairTest, pg. 1). People think that if standardized test scores are high they can label teachers as

Although testing has been around for a long time, I instinctively believe that testing doesn’t give a clear picture of student’s achievement. Thus, I make strong connection to the following quote: “A central question has been whether accountability policies and standardized testing helping or harming those children the polices are most often designed to serve” (Skrla, p.11). For instance, when I analyzed and interpreted the TAPR of Richard J Wilson Elementary school, I found valuable information that all teachers should know at the beginning of every school year. Specifically, when I examined the categories of testing and the students’ performance on individual TEKS. This practice would allow teachers to have a clear picture of what exact skills and content knowledge students are expected to achieve throughout the school year.