My Educational Experience : Fair Warning

I understand the current plight associated with the standardized testing and my methods of not truly teaching “how to test”, but I feel I am creating smarter individuals who have mastered the informed material. The truth about the test is that it is not truly standard at all. All across the country, different states are teaching the same subject matter but on completely different lesson plan levels.

School testing is a very controversial topic. Many people believe that SOL testing is useless and unnecessary, while others believe it is very helpful. In “Problems With Standardized Testing” by Jasmine Evans, she states the issues and irregularities that come with testing. She explains how the stakes are too high, pressuring students harshly: “That pressure to succeed creates a poor environment for learning” (Evans par.

“…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.

While i was reading the aritcle “Psst ... It Ain't About the Tests: It's Still About Great Teaching” by Robert DiGiulio i believe that his main points is how he views different teaching point of views. He mentions some of his point of view of what a good teachers is, But he also mention some of the charastics of what a “good teachers” needs to have. I believe that he focus more on teahers teaching, instead of test scores. He mentions that stadndarized testing should not be how we mention student knowledge. My opion is you cant based how good a teacher based on some sort of standarizes test.

Although standardized testing has been a major part of schooling it has also had a negative impact on effective education. Standardized has made a huge impact on public schooling so much that not only does it affect the students but also the teachers. With the teachers now beginning to get raises or having their jobs on the line if their students fail the test, many students have not been getting the fullest education process that they could get. Students may not realize the impact that it has had on the type of teaching style that they receive because they are so used to it. With so many teachers not having a lot of time to teach what is on the test and the other things that they feel are important to students to know, a lot of

“According to a review of testing research that has been conducted over the past century, over 90% of students have found that standardized tests have a positive effect on their achievement. Students feel better about their ability to comprehend and know subject materials that are presented on a standardized test. Even if a perfect score isn’t achieved, knowing where a student stands helps them be able to address learning deficits.”(12 Advantages and Disadvantages of Standardized Testing). This shows when students are pushed to their limits and they have been working hard in a certain subject they are prepared for test . Teachers in this situation are put to a test also (“Good teachers understand that test preparation drills and specific core instructions to “teach to a test “) . Teachers are put to the test by whether or not they can push students to their best ability to pass the exam. Students and teachers are given the same amount time to teach a specific subject and get judged off of it . This goes back to say all of the stress put on students and teachers is unacceptable because students and teachers should not be judged off of a test

A main issue why you cannot judge a teacher based off their students test scores is because some factors are out of their control. In any classroom across the world there are some students who are smarter than others. (Popham 13) Some can be excellent at math, while others can exceed in science. (Popham 13) A teacher can give over a lesson in a clear and succinct way but there will always be students who do not do well. (Popham 13) Recent thinking among leading educators suggest that there are various forms of intelligence, and a child who is born with less classroom skills may possess other abilities that will not be shown by a test. (Popham 13) For a student as such, a teacher is limited in finding a successful approach to help them gain a high test score.

Since childhood it has been taught that education is key to being a successful and productive person in today’s day and age, but exactly how children should be educated is being debated heavily throughout the United States. I have decided to do my senior project on standardized testing (common core testing) as a way to shed light on this broken system. Standardized testing has been created in order to compare test scores around the country and decide exactly what needs to be taught in schools.While this may seem like a good idea on paper, the animation of this in the real world has been a complete disaster. Lately, students have been bombarded with standardized tests and it has been negatively affecting their education. In a quote from one of the most influential females of our generation, “If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn't be here. I guarantee you that.” (Michelle Obama). Now in this quote the first lady is saying that people should not be judged based off of one test that is going to determine the way that they are being educated, which is exactly what is

In the United States, standardized testing is being used everywhere around the country. There has been controversy on whether it is actually an effective way of testing. These tests are deemed to be important to schools, since teachers spend countless hours trying to get students to master what will be on the test. This interferes with engaging lessons in which students spend less time learning and spend more time memorizing. These tests require a certain amount of hours to be taken, which interfere with valuable class time. Not only do these tests do absolutely nothing except restrict the learning environment of a student, they are inequitable, they don’t adequately measure a student's

Jeannie Fulbright was right when she said, “If the purpose for learning is to score well on a test, we’ve lost sight of the real reason for learning.” (teacherswithapps.com). The real reason for learning and a good education is one that will not only bring success in life, but one that will bring joy and wisdom. A life where one is not curious and eager to learn new information is a dull one. Schools should be striving to make their students believe in this and the power that knowledge brings. Instead, schools are so caught up in preparing their students for tests that what they don't realize is that they are turning students against education. Students want to be asked about their views on world that they will one day control and the impact they hope to make in their lifetime, but their education is so driven towards scoring well on a test that they are never able to fully speak their minds. Education is becoming a haunting thing to these young minds, and that is all due to standardized testing and the effects it brings. Most people go to grade school for twelve years of their lives. Those twelve years are their youth, a time that is irreplaceable. Youth should be driven by wonder, hopes, and aspirations, not the memorization of the quadratic formula or the periodic table of elements. It's not the teacher's fault that the lives of students revolve around these

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

I feel the emphasis on testing unfairly focuses on funding rather than the education of the students. With teachers and administration fighting to keep their schools open cheating is occurring at an increasing rate and results are inaccurate. I feel it is important to teach the students what needs to be taught, rather than worrying about the abundance of test prep. The stress to perform well on standardized

Standardized tests take away from a teacher’s flexibility and creativity. With that in mind, teachers do not fit into the same mold either. Each teacher has their own style of teaching and should be given the flexibility to teach in a way that will inspire their students. Teachers are not able to be as creative in their teaching styles, when focused on test preparation. Many talented teachers leave the field of education when they lose the freedom to teach their own way. Teaching has gone from a creative art to a structured implementation as the focus shifts to standardized tests.

Getting an education is the main goal for everyone, although it is easy to obtain there are some obstacles to it. One of the main obstacles students face at the beginning of their education is standardized tests. Schools have started to adopt this type of tests as their main way to evaluate students’ intelligence and teachers’ effectiveness to educate the students. The way students used to learn has changed, in order to get them ready for the tests they have to spend much of the school time preparing for it instead of learning something they can use in their future life. According to Bruce Jacobs in No Child Left Behind's Emphasis on 'Teaching to the Test' Undermines Quality Teaching, a 2007 study by the University of Maryland teachers were put in much pressure and had thoughts to teach the test […]. This shows that teachers have also been affected by standardized tests in a way they have more pressure to make students pass. Having teachers ‘teach the test’ means their way to educate has been corrupted. In most cases when teachers’ ability to educate has been changed leads them to practice methods not convenient for scholars. One of these methods is memorization, in Relying on High-Stakes Standardized Tests to Evaluate Schools and Teachers: A Bad Idea by Hani Morgan describes how students start to adapt to an “inferior type of learning, based on memorization and recall students gain when teachers

Ever since then standardized testing has been a huge part of education. Teachers across the nation had to teach to the curriculum instead of what they thought the students needed to learn. Nowadays colleges strictly look at ACT and SAT scores rather than classroom grades, because they believe that some teachers grade on a curve and are not giving the students a fair chance. Standardized tests are an unreliable measure of student performance. A 2001 study published by the Brookings Institution found that 50-80% of year-over-year tests core improvements were temporary and “caused by fluctuations that had nothing to do with long-term changes in learning…”(“Standardized Tests”). Teachers are stressed over if they are teaching “correctly”. They went to a 4-year college, some even more, to get a degree in something that they wanted to do, either for themselves or for the children, and now they have to “teach to the test”. Tests can only measure a portion of the goals of education. A pschometrician, Daniel Koretz says, “standardized tests usually do not provide a direct and complete measure of educational achievement.”(Harris, Harris, and Smith).