Persuasive Essay On Standardized Testing

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

“…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 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.

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.

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

Standardized tests, in all forms, provided information for the students, teachers, and parents (Christison & Schneider, 2013). For students and parents alike, standardized test was a useful way for students to measure their own progress and parents to monitor their child’s progress academically (Blazer, 2012). Unlike regular classroom grades or comprehension exit exams, standardized testing was also a great predictor of how a student would later perform in college and/or their level of work readiness (Blazer, 2012). Teachers used the data provided by such tests to monitor what their student were and were not learning and the material that they had already mastered (Carroll, 2015). Teachers often used standardized testing data as an instructional tool to determine whether or not their lessons were effective for their student’s (Carroll, 2015). Standardized testing was a reliable method to provide standard information on student skills and changes that needed to be made in order for students to meet their goals for learning (Carroll, 2015). Standardized testing was found to be the only objective, consistent, and comparable method to measure the student’s success (Morial,

One motivation behind why kids shouldn't take Standardized test is on the grounds that it is bringing about anxiety to both educators and understudies! As per Gregory J. Cizek, these "Test" are creating uneasiness for low/high class understudies and instructors (2002). These test are demoralizing understudies in light of the fact that these test figure out if or not you graduate or not. Case in point, my companion who was a senior a year ago was told he couldn't graduate in light of the fact that he didn't breeze through his english state test his sophomore year. Due to that, the school was compelled to hold his confirmation and he didn't graduate on time.

With such high stakes involved, standardized testing has become less about the student’s progression, and more about the survival of the educational institution itself. Legislations such as No Child Left Behind and Race to The Top have resulted in the very thing they have tried to overcome. Children who score low are being left behind due to instances of teacher intervention during testing or exclusion, and students who excel in schools are being developmentally held back with curriculums being narrowed to focus on the tested materials to ensure they pass as

Standardized testing has lowered student achievement in the past several years. “The US has slipped from 18th in the world in math in 2002, to 31st place in 2009” (Walker). Something needs to be done, because a good education is how Americans succeed. American children are losing a battle with education because of these high stakes testing. The original purpose of the tests is “to ensure that all children have a fair and equal opportunity to obtain high-quality education at minimum proficiency on State standards” (“Title I - Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged”). But, the test anxiety is becoming more prevalent, and is keeping students from performing their best (Kohn).

tests were primarily employed as measures of student achievement that could be reported to parents, and as a means of noting state and district trends (Moon 2) . Teachers paid little attention to these tests, which in turn had little impact on curriculum. However, in the continuing quest for better schools and high achieving students, testing has become a central focus of policy and practice. Standardized tests are tests that attempt to present unbiased material under the same,

The dependence on standardized tests has depreciated education by taking attention away from school curriculum. These mandatory tests, unfortunately, “are being used in high-stakes ways to evaluate and punish teachers” (Strauss). Standardized tests create quotas that are required to be met and force teachers to teach students how to pass tests rather than learn the material of the subject. It is not enough these days that a teacher’s students perform well in the classroom; teachers also have to worry about the same students performing well on a standardized test. Schools are also affected by these tests because their rankings are based on their students’ scores. Consequently, this puts pressure on teachers to make sure students have good test taking abilities in order to score well on these standardized tests. This obsession with getting

I found De-testing and de-grading schools: Authentic alternatives to accountability and standardization by Bower and Thomas, an interesting read and consistent with the critiques of high stakes testing and assessment we’ve read about and watched in this class. It is a collection of essays from educators and stakeholders in the field. The book is broken up into distinct sections, the first focused on testing and the second on grading. A historical context regarding failures of testing and grading is also provided to give context to the current problems with high stakes assessment and grading. The main message presented in this book is that high stakes testing and assessments (grading) are not working and alternatives should be considered. Specifically, the law of No Child Left Behind is critiqued through out, especially in the first few chapters.

“Our educational goal [is] the production of caring, competent, loving, lovable people” . The students found in the schools across the United State are the future of America. They are the doctors, teachers, business people, lawyers and many other roles, that will be out in the workforce in the years to come. What they learn in school will impact them immensely; it is the responsibility of a teacher to give students the best education in order to ensure the common good of the future. It is essential for students to not only learn content matter, but also the skills to enable them to participate in a democracy. Due to standardized testing, the emphasis of education has become on score and rankings rather than learning. A standardized test does not look at the whole student, the scores provided are on a very narrow aspect of education. In the classroom, there are countless ways for teachers to assess the student as a whole person not as just a score. Standardized tests scores should not be the sole criteria for determining a student’s academic achievement.

Where inspiration and education should be taking place, schools have instilled standardized testing. These standardized tests are often taken state and nation-wide in an attempt to compile data over the knowledge of students and provide money for school districts. However, Judith Browne Dianis, author of “High Stakes Testing Hasn’t Brought Education Gains,” states that “Parents have a right to know that there is concrete evidence that their children are learning, but standardized tests do not provide this evidence” (37) because the data from the tests often aren’t even available for teachers to put to use until the end of the year when time has run out to benefit the students. In an attempt to train students to perform well on these tests and positively display the educational system of

Tomorrow was the big day. The day that every student despised, but came every year. The problem that transcends national borders: standardized testing. Before I knew it, it was the final week, and time was running out. In my case, the Connecticut state test, the CMT, was in just two days. More than nervousness, there was a cloud of confusion surrounding this test for us students. Some said that preparation and study are necessary for this test, while most thought just the opposite. Some people were even saying that the scores for these tests somehow will affect our progress in school. Looking back, I don’t remember the test being all that hard, but it didn’t make sense to me. How could this one test, filled with questions that require shallow thinking and zero creativity, show the state the performance of my hard-working teachers, or the individuality and strengths of each student? Or on a larger scale, every student in the entire state?