Persuasive Essay On Standardized Testing

In the article “Standardized Tests Effectively Measure Student Achievement,” Herbert Walberg argues that standardized tests fairly and comprehensively measure a student’s academic performance. Research shows that standardized tests are generally good at measuring students’ knowledge, skills, and understanding because they are objective, fair, efficient, and comprehensive (Walberg). According to Walberg, students benefit directly when they take tests that offer information on how well they have mastered an objective. Educators can better assist students when they know how a student’s objective performance is compared with others. In a recent study, John Bishop found that students who anticipated having to pass a standardized test for graduation,

Anyone who has ever taken the ACT or the SAT knows how stressful and difficult the tests are. Students are forever judged because of the scores the receive by colleges and peers. The ACT/SAT are standardized tests that are meant to calculate what students have learned in previous years of high school. Colleges then use this score to determine whether a student will succeed in college. Specific problems with this process include the fact that high schoolers are extremely busy and may have other things on their minds, the tests require brutal test prep, the test can cause stress and anxiety, and the tests do not accurately gage a student’s college success. For these main reasons, students should not be required to take the ACT/SAT to get into college.

Standardized testing has been around since the early 1900’s. Today, it determines a high school student’s future. Every year juniors in high school start to prepare months in advance for the SAT’s and ACT’s. Along with the test itself, comes stress that is not necessary. The debate of standardized tests defining a student’s academic ability or not has become a recent popular controversial topic. Many colleges and universities are starting to have test optional applications because they are realizing that a single test score does not demonstrate the knowledge of a student. There is more value in a student that should rule an acceptance or rejection. In the article, “SAT Scores Help Colleges Make Better Decisions” Capterton states, “The SAT has proven to be valid, fair, and a reliable data tool for college admission” (Capterton). Capterton, president of the College Board, believes that the SAT’s and ACT’s should be used to determine a student’s acceptance because it is an accurate measure. What Capterton and deans of admissions of colleges and universities don’t know is the abundant amount of resources upper class families have for preparation, the creative talents a student has outside of taking tests, and the amount of stress they put on a 17 year old.

Standardized testing has been ruling over the lives of students, making or breaking them in their education without fair judgement. Tests like the SAT and the ACT count for way too much when applying to colleges, which in turn limits the student 's capabilities to thrive in an environment that would benefit them. There are many problems within a standardized test that deems them to be unreliable as a true test of knowledge. Although designed to test groups of students on intelligence, standardized testing neglects to fairly acknowledge the abilities of each unique student which reflect their true capabilities.

For students to get accepted into most institutes, they must pass the admissions requirements that school has placed. Most likely having a decent SAT/ACT score and a good standing GPA is required, along with recommendations and sometimes an essay. However, should colleges really rely on standardized test scores to determine a student’s success in college? One single test should not determine how well a student would do in college or determine whether they should get accepted into that college. Instead, they should remove the requirement for SAT/ACT scores and rely on the student’s high school grade point average. Students build their GPA within four years, and that can determine their effort, focuses, and diligence, as stated by Jada Bah, “SAT/ACT Scores Alone Should Not Predict College Success.” A four-hour test should override a four-year grade.

For many years, standardized tests have been a pillar of college admissions. Students are persuaded to take the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) or the American College Test (ACT) because colleges believe the scores can predict an applicant’s academic success after high school. However, an increasing number of colleges have made reporting test scores optional due to inconsistencies with the tests, many of which have been emphasized by students. These inconsistencies and other problems with test distribution have led to increasing demands for standardized testing to be reformed or become optional in the admissions process. Standardized testing should be eliminated as a criterion for college applicants because the tests have made education less significant, have made scores vary among students with similar academic abilities, and have not contributed a noticeable improvement to children’s intelligence.

However, just because the test is popular and widely used doesn’t indicate that it is a valid predictor of college success (Atkinson). The excessive utilization of standardized tests in no manner implies or suggests a higher accomplishment. The essentials of this debate are easily comprehensible: Standardized tests are not a high-quality predictor of college success.

When asked why institutions rely on test scores from the SAT or ACT as a part of the admission process, they provide two answers (The ACT). First, the exams provide a common measuring tool when evaluating students. However, the exams do not show skills and character traits that are key to success, such as creativity, collaboration, and self-discipline. Moreover, the four sections tested on the ACT may not be applicable for a student’s higher education aspirations or career goals; for example, a lawyer will most likely never have to use trigonometry. Secondly, due to the high variance of the quality of secondary education, individuals argue the extreme difficulty it is for admission officers to judge the level or rigor of high school curriculum by examining a student’s transcript (The ACT). Though GPA is not a standard measure across schools, admission officers can understand how to value a GPA from a certain school because they have access to annual school reports about class size, GPA distribution, courses offered, etc. (Page). Therefore, a lack of standardized testing scores would not leave admission officers with insufficient information about the

In an interview with Purdue undergraduate Devin Wolfe, he expressed several beliefs and personal findings about the use of standardized tests in indicating college readiness. One such belief is the notion that these modern tests, such as the SAT and ACT, cannot accurately assess a student’s readiness for the challenges of college life and should therefore not be used to dictate college admittance. As Wolfe described the situation, he believes that there is no “reasonable way to universally indicate college success,” meaning that no exam should be able to determine the academic capabilities and endurance that a person will put forth while in college (Wolfe). If a student’s abilities are seen simply as numbers, according to Wolfe, this would overlook any unique qualities and characteristics that cannot be shown by any sort of standardized

The issue of whether students should take standardized tests in order to get selected by top tier colleges has been a heated debate for quite some time now. In this essay, I will be examining whether standardized testing is a fair assessment of one's overall knowledge or achievement in one's educational career, and whether it has grounds to determine whether a person is qualified for higher educational opportunities. The SAT and ACT are two of the most known standardized tests which are used to measure and assess how well a student will do in his or her college life, however, these tests do not seem to be good determinants for one's academic intelligence and actually deter students from proper learning in the classroom by promoting a narrow

This belief that standardized test scores are their ticket into their dream school, makes those students focus only on what they believe will be most important to their test-taking skills, instead of the aspects of their education that may benefit them more in college, or their future jobs like working with other people, speaking in front of peers, or being a leader of a group. These students are forced to eliminate many valuable parts of their education for standardized test preparation, and often it is just for them to learn how to fill in bubbles on a scantron, and skim through passages to find answers. During my sophomore and junior years of high school, I took seven ACT tests, and was forced to miss multiple school days in order to take residual standardized tests, and I believe that I missed valuable time in class just to have a chance of getting a point or two higher on the ACT. Putting so much pressure on one standardized test in a high school student’s career causes that student to put their efforts into doing well on that one test day, rather than on the 180 other days of classwork and interaction with peers. Focusing solely on what would benefit them during tests causes anxiety for many students when that day comes where get to finally use their

Have you ever thought about what college you want to go to after high school? In order to get into that college, you must be accepted. Colleges look for a numerous amount of criteria in order for you to get accepted, and one of those things colleges look for is your standardized test score. The standardized test is a test administered and scored in a consistent, or “standard”, way (edglossary.org). Seeing that you must get a high enough score on the test in order for your dream college to accept you, the tests are difficult, but are very worth it at the end. Colleges have been accepting students into their school with standardized test scores for more than 50 years, and with that being said, it has seemed to work pretty well (content.time.com). In the end, standardized test scores show that you deserve to go to that college, and is also a way of showing that you’ve worked hard for so long to accomplish something huge.

Standardized test scores have been such a huge stressor for me, especially in my college application essay process. I understand that colleges need some kind of general test to gage and compare students with, however, if a college looks at only my scores on those tests, they won’t see all of me or my academic success potential. I prioritize studying because I wasn’t, and still am not one of those “lucky guessers”. I have worked effortlessly and endlessly in every course to show all that I know and have learned throughout the years. Standardized tests show a person in moment, not their academic momentum or potential. I have always given every assignment and test my very best because I want to be successful, as well as to be proud of my efforts.

What’s your ACT score? Students are branded with their ACT and SAT scores in society. Today’s education is heavily leaning on standardized tests. An average students takes over one hundred standardized tests in his or her school years. Standardized tests are used to measure and test the knowledge of students in a particular subject in a quick and easy way. These tests are also used to see the extend and skill of students for qualifications of certain colleges and scholarships. Some of these standardized tests include the ACT and the SAT. But do these test fully measure the strength of knowledge these students have practiced for their whole lives? Standardized testing does not allow students to fully and completely show their strength in education and instead results in breaking down students mentally and physically.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of students across the nation are required to take many standardized tests. Which are used to determine student’s achievement, progress and growth. These tests supposedly say the outcome of how much knowledge a student has or has not learned. The stakes are high all because of a test score. Standardized tests may determine a pass or fail status for grade levels through K-12 or admission into colleges if you are taking an ACT or SAT standardized test. It is unfair and a very unreliable method to use to measure the performance of students. Standardized testing methods creates more harm than good and should be revised because many students, teachers, and schools suffer from this annually.