Positive And Negative Aspects Of Standardized Test And School Choice

To many students standardized testing has become another part of schooling that is dreaded. Standardized testing has been a part of school since the nineteen-thirties; in those days it was used as a way to measure students that had special needs. Since the time that standardized test have been in American schools there has been many programs that have placed an importance on the idea of standardized testing such as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Evans 1). Over the years the importance of standardized testing has increased tremendously and so has the stakes, not only for teachers but also students. All states in the United States of America have state test in order to measure how much students learn, and help tell how well the

Standardized tests are exams that are supposed to measure a child’s academic knowledge but have long been a controversial subject of discussion. Although it is one method to see how a child is performing, is it the best method? Standardized testing can be biased or unfair, inhibit both the teacher’s and the children’s creativity and flexibility, affect funding for schools, cause untested subjects to be eliminated from the curriculum, and cause anxiety for children and teachers.

First, Standardized tests help show teachers what they need to teach students. Throughout the years' standardized test that students take to follow the when they go to the next grade. By the test tracking students, it shows the teacher what they need the students to learn to get to the next level or get better. According to source B,"Standardized test also help show the students progress, growth, and what the students have learned. By showing the students progress and growth it helps determine if the student should go on to the next grade or stay behind. Theses things provide an accurate comparison between groups." This tells is that without these types of tests, it would be difficult to measure student achievement in different subjects.

The purposes of standardized tests are to instruct decision making, establish program eligibility, evaluate course goals, evaluate program goals, and examine external curriculum. When a teacher gives and assesses a standardized test, they gain information about their students that helps them realize what concepts they have learned according to the agenda for the subject at hand. If the assessment is performed in a sensible amount of time and given according to the directions, this purpose should be fulfilled; however, it is a common belief that standardized tests do not work well in establishing where a student stands in a specific curriculum. The test uses a general curriculum that is the basis for the tests

(Popham 8) Standardized test provide a misrepresentation of how effective a teacher is. (Popham 8) Standardized tests were established to help determine what level a student is on, so they can focus on his or her difficulties and help them become better students. (Popham 9) The way they accomplish this is by comparing each student's grade to the national sample of students of the same age and grade level. (Popham 9) These tests are most useful in determining a student's strengths and weaknesses, but should not be used to judge the teacher on their effectiveness. (Popham 10)

Education has been an important part of society for centuries. Over the years it has slowly evolved into what it is today. The topic of education has been controversial since the beginning. It seems as though there is always someone that sees a need for change in how students are being taught and assessed. More specifically, many people think that standardized testing is not an effective way to assess students. While on the other hand, many also believe that standardized testing is the most efficient and effective way to assess people of all ages. The debate over standardized testing has been shown to effect students and the community in many different ways. Standardized assessments have had huge impacts with both teachers and students. Whether one thinks standardized testing is effective and efficient or misdirecting and unproductive it is a big part of the educational system. While the argument may present that standardized tests leads to simulated knowledge, others argue that standardized tests are very effective in assessing students.

“No issue in the U.S. Education is more controversial than (standardized) testing. Some people view it as the linchpin of serious reform and improvement, others as a menace to quality teaching and learning” (Phelps). A tool that educators use to learn about students and their learning capabilities is the standardized test. Standardized tests are designed to give a common measure of a student’s performance. Popular tests include the SAT, IQ tests, Regents Exams, and the ACT. “Three kinds of standardized tests are used frequently in schools: achievement, diagnostic, and aptitude” (Woolfolk 550). Achievement tests can be used to help a teacher assess a student’s strengths and weaknesses in a

Many different types of tests can be “standardized” in the same way. Test specialists consider the standardized tests to be a fair and objective methods of assessing the academic achievement of students, mainly because the standardized format, coupled with computerized scoring, reduces the potential for favoritism and subjective evaluations. Standardized tests could be used for different educational purposes. As an example, they could be used to determine the student’s academic performance and identify students who need academic support and place students in different course levels or award diplomas. Assessment tests are one forms of standardized tests and it has been designed to measure the skills and knowledge students learned in school, and determine the academic progress they have made over a period of time. For example the assessment test students need to take at the beginning of the first year of college or university. The assessment tests can be used to identify the academic placement for a student too. For educational purposes they can be used to hold schools and educators accountable for educational results and student performance, to evaluate whether students have learned what they are expected to learn, to determine if they have met learning

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,

Primarily, standardized test makers have one mission: to measure students’ abilities. On the other hand, many schools use it to measure how

In various ways, standardized test are beneficial from tracking students’ progress over the years to not allowing teachers emotions to get in the way of the testing process. Standardized testing sets expectations high for students and it does hold them accountable for the same standards, which may lead to achievement gains. By looking at the students’ performance they will be able to determine how well they retain information. Also the school is able to learn what their students are able to do and what they cannot do compared to other school districts, so they would be able to improve their education system. When giving more personal assessments, it is very possible “that the teacher or person assessing the student can let their emotions or biases affect how they score that student” (Young). In most cases, standardized tests are objective. There are wrong or right answers, and there is no room for feelings or emotions. Standardized testing gives teachers guidance to help them determine what to teach students and when to teach it. Tests are highly accountable and reliable as they judge the candidates on a common platform across states and nations. Standardized testing is “a simplified way of timeline management” (A Look at the Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing). Standardized testing gives parents a good idea of how their children are doing as compared to students across the country and

Alfie Kohn’s book, The Case Against Standardized Testing: Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools, presents a dispute against the standardized testing that is used to assessment the academic performance of schools. The text is highly political slant in contradiction with the standardized testing. Kohn’s argument stated that test should not be used in high-stake ways that is be given to school today or in the past. The text is written in question and answer format where the author is able to defend his theory. The author’s attempt is to clarify the fault with standardized testing as a method of evaluation students and teacher success in the classroom. Kohn also offered his ways of dealing with the situation, which may be out of some teachers’ comfort zone, or label as unrealistic goal due to certain factors within the school system such as budget and resources. The outline of the argument focus more of educational leaders, and lawmakers who put this policy in effect. Kohn believed that standardized testing does not measure the level of teaching and learning. As we noticed from previous lessons, standardized testing is a method of evaluation teacher, which I believed is an inaccurate way of determine the level of learning and teaching. The point made in this book about standardized testing only prove that school lower their standards in order to achieve their goal of passing these assessment and testing.

“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.

The debate on standardized tests and its adequacy in testing a student’s knowledge about a subject has been going on for many years. Tests, in general, has been around for centuries and without them there would not be progress and no gleams of progress. Students ranging from elementary school to high school have experienced standardized testing. Teachers, educators, and parents are also involved in the students’ lives, which revolves around the tests, one way or another. There are many views on standardized test. However, the three most common views are: educators who are for standardized test which benefits students, educators who are at the other extreme of opposing standardized tests, and educators who view tests are a benefit if done in appropriate amounts.

To begin with standardized testing creates several critical problems for students and for the education industry. These tests are created to test over particular things. In the end these types of tests are only limited in the amount of knowledge that can be tested toward students. For example, “Standardized exams offer few opportunities to display the attributes of high-order thinking, such as analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and creativity.” (“Standardized Testing Has Serious Limitations”). Even though these tests are able to attack certain subjects at the core, they still leave out very valuable and critical information that all students should know. In