SOL Testing In Education: A Case Study

almost all schools today students must pass these tests to graduate from high school. These tests

“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

Students dread the time of the year when they stop with their course material and begin to prepare for test. Everyone is in agreement that some type of revolution is needed when it comes to education; eliminating standardized test will aid the reform. The need for standardized testing has proven to be ineffective and outdated; some leading educationalist also believe this because the tests do not measure a student’s true potential. This will save money, stop labeling, and alleviate stress in students and teachers.

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

Next I am going to talk about another reason why SOLs should be banned. You first start getting all these review packets only a few weeks before the tests but you get them for a bunch of classes at once. The problem is most people can not remember most of it. Especially when people have a hard time focusing or remembering when there

Standardized testing alone is not an accurate gauge of a students overall knowledge. We start indoctrinating our children in the first grade with standardized testing to prepare them for the next 11 years of testing. These tests put a lot of undo stress on students to preform well on standardized tests throughout the year. While some students are excellent test takers others become over whelmed with the process and fail to rise to their true academic level. “On Mar. 14,

The SOL’s are statewide tests for 1st through 12th graders. Students are only required to pass the SOL’s from 3rd grade and beyond. SOL’s are used to represent the school’s knowledge and forces accountability on teachers. They can also be used to track a student's progress over the years and see what subject they are best in. These SOL's measure the minimum students should know by the end of the course. SOL’s test knowledge in math, science, history, and English. To

Standardized tests take away the creativity from the teachers forcing them to "teach to the test" this means memorizing

When a teacher is presented with this conflict, going against standard regulations may be tempting. To regulate this, many states have placed strict guidelines where the students’ teacher is not the individual proctoring the test. However, there are still several states that have the teacher administer test to his or her own students, often times without another proctor in the room. This inconsistency between state regulations also proves the biased separation between how students are tested from state to state, causing certain students more opportunities for assistance than others. With this lack of security, it becomes incredibly easy for teachers to go against common regulations, such as allowing more time on sections, allowing students to go back and work on previous sections, or answering any municipal questions the children may ask, or major, such as changing a student’s attempted answer to correct, or opening a test before the test date and teaching the students the exact test questions. These frightening test practices send a message that “examiners should take into consideration the appropriate changes to be done, keeping in mind the professional and standardization of the test” (Farah). Although these test tampering methods can be seen as the teachers way of assisting students with academic disabilities that do not receive the help they need, the

The use of standardized testing to measure students’ knowledge is an inaccurate reflection of their capabilities. By being forced to take a test that does not effectively show their abilities, students become overstressed, and the tests themselves do not promote true academic achievement. Rather than learning about subjects in order to gain knowledge, students simply memorize facts and formulas to get a decent test score. Standardized tests are not an appropriate measure of student performance, only benefit certain groups of students, and do not prepare students for the real world.

Over thirteen hundred students opted out of taking a standardized test for that week. Many states now tie teachers pay for the value added analysis. Process in which a good or service is stripped down to its essential attributes or benefits. Those that contribute to the customer appeal are enhanced, the others are reduced or eliminated. For example, if a student that scored poorly ranked in the lower percentage and bumps up to the higher percentage the teacher would get a raise. But if the student does worse, their pay will cut. These are reasons why teachers have different styles of teaching now. The reason why teachers are so strict on the teachers is because the students affect them. Most teachers now don’t teach so the students can retain knowledge, but teach so that they can save themselves. In one of the videos that Oliver showed from KIRO 7 news. It showed that a whole junior class from Nathan Hale High School refused to show up to take a state test. The whole class stood together because they knew how pointless they are. This shows how students feel that Standardized test is pointless.

Every year students are under the pressure of proving to the state of California their skills. Today it seems that standardized testing is the main focus in public education. Some believe it can detect the abilities of a student. Others think testing does nothing to prove a child understands the academic content. Testing is not correct at detecting students ability to apply their knowledge. Also, it only benefits students that are good at testing, so it sets the rest up to fail.

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

students who take Standards of Learning (SOL) end of course tests and graduation rates. As a

A challenge students face is the SOL test because the test can be tricky, they might not have time to study, and they might have after school activities to do. The SOL test is a very tricky test, it has everything you learned that whole year. Some kids might not be able to study because they have chores to do, some chores can take all night. Kids also play after school activities such as sports and clubs like drama. Not all kids can study for the SOL.