Standardized Test

The population that I chose to focus on for this assignment was an adult, who is court ordered to take a drug and alcohol assessment. Based upon this assessment, this adult may be recommended to enter one of several levels of treatment, including outpatient drug and alcohol counseling, intensive drug and alcohol outpatient counseling, or possibly inpatient drug and alcohol treatment. Once in counseling, other forms of assessments would be utilized with this client throughout treatment, in order to gauge various areas, such as progress, cravings, relapse, or even treatment effectiveness.

Eight hours a day, five days a week, four years that is how long I have been subject to the high school education system. A system meant to teach the fundamentals, the fundamentals of reading and math. Yet, there are many subjects that are forgotten such as humanities and histories. So, as I sit in this stiff and at times cold desk staring at my computer screen typing these words it is hard not to ponder the reasoning behind these decisions. Why executive board members have allowed public education to be ruled by numbers. The answer it appears is simple, funding. Standardized test scores are all too important to state and federal governments who allocate school funding. Which is why these subjects such as math or reading take priority from

Being completely honest I do not know much about standardized test. I remember having to take them

Martin Luther King Jr. once said in “The Purpose of Education,” that “Intelligence plus character – that is a goal of true education.” Good character is defined as a particular feature or quality that is ingrained in a person throughout their lifetime. Character represents many qualities, which separates one person from another. Many parents wish that when their child would grow up, as a caring, and an honest person. Many people argue whether schools should provide character education besides academics. Character education programs are beyond the bounds of what happens in school. Parents are required to participate in order to contribute the same good values the schools are trying to contribute. I agree that schools should teach character in addition to academics, but they should also make an effort in involving the parents. Both the school and parents should uphold the responsibility together. The schools and parents should work together to inspire character strengths in a child.

In recent years Florida’s standardized testing program has taken a turn for the worst. After doing away with the FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test) the debate has only grown due to flood of new tests being created such as the Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) or End of Course Exam (EOC). These tests are administered to test students’ abilities at the end of the school year. In spring of 2015, with only two months of testing between the EOC’s and the FSA, Florida’s legislature implemented the FSA. The main reason the testing was delayed was because the new tests had to be administered on a computer, so that scores could be calculated faster. Though most of the recent issues make it seem that testing is useless, there are still positives. Administering these tests allows the state to measure the level of improvement in the education students are receiving and it keeps the teachers adhering to the curriculum plan. The positive and negative points about testing bring up the question: Should standardized testing in Florida be eliminated or changed?

The average high school student takes at least one standardized test each school year. Standardized tests are all scored the same way and test takers are given the same questions. The scores students receive play a big part in whether or not they will be accepted to the colleges they apply to. Standardized test scores are one of the most important things colleges look for when reviewing applications. Standardized tests could be successful, in theory. However, they have shown to be less accurate than hoped, to cause copious amounts of stress, and to have little to no correspondence with productive adult lives. Because of their ineffectiveness, colleges should place less importance in them when admitting new students.

Standardized testing is a topic that is all too familiar for those families whose children are still in school, but also for young adults where standardized testing has passed but still remains near. There is a stigma about standardized testing that looms as student’s abilities are put into question. Factors, for example, racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds of students are also questioned due to standardized testing. Characteristics such as these are not types that students can control or change, but “high-stakes testing is widely viewed as positively discriminatory” against such static characteristics (Thernstrom, 2000, page 46).

Does the phrase well educated refer to the quality of schooling you received or to something about you? Who gets to decide what it means? Is it a standardized test? Is it our test scores or memorization of facts? How much or how well we can remember at a given point in time? How much knowledge we ought to have? What could it possibly be? I think this society has given “Well Educated" a poor definition. Sitting in a class for a long time does not make us educated. Test scores does not make us educated neither does reading faster than others or solving mathematical calculations. Not everyone has to same knowledge of a certain thing, so why judge us on the same criteria. Does it denote what we were taught? If the term refers to what we know or what we can do then we could be poorly educated despite receiving a top-notch education, and if it is, then the numerous people constantly going to get an education in big name schools are unintelligent. In addition, if it refers to the quality of schooling, then many well-educated people sat through lesson that was too irrelevant for them to remember a few years later.

Imagine failing a test that alters the decisions made pertaining the future. Standardized tests are failing many schools that are serving disadvantaged children based on their knowledge on a test that is created in order to put upon higher standards for students. The No Child Left Behind Act is a law that had been signed by George W. Bush in pursuance to designate all public school students to perform standardized tests. The law had been signed in 2002 although, standardized testing had been popular and have been moving forward way before that time. Standardized testing has become very common in the United States. These tests had been set up in order to try to measure how much knowledge a student carries. Tests like STAR in California and SAT’s all over America, are forms of standardized tests that take place today. Standardized tests are not capable of measuring the ability accurately because standardized tests are measuring teachers as well as schools in an unfair manner, they are not determining consistency to keep doing well, or expressing the work ethics of the student.

“Race to the bottom,” the phrase coined for tax breaks and less governmental restrictions, may have a new meaning. Race to the bottom, our new educational initiative. US education levels are dropping and standardized testing is the root cause of such harm. Standardized testing needs to be just another tool in the toolbox, rather than a wonder product. Nelson Mendela said “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,” and if that weapon happens to be broken we might as well be Tony Stark without his suit, Lady Justice without her scale, a white girl without her phone, powerless.

For over 100 years, high school students from all across the United States have been experiencing standardized testing of all kinds. College Board has been the organization that conducted and designed these tests. According to a PBS article, the first College Board’s college entrance examinations were held the week of June 17, 1901 at 69 different locations; the test consisted of materials from these subjects: English, French, German, Latin, Greek, History, Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics. Throughout the years, the formality of the test has been changed many times: in 1926, 1936, the 1960s, 1994, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2012 and the latest was this year, 2016. According to a recent report by College Board, over 1.69 million highs school

When I was in grade school there was a large push for students to excel in standardized testing. In recent years I became more and more aware that these tests are not so much about us, as students, but about providing a basic assessment of our intelligence, as a community. This, to me, seems like the best example of “marinating yourself in the conventional wisdom” (Deresiewicz). The public school system has an appetite for traditional, and unadventurous learning. I found that most of my time in high school was spent on preparing for these tests, not encouraging out-of-the-box thinking. Teachers preached independence while rewarding conformity. However this is not how I believe a community should operate. However for the betterment of our society,

As winter recedes and the flowers starts blooming, every student's’ favorite season arrives: the season of standardized testing.

On the standardized test I scored on the below section. I do not consider myself a good test taker because I lose trust and confidence in myself so my mind goes blank. I haven't always been this way it normally started happening when I started middle school. To prepare for a standardized test I go to sleep on time but before I do that I always check my notes and reread them. Test questions I do best on are the ones where there isn't word problems. Normally just solving for x type of problems are easy if you know what correct steps to take. I struggle on word problems the most because you have to first understand it and then you have to come up with the equation etc. English seems a lot more simpler because you just have to read a passage and

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.