Formal assessments such as standardized tests are not ideal to use to assess young children. Young children are constantly developing and changing, and because of these rapid changes, it is important to adjust assessments accordingly. Young children typically demonstrate their knowledge through doing as opposed to writing and talking. Therefore, conducting a standardized test on youngsters would be extremely hard, making the results difficult to measure and highly inaccurate (Shepard, Kagan & Wurtz, 1998, p. 3-5).
A never-ending issue has loomed over the head of our nation-- education. According to the Institute of Education Sciences, 63.7% of American students are below proficient in reading and 65.7% in math. In order to improve educational standards and increase student achievement, Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act (also known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act) in 2002. Designed to increase the role of the federal government in education, it holds schools accountable based on how students perform on standardized tests. Statistics show that the average student completes about 110-115 mandatory, standardized tests between pre-kindergarten and end of twelfth grade (an average of eight tests per year). Standardized testing utilizes
Standardized Testing is not as reliable as many would like to believe, especially since recent legislation has turned the annual event into high-stakes testing. These high-stakes tests are used to evaluate learning and teaching in the classroom, identify students for special programs or grade promotion, and hold accountable educational institutions, with the consequences ranging from holding a student back, to a teacher losing their job, to an entire school closing down (StateUniversity, n.d.). Standardized testing has become an unfair "one size fits all" approach that has opened the door to unethical practices that ultimately render these tests invalid for the purpose of evaluating an educational institution as a whole. Variations to the standardized
In the article publish by Robert L. Linn, discuss the love-hate relationship that Americans’ has with standardized testing. Various testes have change over the year, making some standardized testing more popular than other standardized testing. As the demands and high expectations for more testing and assessment get more and more harsh criticism. It was argued that “Testing was seen as a tool for improving for improving efficiency and managing the dramatic growth in students in the early part of the 20th century.” (Linn, 29). When Odell promoted multiple choice, he knew that there would be a new list of common criticism with the testing. In the article that stated that the predications about the future are continually risky. Any resolutions
In conclusion the school counselor plays many roles in testing and assessment of students. They can administer the test, share the results of the test etc. Standardized testing are now of a norm in today's schools. Children start testing as young as four years of age. The NCLB act was put in place so that the school could be accountable for a student passing or failing. Standardized testing is a way for the school to see where the students academic levels are. There are benefits and repercussion for the school depending on how well the students did on the test. School counselors do not like to make a major decision about a student's education based off of one test. The like to look at the students projects, work assignments, and class performance
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
In 2002, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act was enacted to place more accountability on schools to improve student achievement. As a result of this act, more emphasis has been put on standardized testing to ensure that all children from kindergarten through twelfth grade are proficient in math and literacy. Since then, there have been many debates on when to begin testing children. Many parents, educators, and lawmakers believe that kindergarten is too young to start standardized tests. In kindergarten, the children are still in the early stages of development, and there is a considerable variation in how they develop and when they learn individual skills. These differences in developmental timetables and other factors that contribute
When addressing the statements of NAECY, NASP AND THE DEC they all three are for the children. They all relate around the family and wanting the family involved. The all have a clear understanding of what an assessment is and how it is to be carried out. They all are curriculum based and feel that it should be age- appropriate. They all link back to goals that link to the curriculum. Last but not least they have similarities when it comes to assessing the programs.
Schools should not have standardized tests because, kids are to stressed and it waist to much time when kids could be learning something new. After my research I have came to the conclusion that there are many different opinions and concerns about weather standardized testing should be required or not. Each opinion has some logic but there are just some thing that don’t make much sense. Some people see it as a competition between students to see who can get a better score. Also if some people don’t get the score that they wanted it could put their self confidence down and make them not want to try as hard next time. They feel like these tests prove how smart they are to their parents, students, and friends.
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,
Education today plays a totally different role than it did 20 years ago. Today, education is available to everyone and is a clear, almost assured pathway to self-improvement and a better life. Yet, it seems that as of the last decade, education no longer provides the free range of unlimited interests it used to. It seems like today, the more students want to learn, the less opportunities they have. All due to the education standards created by the government that regulate learning through test-based reforms. Standardized subjects, tests, and classes are a very common function of this time. However, contrary to popular belief, test-based reform, overall, has not improved schools in the United States.
For those who are interested in pursuing happiness and success, good character is going to lead you in that direction. Schools that assign standardized test are lacking the important piece of what it means to become happy and successful; the important piece is "character". Standardized test only determines student’s I.Q. It's not teaching students how to overcome a difficult obstacle and learn from it. Character education can help drill those strengths in students, and therefore, character education should be taught in school because it correlates with life satisfaction and happiness.
As a teacher the topic of how does standardize assessments facilalized and impeded learning on the elementary setting is very important to me. Elementary school is the start of a child formal education and the foundation to the futer. In fact, students that do poorly on standardize testing in elementary school are more likely to drop out of school, not graduate high school, be retained and be placed into remedial class. Furthermore, the students that are most likely to be affected by poor standardized testing practices are students that need the most help. For instance, students with special needs, English language learners, and low income students. Standard assessments have an history of not being in the best interest of students. For instance,
Most school districts that have a testing program use tests that can be scored by a computer.
Binet and Simon compiled a collection of tests which incorporated various tasks which they deemed would highlight children’s abilities at various ages. They based the tasks on their many years of observing children, imparticularly the observations Binet had made in regard to his own two daughters.
Teaching kids how to take tests does not hold their interest and is taking away play time. In the past, we have believed that kindergarteners learned through play. Edward Miller and Joan Almo stated “Kindergarten has changed radically in the last two decades. Children now spend far more time being taught and tested on literacy and math skills than they do learning through play and exploration, exercising their bodies, and using their imaginations. Many kindergartens use highly prescriptive curricula geared to new state standards and linked to standardized tests. In an increasing number of kindergartens, teachers must