Standardized Test Taker

Currently, standardized tests do not improve the education of students in America. Standardized testing is not an accurate measure of student’s knowledge because they are designed to test an extremely broad amount of students who do not have the same educational background. This makes it incredibly difficult to test students across the world on the same level and expect their scores to reflect their education. Standardized testing, by definition, is any test containing the same questions that is administered to a vast group of people for the purpose of comparing different student’s test scores. This issue is important because it affects the entire academic community, positively and negatively. Therefore, all teachers, students, school staff, and test administrators have some involvement with standardized testing. The vast majority of people in America have taken a standardized test sometime in their life, which makes these tests vital in the

Standardized testing is known to improve students’ education, but is it really needed in school? Standardized testing determines whether a student is prepared for the next grade based on their test scores. While some students do great on their test others struggle a lot. Not all students are good test takers; majority of the students do good in school but struggle when it comes down to testing. While many agree that standardized testing helps improve students education, it shouldn’t be necessary in school because one test score shouldn’t determine a student’s readiness or academic level.

The wide-spread use of standardized testing in the American education system is not helping anybody. Standardized testing was designed to help schools see how their students were performing academically in standard way. The NCLB (No Child Left Behind) Act made standardized testing tied to school funding. It made the government reward or punish schools based on test scores. It was made to help students stay on track. Instead, standardized testing is lowering the quality of education in the United States. Standardized testing puts stress on students, forces schools and teachers to “teach to the test”, and has not helped the United States in worldwide education rankings.

Standardized testing in the United States started in the mid- 1800’s (Standardized Tests - ProCon.org). This kind of testing was originally created to measure students’ performance and progress in school (Standardized Tests - ProCon.org). In recent years, the public school system has relied heavily on the information this test provides, in doing so creating controversy. Other than being a student myself, and participating in multiple standardized exams such as, CSAP, ACT, and SAT, I do not have much background knowledge on this debate. The debate over standardized testing has raised this inquiry question: What are the effects of standardized testing on the United States public education system?

In my opinion, I mostly do bad on standardized tests because I either can not concentrate or I either do not get it. Sometimes the questions or problems can be also very confusing. I consider myself a bad test taker. I consider myself a bad test taker because when I find myself confused or not getting the problem or question I just make up what ever so I can move on to the next question/problem and not feel stressed anymore. I honestly have always been a bad test taker but not always. For example, on some tests I do very well but on other test I do very poorly. I do not really prepare myself for standardized tests because I either feel like I know it already or I get lazy. Sometimes its either because I know that I am going to do poorly on

Imagine a test capable of making or breaking a student's chances of getting into his or her dream college. Imagine a test score that can be easily influenced, but only through thousands of dollars worth of coaching. Now imagine that same test but biased towards certain crowds of students while also being incapable of accurately predicting their futures. Is this the test you want for colleges to use in order to distinguish students? This is the SAT—famous for the unnecessary pressure it presents to students as well as the unfair disadvantages it presents to many others. Since these SAT scores are extremely artificial, SAT tests are not an accurate predictor for future success.

Alarming is an understatement when it comes to the anxiety and stress standardized testing brings. Students are told how vital these tests can be to college acceptance, class placement, and school ranking, so it is no surprise that they lead students to become stressed out and anxious about taking the assessments. According to education researcher Gregory J. Cizek, "illustrating how testing... produces gripping anxiety in even the brightest students, and makes young children vomit or cry, or both" (2). The affect standardized testing has on students is unacceptable, no students should be anxious and uneasy about going to school due to a test. To continue, the Sacramento Bee reported that "test-related jitters, especially among young students,

Standardized testing is used to tell students level in certain areas of academics; however, it is actually a waste of time and money.

No one should ever be judged based on gender, race, religion, or economic status. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case. People are constantly being judged solely for the contributions. In the movie, “Stand and Deliver” is about a group of students is judged based on race and economic status. Mr. Escalante takes on the challenge of proving everyone wrong. He is an educator that fights and advocates for his students. Not only does he push his students to their fullest potential, but also he believes in them and shatters the stereotypical wall built around them.

M., & Barton, K. (2003). Assessing Students With Disabilities: Issues and Evidence. Los Angeles: The Regents of the University of California. Retrieved from http://cse.ucla.edu/products/reports/TR587.pdf

Living in the United States the emphasis on testing is extremely high. Testing has been around for years , however has increased to an all-time high since 2002 when the Bush administration brought about the No Child Left Behind Act and mandated standardized testing in all 50 states. Since initiation of these annual tests, the degree of student success the US has shown compared to other countries has declined. With the No Child Left Behind Act all students, as in 100% of students, were supposed to be at or above grade level in testing as of 2014. However, the US is two years out and its students are nowhere close to that 100% goal.

In standardized tests I always get a good grade and in some occasions I have got some high scores on them. I think that I consider myself a good test taker because when I have a test really important I always sleep early, practice things that might be on the test, and the most important for me is to try my best in every question no matter if I never practice doing that question. I also consider myself a good standardized test taker because in the past couple of years I have gotten good grades and it has made me proud. I never been this way because I used to think that school was just a joke because I was going to become a pro soccer player, but now I can see that in order for me to become a soccer player I have to study a lot specially science

I t is well known that Standardized testing is not popular with students, but many teachers also do not agree with the method as well. Teachers see the testing as a burden and an end to creative and fun curriculum. Teachers teach all year for what will be on the test. Students are forced to learn by memorization quickly with so much knowledge being imposed on them at one time. Teachers have to teach so many core factors that they do not have hours to spend the wanted and needed lot of time on certain content. The article “It’s déjà vu all over again!” includes comments from educators on testing “The tests tend to measure factual memorization of names and dates, rather than important conceptual understandings and interpretations” (pg.199). Children can profess when and where The Battle of Gettysburg was, but could not express what the speech was about and the lasting impositions of the speech. They memorize a topic to pass a test. That is standardized testing. That is not learning.

On standardized tests I do well because I consider myself capable of the things that are given to me by my teacher. I am a good test taker because I study before a test so that I can be prepared.. Why would I not know the answer to the test if that is what we study in school. I think that the teachers have already gave us the steps to answer the questions all we have to do is find the answers which I find easy to do if you are paying attention in class is you do what you are suppose to be doing. The way I prepare for standardized test is reviewing the work or topic that our teacher told us it was going to about. I do best on math questions but on reading you might have a different point of view on which sentence goes best and which sentence

Standardized tests are annoying little things that students in schools all across the nation have to take every year. Though, if all the facts are taken into consideration, they do not really seem worth it, do they? Many people speculate whether or not they are actually measuring a student’s intelligence or anything like that. It seems that students do not necessarily have to learn the material, only memorize it for a short period of time. The question has to be raised, though-- what exactly qualifies a test to be a standardized test? Well, as described by The Glossary of Education Reform, there are two main things that make a test standardized. The first being that the test “...requires all test takers to answer the same questions, or