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 …show more content…
Curriculums are being narrowed to concentrate primarily on what is being tested (McMurrer, J., 2007). Narrowing the curriculum to spend more time on Mathematics and Language Arts (English) robs instruction time from other important subjects and deprives students from developing strengths and talents in the less-recognized, but not less-important subjects. This narrowing of the curriculum goes hand-in-hand with “teaching to the test”. According to the National Center for Fair and Open Testing (2008), “teaching to the test” has the dire result of ‘what is not being tested is not being taught’, despite the importance of the subject. The method of instruction starts to reflect the style of testing, which is different from real-world application. Since not all subjects can be tested by the multiple-choice option format for standardized tests, development in the areas such as Art and Writing are being …show more content…
With such high stakes involved, standardized testing has become less about the student’s progression, and more about the survival of the educational institution itself. Legislations such as No Child Left Behind and Race to The Top have resulted in the very thing they have tried to overcome. Children who score low are being left behind due to instances of teacher intervention during testing or exclusion, and students who excel in schools are being developmentally held back with curriculums being narrowed to focus on the tested materials to ensure they pass as
The use of standardized testing as a form of assessment is highly controversial in the world of education. Standardized test compares students results to a national standard. Some teachers
After the implementation of the “No Child Left Behind Act” high risk standardized testing has become a pressure cooker of corruption in the United States due to often unrealistic expectations, abundant incentives, and harsh punishments placed upon educators and administrators, overall resulting in the essential need for reform. The concept that every student’s academic ability can be assessed by a single universal exam is a misguided notion.
Today, it can be observed that society has shifted education drastically from the time schools were constituted, to now. Throughout history, schools have gone from private, where only the elite can attend, to public schools where virtually anyone can attend. One of the factors that goes along with education is standardized testing. Frederick J. Kelly, father of the standardized test, once said, “These tests are too crude to be used, and should be abandoned.” Not only has this shift occurred within education itself, but it has occurred within the testing concepts found within standardized testing so much so that the founder of these tests has chosen to give up on it.
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 testing has become a multi-million dollar business that has shown no substantial progress on the public school system across the nation. Our students and schools are being robbed of expressing creativity and critical thinking skills while major corporations are gaining more and more financial stability. Since the implementation of the harsh testing guidelines, it has forced
State-mandated standardized testing has lately become a monster to be feared by students from the beginning of their school career. According to well respected educational author Alfie Kohn, “[…] Most of today’s discourse about education has been reduced to a crude series of monosyllables: Test scores are too low. Make them go up” (Kohn 1). Why all the testing? Some is to meet the federal government requirements, some to meet state requirements, some for the district and some for the school, and still more tests are given simply to help students prepare for the ones already mentioned. So much testing has reduced time for instructors to actually teach. In addition, many of the tests neglect to cover all important material,
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?
GED, SAT, ACT, and more test are standardize tests. Students need to take this test in order to graduate from high school or college. In American society, standardize tests are test that schools use to measure students’ academic achievement, or to show whether students are ready to progress to the next stage of their educations. While the test is designed to measure student’s ability, many people are concerned about the use of the tests. Standardize test can measure students’ knowledge, but it is not meant to be testing students’ creativity and other skills. I believe that the schools should not over use the standardize tests because standardize tests can only measure small part of education. Also, the test does not value diversity and is unreliable
Standardized testing has become a yearly fixture in classrooms around the United States. Legislation such as No Child Left Behind holds educators and administrators responsible for the learning of students. One way to assess this learning is through the use of a standardized test, the results of which can be compared to a predetermined benchmark. I believe it’s a good idea to hold educators accountable for the work they perform in the classroom and to hold school administrators accountable for education outcomes. However, the means by which this accountability is currently being evaluated—standardized testing—is detrimental to both schools and students alike, and it should be discontinued. Standardized testing of young children produces potentially meaningless results, is potentially discriminatory against certain populations, and forces educators to modify their instruction (potentially for the worse) in an effort to avoid being punished for not meeting required benchmarks.
While a few standardized tests over a student’s school career can be helpful to make sure students are on track and teachers are educating their students, the United States education system has far too many standardized tests. The U.S should reduce the number of tests given to students each year. The current amount of testing stresses students and forces teachers to “teach to the test”. Standardized testing has not and will not improve the American school
Standardized Testing is one of the many issues currently plaguing the education community. Testing is a very touchy and controversial topic in the politics of education, particularly in the United States. There are many varying opinions debating on the successes and failures in the process of testing today. The controversies over standardized testing in the United State, and specifically New Jersey, stem from the testing process and the creation of these tests. Some claim that standardized tests are culturally biased, which is a disadvantage to minority students. These tests also are very costly, and affect the education budget. The tests also pose a large time commitment, with preparation for the tests, as well as the time allotted to take the tests themselves. Preparations for the tests can also have issues, with some educators teaching toward the test, to ensure a higher success rate for the students. The grading and processing of these tests also comes into question, because the tests might not be an accurate measure of student achievement. Standardized testing is a very controversial topic because of the extremely high stakes. The successes or failures of students on these tests affect the students and the schools. With the new obsession with high performance rates, standardized testing has become more high stakes.
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
Standardized tests should not be used to judge the education of a student. The students’ scores on these tests do not provide an accurate index of educational effectiveness (Ascd). A student may know the topic very well, but when it comes to testing over it they may not do so well. A lot of students’ have issues when taking tests and that is not their fault. Educational quality made on the basis of students standardized test performances is apt to be invalid (Ascd). When making the test and grading the test mistakes can be made. Whether it is the test makers marking the wrong answer and not know they did or an error when grading. Students know how much these tests affect their future lives so they do anything, cheat, or take performance drugs,
A very current and ongoing important issue happening within the education system is standardized testing. A standardized test is any examination that's administered and scored in a calculated, standard manner. There are two major kinds of standardized tests: aptitude tests and achievement tests. Standardized aptitude tests predict how well students might perform in some subsequent educational setting. The most common examples are the SAT’s and the ACT’s. The SAT and the ACT attempt to estimate how well high school students will perform in college. But standardized test scores are what citizens and school board members rely on when they evaluate a school's effectiveness. Nationally, five such tests are in use: California Achievement Tests,
Multiple problems with standardized testing have emerged that relate to the students and teachers; however, problems have also appeared with this testing that relate to the public. Test results are released for the public eyes to view, allowing them to judge a school on how the scores say it is doing. The problem with this is that it may misinform the public about what or how the school is doing throughout the school year. The grades on these tests vary because of four factors and according to Jouriles they are, “a teacher’s conception of achievement, a teacher’s sense of equity and rigor, a teacher’s skills, and the composition of students.” If these factors are not all in play at once, a student may not succeed on the test, which is not something he/she can control. Once the scores are released and the public sees that the overall grades are low, some may blame the children while others will blame the teachers. The person to blame in this situation is neither, standardized tests put both students and teachers under a tremendous amount of pressure to perform exceptionally well. Moreover, the scores are all averaged together - as to not show how an individual student did on a test - but this is categorizing him/her. The average scores may have been exceptional, but certain students could have not done well and they still do not understand the concepts they were supposed to learn. On the other hand, the average scores may be horrible, but certain students were able to succeed