A typical student in the United States takes about 112 standardized tests between kindergarten and senior year. By contrast, most countries that outperform the United States on international exams only test their students three times during their school careers. The topic of standardized testing has been controversial for years. Many people argue over whether or not the tests are actually useful to the educational system. Nonetheless, statistics prove that the United States spends way too much time testing their students without an inkling of all the negative effects the tests bring. Schools should be able to focus on enhancing students’ educations, but all the testing forces teachers to spend their short amount of class time preparing their …show more content…
To begin, standardized tests put too much pressure on students. These tests are used to determine if a student is “smart enough” for their age or what college they will be accepted into. The majority of colleges have set ACT score that students must achieve in order to be admitted there. That means when it comes time for the test, students often overwhelm themselves studying because they want to be accepted into a good, quality college. A study in England, which is focused on high-stakes testing, found a 200% increase in counseling sessions related to exam stress between 2013 and 2014. One agency even found an increase in suicidal thoughts related to exam stress (“How High-Stakes Standardized”). Students should not have to spend their whole school careers …show more content…
Most schools are rated by how their students perform on standardized tests, so in order to receive an excellent score they make sure to prepare their students. Teachers are then pressured to only focus on material that will appear on the test.Under those circumstances, students’ curriculum will get narrowed. Study shows schools may drop whole classes like History and Science if they aren’t being taught, especially in low-income schools because parents can’t afford to pay the extra money to keep those subjects for their children(“The Dangerous Consequences of”). This is unhealthy because critical topics and skills are not being taught to students, as they can not be tested with paper and pencil. Instead of learning and comprehending the material, students are taught with repetition of simple skills and tested on that material a few days later. This allows students to memorize for the test and forget the material a week later, rather than actually learning the material and applying it later in life. Equally, teachers are hurt by this process because if they want to receive a good grade, they will most likely teach to the test rather than their students. This takes the fun out of teaching for some teachers because they no longer have control over what they teach. In the long run, teaching to the test has a negative effect on students and
Such pressure on students does not help them to become quick learners, or more adaptable, but instead it makes them confront the feeling of failure, which is uncalled for. Since the tests are also sought as a measure of a teacher’s performance, they also stress out teachers, even though the scores students get change based on what test they are taking which makes it difficult to judge a teacher. Standardized tests are also known to give younger students tons on stress in the form anxiety which can affect the brightest of students in such a strong manner that the Stanford-9 Exam has instructions on what to do if the student vomits on their test booklet. This clearly isn’t a sign that students enjoy and/or appreciate the
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
America’s educational system could improve nationally by removing standardized testing. American has recognized some of the flaws the education system has presented and chose to fix them; however, one of these problems has been standardized testing, which has not been identified nor changed. Standardized testing inflicts many problems to students that need to be fixed immediately. From inefficient teachers to poorer school systems, standardized testing needs to change because it deteriorates America’s education systems, it is an unfair disadvantage, and it cannot accurately measure a student’s amount of intelligence.
"Study says standardized testing is overwhelming nation's public schools." The Washington Post. WP Company, 24 Oct. 2015. Web. 09 Mar. 2017. This source provides statistics to demonstrate the dramatic increase of standardized testing and specific examples to establish the effects these tests can have on a learning environment. It is stated that a typical student takes an average of 112 mandated standardized tests between pre-kindergarten and 12th grade. While one of the reasons behind the excessive amounts of testing is to improve America’s academic competitiveness, most countries that rank higher that the U.S. in academic’s test students three times throughout their entire school career. This source suggests that the problem comes from tests being mandated by multiple sources, Congress, the U.S. Department of Education, and state and local governments. While every test is mandated for a different reason, the main priority is not the benefit of the children. An example utilized to demonstrate the detrimental effects of excessive testing is a K-8 Pilot School in Boston. Individual, 90 minute reading tests are required every year. This causes teachers to spend over 60 hours of class time not teaching. Although many people support the use of standardized tests, excessive testing is still recognized as a problem from multiple sides of the argument. The president of the Education Trust, an advocacy group focused on reducing the achievement gap, believes there is
Three times a year, hours spent testing, and for what? Standardized Tests. Some school staff members, or family, believe that Standardized Tests can increase the students’ educations. Students can say otherwise. Personally, I have come to the conclusion that Standardized Tests can be substandard for students. The evidence supporting this claim is that the tests can cause stress in young children, it’s overall expensive, and it takes away teaching time. I hope from reading this essay you will also believe Standardized Tests should be cut from schools programs.
The education researcher Gregory J. Cizek says that tests are causing major stress and anxiety to teens and even to the brightest students. Also, these tests are causing students to even do things as jurassic as throwing up on the test which has made teachers learn how to deal with the situation if someone were to projectile vomit on their test (Cizek 2). Also, all of the unnecessary stress that is put on the student’s impacts them tremendously. American students are on of the most tested children in the entire world! They take more than 100 million standardized tests every year, according to Teachers College at Columbia University in New York City. The results of these tests are taken seriously by educators, parents, and even local government officials, for they are shown as a measure of teacher and school progress and can affect a child's future placement in a schools system. All this pressure is not lost on children because even on the students who are very well prepared can be impacted greatly by the general anxiety surrounding the tests (Clovis 1). What makes standardized tests stressful? A major factor is the way by which they are tested at. They are rigidly timed, the instructions are complicated, and the rules are strict (Cizek 3). Although, testing is not too stressful. The US Department of Education stated: "Although
Did you know that the average student spends more than twenty-four hours a year on standardized tests? These twenty-four hours only include the time taking the test. It does not include any time for prepping, or classroom tests given out by teachers. The standardized tests students are taking are mainly used for showing growth of students, and how well teachers teach lessons. From Pre K- 12th grade, students all over the US take at least 112 tests, yet we still show no growth of improvement. This shows that we need to cut down the amount of these tests. Today, this essay will explain that the amount of standardized tests needs to be cut down because (1) too much class time is spent towards the test, (2) the amount stresses out teachers and students, and (3) the quantity of tests do not mean better results.
Standardized tests cause unnecessary stress on students because of pressure to do well on tests. Students who study too much or do not study enough can get stressed out. Not studying enough can make students feel unprepared and can cause anxiety. Studying too much can overwhelm a student of overload of information. In the article, “The Leading Source for Pros & Cons of Controversial Issues”, an education researcher Gregory J. Cizek, says “the brightest of students even get stressed.” If the smartest students in school get stressed, how can average students avoid stress? There is no way to avoid the stress that comes with these tests. It also states, “The Sacramento Bee reported that ‘test-related jitters, especially among young students, are so common that the Stanford-9 exam comes with instructions on what to do with a test booklet in case a student vomits on it.” The stress that comes with standardized tests is bad enough, but
Next these tests take away learning time.We spend about 20-25 hours just taking standardized tests not including the tests they need to take in regular class time.What this means is that we are spending more time learning what’s on the tests and what is actually need to know.We also are spending too much time “teaching to the test,” and not enough time learning.Most of these tests take away learning time that is actually needed to know in real life.The tests take away learning time and that is causing
Standardized testing puts unnecessary stress on students and teachers. With a limited amount of instruction time, teachers and students are both pressured to prepare for testing, leaving less time to practice and truly learn any information. With deadlines constantly looming, students are more concerned with memorizing, rather than learning. Standardized testing causes many students to worry excessively due to the amount of importance people put on test scores, causing many people to fear tests and
In public schools today standardized testing is what the teachers are most concerned with. In the educational system so much stock is placed in passing the required test to graduate and to move on that many educators feel as though they are no longer able to do their job. When faced with the pressure of the testing many students become anxious and worry so much about passing the test that in all reality they make their performance suffer. In high stakes testing about nine percent of students showed signs of high anxiety, this is about the same as the amount during low stakes in class testing. The big difference in high and low stakes testing is that 59 percent of students were
Students are stressed. But, what is the goal of these tests? Are we trying to make students compete with one another to see who gets the higher score? Or are we preparing them for life outside of school? Maybe at one time these tests were used to measure how well the future leaders of our countries were learning, but now it is no longer like that. These tests seem to show no post-school value except to find the most successful kids and give them scholarships to college. Going along with this, everyone, depending on their grade, is required to take the same exact test. Despite their different ways of thinking, students are grouped together and the ones who are different are “wrong” simply because they were unable to learn it due to the way they were taught. Holding every single student to the same standards avoids the fact that everyone has a different mindset and each person may excel in different subjects. This poses a question: when will the system change? Students are held to such enormous pressure that when they meet the standards, they are convinced they’re stupid, and I struggle with this, too. However, it would be easier if all of the intimidation encountered when we are testing would just be withdrawn and students can be able to take a test, try their best, and if they don’t succeed, they can continue to work hard because, after all, a test shouldn’t determine how
Did you know that “Texas spends about 90 million dollars a year’’ (Scott Friedman 1) on a standardized test. 90 million dollars a year is an absurd amount of money to spend on a test when we could be using that money for something more beneficial to the state of Texas. That is just one reason standardized testing is not necessary in the state of Texas.
In the past standardized test were an important tool first used in ancient China to find people jobs in the government, they then came to the U.S during world war one to find recruits places in the military. Now they can still be a very useful tool used mainly by school districts across the U.S to judge the effectiveness of the schools and teachers. However, more often than not these test are overused and give inaccurate measures of intelligence. Standardized test can be very useful tools used to evaluate many things, but they are only able to test simple ideas and often don’t have appropriate accommodations to level the playing field for students with disabilities.
A significant portion of No Child Left Behind demands that students must participate in yearly standardized testing that adheres to state standards (Education Week). Advocates of No Child Left Behind believe that standardized testing provides a reliable way of measuring students’ achievement, but it does not for multiple reasons. The first is that standardized testing places too much emphasis on success than actually learning and mastering the material. “Teaching to the test” has, for the most part, replaced teaching to ensure learning and mastery: American students are receiving only the basics of education and cannot compete with the top-performing nations of the world (Education Next). A study from the American Federation of Teachers states