As a teacher, I believe standardized testing in the classroom is good for the students, parents, and teachers. Standardized testing allows the students to use the skills they have been taught, recall information, use higher order thinking (based upon the setup of the test), and allows them to see areas they may be weak at. For the parents, standardized test, (when results are sent home) allows them to see how their child is doing with the content that they are being taught and an idea of how their grades will be. For the teacher, standardized test gives feedback on the teacher’s instructions and activities for the content area. It helps the teacher identify students to group together. It also helps provide data for students’ performance in
Although standardized testing has been a major part of schooling it has also had a negative impact on effective education. Standardized has made a huge impact on public schooling so much that not only does it affect the students but also the teachers. With the teachers now beginning to get raises or having their jobs on the line if their students fail the test, many students have not been getting the fullest education process that they could get. Students may not realize the impact that it has had on the type of teaching style that they receive because they are so used to it. With so many teachers not having a lot of time to teach what is on the test and the other things that they feel are important to students to know, a lot of
My first reason standardized tests are not a good idea is that they overpopulate the schools. Texas takes 15 and Indiana takes 5. The tests take away time from learning more about a subject. Our country as a whole takes way to many standardized tests. standardized tests are overpopulating schools and not letting kids learn more parts of the subjects.
When people think of the education system, most can say that there are some problems, though they might not be able to pinpoint what needs to change first. If you ask most teachers, they will say that the first thing that needs to be changed in the schooling system to help the students more is the standardized testing. They will say that while it can be helpful it has a lot of faults and needs to be updated or changed to help its students. Standardized testing has often been a topic for discussion, between parents and people in the schooling system. It seems that a lot of people either hate standardized testing for not giving every child a chance to succeed, or love it for being a fair way to test whether a child knows what they need to know at their age. There have been many articles, books, and documentary’s debating on whether or not standardized testing is doing more harm then good. There was a comic made that shows the brutality and bluntness of what standardized testing is really like. Standardized Testing causes too much stress by putting unfair expectations on teens and doesn’t give every single student the chance to succeed.
Since Middle School, I was not opposed to standardized testing. I thought of it as a way of testing us of what we have learned. Although, after reading some articles about standardized testing I am re-thinking the pros and cons. From personal experience, I thought of it as a challenge to pass them. But now that reminisce about it, I noticed some of the cons of standardized testing. I remember having a week or two dedicated for testing, and in case of students failing they had to take time to redo it. It would take a while for all the students to finish their tests. And after remembering how it was back in those times I was more on the opposed side.
In the world today standardized testing is mandatory in all schools whether they are public or private. If schools continue to make these test mandatory, students grades will show the reflection of what they are not learning. The school might also receive less state funding due to poor performance on these tests. Once No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was introduced US students slipped from 18th in the world in math in 2000 to 31st in 2009 (Standardized). Standardized testing is not beneficial overall because it does not cater to all students, they do not cover real-life topics, and they are detrimental to students.
Would you like to take a test that is unfair, expensive, and unreliable? Chances are you already have. Standardized testing in schools is not only bad for the students, but also bad for our country’s future. Some might think standardized testing is a good thing, because it is the only way to measure all students the same across the country. However, this thought is wrong for many reasons.
A Teachingabout.com “Examining the Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing,” Standardized testing allows students located in various schools, districts, and even states to be compared. Without standardized testing, this comparison would not be possible. Public school students in the state of Texas are all required to take the same state standardized tests. This means that a student in Amarillo can be compared to a student in Dallas. Being able to accurately analyze data is invaluable and is a primary reason that the Common Core State Standards have been adopted in many states. These will allow for a more accurate comparison between states.Yes, standardized tests allow students around the world to compare their scores. Although Connectusfund.org “10 Big Advantages and Disadvantages of Standardized Testing,” The tests do not really assess skill as the questions have to be generalized for the entire population. In short, the test items are not in conjunction with classroom skills and behavior. What standardized tests do is assess the general knowledge and understanding of students rather than their actual ability. Now would we really like to make students miserable by making them suffer through standardized test. So ask yourself do really think that students should take such horrifying things like standardized
There are many valid arguments, deeming it unfair to multiple parties. For example, those who speak a different language or have immigrated to the United States cannot easily be equipped to handle the standardized testing well known to our community, because they do not have enough time to master our language before being thrust into the testing realm. Special education students are also discriminated against, having to take the same standard of testing as their peers who do not have special needs. Standardized tests also don’t measure anything outside the scope of what is deemed meaningful education. “According to late education researcher Gerald W. Bracey, PhD, qualities that standardized tests cannot measure include "creativity, critical thinking, resilience, motivation, persistence, curiosity, endurance, reliability, enthusiasm, empathy, self-awareness, self-discipline, leadership, civic-mindedness, courage, compassion, resourcefulness, sense of beauty, sense of wonder, honesty, integrity."” (ProConorg). There is also the argument that teachers are just “teaching the test” rather than instilling our young generation with predominant qualities needed to be successful in life. These tests, according to studies done, are narrowing the curriculum taught, and increasing the price on testing, making it difficult on our educational system’s budgets. Some believe that
Standardized testing has many positive effects such as getting used to standardized tests. Some say that they are more reliable at measuring student achievement. Without standardized tests the policy makers would have to rely on tests scored by individual schools and teachers
In various ways, standardized test are beneficial from tracking students’ progress over the years to not allowing teachers emotions to get in the way of the testing process. Standardized testing sets expectations high for students and it does hold them accountable for the same standards, which may lead to achievement gains. By looking at the students’ performance they will be able to determine how well they retain information. Also the school is able to learn what their students are able to do and what they cannot do compared to other school districts, so they would be able to improve their education system. When giving more personal assessments, it is very possible “that the teacher or person assessing the student can let their emotions or biases affect how they score that student” (Young). In most cases, standardized tests are objective. There are wrong or right answers, and there is no room for feelings or emotions. Standardized testing gives teachers guidance to help them determine what to teach students and when to teach it. Tests are highly accountable and reliable as they judge the candidates on a common platform across states and nations. Standardized testing is “a simplified way of timeline management” (A Look at the Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing). Standardized testing gives parents a good idea of how their children are doing as compared to students across the country and
Standardized Testing has many cons compared to pros. The biggest con of all is the stress it puts on students and teachers alike. The stress it puts on teachers is that sometimes teacher’s teach according to the test because they want to
Imagine if you or a friend had a talent for art, music, or foreign languages, but the school you attend cut back on the time spent focusing on these multiple subjects and decided to focus on more “important” subjects. Standardized test scores show the academic standing of an individual student and are used to compare that student to others across the U.S. This can create an immense amount of pressure on students to do well. Standardized tests focus on the core subjects of math and reading, with a smaller emphasis on science and writing. If the tests only focus on four main subjects than how can they measure other important traits or skills? We all have so many talents beyond the core subjects that do not show up on a test. Standardized tests
With the incredible way society has been changing over the decades, it is surprised to see the “standard” of standardized testing not change as much as people thought it would. It is sad to say, but the standard of these tests is so loose and all over the place, every college takes the SAT into consideration in an entirely different way than each other. I do not wish, however, for the standard to disappear completely. Getting into college should require some level of a standard. There should be a reward for people who do well in high school and testing. People just do not know how well they should do. The standard is no longer a straight line, but a zigzag line, going up for the standards of some schools and going down for others.
One idea that stood out to me was the faults found in U.S. standardized tests. These tests were invented with the purpose of improving the nation's education by measuring how well states do in certain topics and breaking down what teachers should emphasize on more for the upcoming school year. When analyzing the test and the data gained from it, it seems to hinder education in several ways and deserves improvement. The reason i thought this stood out was because it is counter intuitive to what we have been told and what we see in our everyday lives. Personally, I have grown up taking TAKS tests and had always believed that the state had benefited from these examinations, however, with the information we have discussed over the past
Standardized tests are widely common that used to examine the student's achievements based on their performance in basic subjects and the scores are used to compare states, schools and individuals. When educating became a significant issue, Horace Mann, the secretary of the Board of Education of Massachusetts in the early 18th century established standardized testing to figure out students’ intellectual achievements in subjects such as mathematics and English. There are variety of advantages and disadvantages of Standardized Testing because the advantages of Standardized Testing offers teachers and schools student's ability to perform on tests based on their intellectual compatibility and show their additional needs for help while the disadvantages