Standardized Testing In High School Research

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

The definition of success and routes to success may be different, but it is undeniable that all people want to succeed in their lives. According to Malcolm Gladwell, success is seen as an achievement coming from hidden opportunities, effort, diverse backgrounds, or cultural legacy, in life. However, I believe education is one of the factors that contribute the achievement of individuals. There are flaws or inequalities in the United States’ education system, and one of these is the use of standardized test which is the issue that comes in between the individual and their successes. In order to increase the chance of success for an individual, standardized testing should be revoked from education because it does not measure the creativity and knowledge of students which play important roles for one to succeed.

“There is something deeply hypocritical in a society that holds an inner-city child only eight years old "accountable" for her performance on a high-stakes standardized exam but does not hold the high officials of our government accountable for robbing her of what they gave their own kids six or seven years before,” quote Jonathan Kozol. As this quote apptly states many children are often robbed of simple childhood pleasures by standardized testing. These strenuous tests should be cut back to the absolute minimum. Standardized tests should not be required because they provide unnecessary stress, are often inaccurate because of computer and human error, and some students, particularly minorities, are at a clear disadvantage.

At a glance scatter plots show whether a relationship exists between two sets of data. This data will determine correlations between students taking the SAT and ACT. Because this scatter plot is falling from left to right it has a negative slope, so therefore there is a negative correlation between these two sets of data. Although these points are falling, it is not a clear negative relationship since the clustered points are not in a straight line. Therefore, this relationship is a weak, negative relationship.

How I feel about standardized tests is that they get me really stressed out and they are scary. I believe i'm a a bad test taker because when someone hands me a test I forget everything I learned over the year and just freak out and stare at the paper. Yes, I believe ever since Kindergarten iv'e been like this. Fun fact is that when I was taking my STAR test in second grade I peed myself thinking I was going to fail but it was a practice STAR test, I was bullied ever since. I prepare for a standardized test by going over what I learned at midnight, that way I don't freak out and stress or sometimes eating makes me feel more confident about myself. I believe that when they give you gum before taking the test helps, because it distracts you of

The people scoring the tests do not directly know any of the students that they are scoring. This means that all of the students are being tested and scored the same way. To supporters of standardized tests, this may sound like the definition of equality, but it is far from it. “Equality does not mean everyone gets the same thing because we are all inherently different. Equality is recognizing differences and making sure everyone gets the same opportunity based on those differences...” (Noelle Christine, Figment.com) Standardized tests ignore the fact that every child is different. Instead, they act as if every child is the same; as if they all think the same, learn the same, and have the same experiences. For instance, on a standardized test I had a few years ago, the prompt was to write about your experience on an airplane. I had never been on an airplane, so all I could write about was what I imagined being on an airplane might be like. That prompt was unfair because the students who had the experience of being on an airplane had a better chance of scoring high on that essay than the students, like me, who hadn’t had the experience. Treating everybody as if they were the same person is unreasonable and

The chart above posted by Zachary Goldfarb on the Washington Post further shows that if a student’s family is more affluent, that student is likely to do better. If standardized testing is going to test students as equals, then all the prep material should be made available for all students no matter what income level a student’s family is in.

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.

How can a test improve your intelligence? And improve the public education system, standardized testing is not an effective way to improve public education.Standardized tests are unnecessary in the United States It does not cater to students of every background in relationships to body ability, race,class and also non english speakers

“Mostly, they worry that common standards would reduce teaching to only a small range of testable information and would not produce the knowledge, flexibility and creativity needed. Buttressing this concern, the Center on Education Policy found that the emphasis on test-based accountability has indeed already narrowed the curriculum” (Mathis). Standardized testing has become a controversial topic recently throughout the nation because of the harsh, confined lessons teachers are being forced to give. According to a news article written by the New York Times, teenagers nationwide are taking anti-depressants to cope with test-related stress and teachers would rather retire than teach when the government seems to value testing over learning. Teachers

If ever there was an idea custom-made for a Jay Leno monologue, this was it: high school students campaigning to redesign the educational system. Isn't that like athletes changing practice methods? Whatever happened to respect for tradition. I happen to sympathize with this philosophy, though, simply based on the amount of time and effort wasted in school never to yield benefits. Required to study four years of several different subjects, many students waste energy instead of focusing on a specific career paths they will pursue. America’s present day education needs to incorporate a more efficient system focusing specifically on subjects people will use throughout life and how to measure talent.

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,

Standardized tests, we start taking them in elementary school, we progress to tougher tests in high school to help us get into college, then there are even harder tests to help us get a job, but how useful, are they? Throughout elementary, middle, and high school they prepare us for these tests, students spend countless hours. As you will see in this paper these tests prepare you from elementary through high school and beyond.

The tests require children to draw from knowledge they learn or experiences they’ve had outside of school, which is different for each student. According to W. James Popham, an expert on educational assessment, “If children come from advantaged families and stimulus-rich environments, then they are more apt to succeed on items in standardized achievement test items than will other children whose environments don't mesh as well with what the tests measure”. The biases in the development and administration of standardized tests often contribute to the achievement gap between whites and minorities. As a result students from low-income and minority families, English Language Learners, and students with disabilities are more likely to be held back a grade, be placed in unnecessary remedial education programs, and be denied a diploma (Reese, pg. 1). Another problem with standardized testing is the tests do not accurately measure teacher quality. Standardized tests are often used to evaluate teachers and schools staff based on their student’s scores. However, standardized tests are limited indicators of student knowledge and progress; therefore they do not reflect the wide range of knowledge and skills a teacher covers in the classroom. It is unfair to isolate the impact of one individual because teaching is a collaborative and developmental process (FairTest, pg. 1). People think that if standardized test scores are high they can label teachers as

Are you stressed out over standardized tests? Some say that the test are perfectly normal for the children. While others think that the children are too stressed over the tests. I believe that the standardized tests stress the students out too much because the children are too worried. I hope that when you are done reading this you will agree with me.