Standardized Testing In Public Schools: A Case Study

Resources that schools receive are different depending on the area the school is in. Students in low-income neighborhoods do not have the same opportunities as the students in higher income neighborhood. These underprivileged schools are overcrowded and does not have the means necessary to better the student’s education.

Throughout history, public schools have suffered and still continue to fail while the rest of the world is moving ahead. There are various barriers that have prevented low-income student from succeeding with the rest of the world. Parent involvement plays a role because if they lack higher levels of education, most likely this will cause the student to have a disadvantage. Also, because of families with

This means that the good schools can only take in a few students, the proverbial tip of the ice berg. The rest of the students are relegated to schools in which their parents have no faith at all. This is tantamount to dooming these students to failure and being completely unable to do anything about it. The decline in the level of education in the public school system has prompted a lot of parents to opt for private schooling for their children. The problem with this is, of course, finances. Another problem facing the schooling system is the lack of streamlining of services. A comparison is drawn between the schools in the poor neighborhoods and their equivalents in the rich neighborhoods. The difference is astronomical. There is absolutely no coherency between the levels of services being provided in these institutions. Thus, the education system appears to be skewed. This is a worst case scenario situation for a system that is supposed to provide children with equal opportunities at a better life in the

Disadvantaged children can use education to make up for their disadvantages. However, high poverty areas differ from the rest of most metropolitan cities when it comes to the quality of the schools in high poverty areas. The schools in these areas are usually of lower quality. Lang also notes that money is not necessarily the answer to improving the quality of schools. He notes that most suburban schools spend less per student than their urban counterparts. Most of this money is spent on helping urban students gain a social education that their suburban counterparts learned at home before they entered school (Lang,

Standardized testing has been around for centuries. It has been a part of America’s education since mid 1800’s. Ever since the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, tests are now required and mandated in every state. But has their use improved America’s education?

Even though they are not from wealthy families, these children still want to learn and have the same drive for success just like any other child. The low income students are learning in environments of old buildings, underpaid teachers, and low funded sports teams due to their district. Yet, once they graduate high school, they still have to meet the same requirements to get into colleges, although they did not have access to high-impact education. Whereas the higher-income schools suffer nothing as they have no experience of budget cuts, and they have access to endless opportunities for their students. Their students do not have the same struggle to get into higher education as they were prepped for it in high school. This kind of financial unintentionality is hurting the children of the future

Statistics show that children from low-income families and low-income areas do not do near as well on standardized test as other children’s. A lot of the time this is because the low-income family living in the low-income area also lives in a low-income school district. These school districts are usually filled with bad teachers or good teachers that just don’t care anymore. Also because of the apathy towards learning presented by the surroundings of the students these children also develop the aforementioned apathy for learning. If you do not think learning is important then you will not apply yourself and this will lead you to doing poorly in the classroom and on these standardized tests.

Schools with poor funding cannot afford facilities that would benefit their students. Students in poor areas are at a disadvantage because they don’t have suitable facilities and their school may look as if it is falling apart. “Poor conditions make it more difficult for teachers to deliver an adequate education to their students” (Schneider). There are consequences when a school does not meet the expectations of numerous students. This idea applies to high school students as well as those students in middle school. In "Shaping the Future: Middle Schools. Impact on Education Series” by Fanning/Howey Associates, Inc. it is stated that well-kept facilities provide students with the mindset that the school wants them to do well and it enables them to do better academically. They see that the school cares about their education, so they push themselves to learn and strive for success. “At a time when information problem-solving and technology skills are regarded internationally as crucial to success in 21st century society, thousands of students are without access to the learning benefits that research shows are provided by quality school library programs (Klais). Schools with poor funding cannot afford to have the best libraries. This affects many students, because they don’t have a place to study. The library cannot afford to keep up with up to date resources, so the libraries aren’t as efficient as the

“ Historically, low-income students as a group have performed less well than high-income students on most measures of academic success” (Reardon, 2013). Typically low-income families come from low-income parts of the state making a school that does not have as much funding as a higher economic schools does lack in resources for their students. The school then has lower paid teachers and administrators, with lower quality supplies. This results in a school which typically has faculty who do not perform as well as the well-funded schools. “The law fails to address the pressing problems of unequal educational resources across schools serving wealthy and poor children” (Hammond, 2007). Students from low and high income families will not be able to achieve the same education because their education simply is not the same.

When I was younger I always saw my older siblings dread going into highschool and I never understood why. I mean, you get more freedom, you can drive, and you’re that much closer to graduating. What’s not to like? Well, let’s just say I was too young to understand everything that went along with high school. The loads of homework, being in sports, having a job, and trying to have a social life along with your busy schedules. On top of that, you can’t forget the horrid tests every high school student is forced to take. The SAT, ACT, ITBS, MAP, and COMPASS tests are just a few of the tests we have to take throughout our four years. Two of those tests are optional, but the rest are mandatory. You’re given a set amount of time

A new PDK/Gallup poll shows that most Americans oppose nationwide Common Core tests, and view other criteria such as engagement with classwork and feedback about school more important than performance in standardized testing in measuring the effectiveness of schools.

The ongoing controversy revolving standardized testing within public schools continues as the correlation between student, along with teacher, achievement and the use of standardized testing is researched. Some deem standardized testing as an inevitable way to determine student progress, while others relate more towards negative effects from standardized testing.

For many years America has been called a world leader and sometimes even a superpower among countries worldwide, but one thing Americans fail to realize is that America is anything but a world leader in education. A study was done regarding the top ten education systems in the world and the research showed, “In 2014, Edudemic did an analysis of countries and their education success or lack thereof and found the U.S. ranked 14th” (Lepi). Research also found that, “Finland came in at number one in 2012 and an interesting fact came to the surface; Finland does not participate in any standardized testing” (Lepi). Another statistic that is eye-opening is that, “Following the passage of NCLB on Jan. 8, 2002, annual state spending

The inequalities that public schools in low-income communities are facing can have a long term effect on the lives of these children. The poor quality of education that these children are receiving can have a permanent effect on their lives.

A lot of American families are only making minimum wage to provide for their family. Many families income are at or below $12,000. With low incomes, families are forced to live in communities that are “poverty” stricken. In these types of communities, kids don’t have normal lives. They are constantly worrying about how they are going to survive or what they are going to eat when they get home. They will not know what is like to go to school and learn how important it is to stay in school and pursue higher education. These kids in these communities don’t have the same curriculum and resources as kids in schools in wealthy communities. They tend to struggle in school. Many people assume that schools in wealthy communities are better than those in poor communities, or they better prepare their students for desirable jobs.