Standardized Testing Vs Standardized Testing

Students dread the time of the year when they stop with their course material and begin to prepare for test. Everyone is in agreement that some type of revolution is needed when it comes to education; eliminating standardized test will aid the reform. The need for standardized testing has proven to be ineffective and outdated; some leading educationalist also believe this because the tests do not measure a student’s true potential. This will save money, stop labeling, and alleviate stress in students and teachers.

First,I will discuss how kids take too many tests.The students spend 2.3% of their class time taking standardized tests.The tests takes time out of the students learning time.Kids Take 112 tests from Pre-k - 12th.There is more time taken out of learning for the tests and taking it that their is less time for learning new things.Kids should be taking so many tests a year.

At the end of every school year comes testing season, these standardized tests have caused a great debate of whether or not they should be removed. For about 9 months students are graded by many different techniques and test and they earn those quarterly grades, then they take the test and are in fear of failing the class. The article Examining the Pros and Cons of standardized Testing by Derrick Meador he talks about the benefits of these test, he also adds the cons of them towards the end of his writing. I disagree with his writing because tests such as sats, acts, the eoc, and for Florida the Fsa, are test based on what you should know but you have already proved that with your grades. I believe these test are hurting students who are bad test takers, it's stressful for both students and the teachers, and the test bring on too much at one time.

The average high school student takes at least one standardized test each school year. Standardized tests are all scored the same way and test takers are given the same questions. The scores students receive play a big part in whether or not they will be accepted to the colleges they apply to. Standardized test scores are one of the most important things colleges look for when reviewing applications. Standardized tests could be successful, in theory. However, they have shown to be less accurate than hoped, to cause copious amounts of stress, and to have little to no correspondence with productive adult lives. Because of their ineffectiveness, colleges should place less importance in them when admitting new students.

To begin with standardized testing creates several critical problems for students and for the education industry. These tests are created to test over particular things. In the end these types of tests are only limited in the amount of knowledge that can be tested toward students. For example, “Standardized exams offer few opportunities to display the attributes of high-order thinking, such as analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and creativity.” (“Standardized Testing Has Serious Limitations”). Even though these tests are able to attack certain subjects at the core, they still leave out very valuable and critical information that all students should know. In

Many aspects of students’ lives dwell on how they do on tests, such as the ACT, SAT, or even their basic grades to be accepted in to college. The tests need to be designed to accurately gather information on the knowledge of the student, the ACT only asks you a hand full of questions on basic subject yet take math for instance there are thousands of areas in math to understand and master. Not only are there more than very specific questions asked the tests do not take in to account the different ways people solve problems such as having to write out question. Some students such as myself cannot do mental math and it takes us longer to understand the question we are being asked to evaluate, yet the ACT is a timed test. This creates a bias in the system that students don’t know math were the real problem could either be test anxiety or a lack of time given to properly complete the test. Testing is deeply rooted in students’ lives, making it an ever more pressing matter to fix the issues that concern us

Students spend a lot of time stressing over standardized testing when they could be focusing their energy on more important academic and social activities that could benefit them in the future. Standardized testing are stressful for students for one that it is timed, students often times can not focus knowing that they have a certain amount of times to take this very important test. And if they start stressing out from not having enough time left then they are gonna start writing or bubbling in random answers and then that can cause them to do worst. Teachers are being told to “teach the test”,the teachers don't want to teach us the same basic things every year, but if they don't then students will be unsuccessful when it comes time to taking the exams. Which can lead to consequences ad problems for both the student and the teacher. Some of those consequences may include students being held back, teachers getting in trouble or possibly loosing their jobs because they have failed to meet the standards set and what people think students should learn and what type of material the teachers should teach.” Brain research suggests that too much stress is psychologically and physically harmful. And when stress becomes overwhelming, the brain shifts into a “fight or flight” response, where it is impossible to engage in the higher-order thinking processes that are necessary to respond correctly to the standardized test

A national study by the Center on Education Policy had said that since 2001, 44 percent of school districts had reduced the time spent on science, social studies and the arts classes by an average of around 145 minutes per week just to focus on reading and math (Ratvitch 1). Also, because teachers are pressured by the demand to help produce higher test scores, they often spend a lot of time having students practice things that will most likely be on the tests. Also, the tests not only determine all too much of the curriculum but might eventually become the curriculum. Such large emphasis on testing stresses other. Therefore, standardized tests tend to discourage effective teaching and engaged, meaningful learning (Krause). On the contrary, The US Department of Education stated in November 2004 that "if teachers cover subject matter required by the standards and teach it well, then students will master the material on which they will be tested and probably much more” (Mitchell 2). Even though these tests take up a lot of the time the students are given to learn other

Education is a prominent part of American society. Americans become educated because they want to be more knowledgeable, learn specialized skills, or explore and discover different fields of interest. Recently, high school has shown to be an environment where students are taught solely for the test, rather than for the traditional reasons. Standardized tests have come to dictate student’s fate. This has illustrated the increasingly ridged nature of education in high schools, middle schools, and even elementary schools today. Teachers are teaching for the test, therefore inhibiting students from interactive and meaningful learning. Standardized testing is a fault in our education system that is ineffective and hinders learning. While also taking opportunities, class time, and experiences away from students, which they would otherwise benefit from personal, abiding relationships with their teachers and hands-on experience.

When students think about tests, their thoughts tend to move more towards the idea of “how am I going to memorize all of this in one week,” I know this from experience. Why is this the way that students treat such “important” tests? I ask myself that question just about every time I think about taking an end of course test, SAT, ACT, or anything like that. All across the nation, students have also been introduced to a thing called common core, which has, for some reason, been made even more difficult than the previous set standards. This seems to be no solution to the problem, but will more than likely only worsen the ditch that we have gotten ourselves into, in terms of education. Before focusing on making school more challenging for students and teachers, would not it make more sense for the problem of students not actually learning the content of the course to be fixed first? With more challenging tests, comes more confused students who are willing to do anything just to pass; including flushing their education down the toilet. They do this by only storing the information in their short-term memory rather than actually learning the content of the class, but it’s not always their faults, either. The way the school system is set up, students are not taught how to actually learn the material or use it in real life. A student’s only goal is making good grades on the tests and surviving the class. This memorizing business can hurt students later on in life, as well. These kids get used to taking the easy way out, and will never learn the “deeper-thinking skills” that they need to succeed in the world today. “The focus on memorization, fueled by standardized testing, has obstructed learning, according to Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University, who argues that students have been losing or squandering most of the information they acquire in school.” (Towler.) Even a

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

Alarming is an understatement when it comes to the anxiety and stress standardized testing brings. Students are told how vital these tests can be to college acceptance, class placement, and school ranking, so it is no surprise that they lead students to become stressed out and anxious about taking the assessments. According to education researcher Gregory J. Cizek, "illustrating how testing... produces gripping anxiety in even the brightest students, and makes young children vomit or cry, or both" (2). The affect standardized testing has on students is unacceptable, no students should be anxious and uneasy about going to school due to a test. To continue, the Sacramento Bee reported that "test-related jitters, especially among young students,

"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

Students are spending increasing amounts of time preparing for and taking competitive standardized tests. Standardized testing has been a controversial subject of discussion. This does not improve student achievement or teacher performance. Some are for these tests because of how it provides students, parents, and the government with information on the student's progress. Although most schools make students take standardized tests, it does not measure the knowledge of a student, causes disadvantages for students and teachers, and can be bias or unfair.

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