Students Perspectives On Test-Centered Curriculum

Many students throughout the American education system struggle due to the fact that they have to take a standardized test. But, this struggle differs for each student, some are too lazy to take them while others are having difficulty performing well on these tests. As a student who learned English as a second language, I could relate with the people who are having trouble performing well on standardized tests. When I was in high school there was nothing more frightening than Standardized tests. There was a lot of emphasize on these tests and they had the power to determine my future in the means of deciding which colleges I could attend. But, I wasn’t alone in this matter, not all students perform to their potential on Standardized tests. No matter how hard I tried to study for these tests, I was just not doing as well as my class mates. It made me feel like I was beneath all my other class mates and I thought they were intellectually superior. But, I met other like me who were not good at taking test and didn’t perform well on these

Standardized tests are a requirement for students to pass in order to graduate high school and attend college. The hope behind standardized tests is that they cover a number of rudimentary concepts and processes, and reflect what students have learned in their classes under a strict evaluation scale. However, in reality, standardized testing is offering very finite and ineffective learning skills, which don’t prepare students for college. The result: high dropout rates and high remedial enrollment in colleges. These tests aren’t effective enough for students entering college, and consequently, have a negative impact on learning. Although standardized testing is woven into public schools, the tests do not demonstrate a student’s true learning, do not prepare them for college, and are racially biased. The content of these exams needs to be changed so that they cover important subject material, such as reading, writing, and mathematics, in a proper manner that is geared to level students with college curriculum. This way, students can truly be ready for college, the dropout rate can lower exponentially, and students can ensure success in college to make an impression in the most crucial years of their education.

Standardized testing has lowered student achievement in the past several years. “The US has slipped from 18th in the world in math in 2002, to 31st place in 2009” (Walker). Something needs to be done, because a good education is how Americans succeed. American children are losing a battle with education because of these high stakes testing. The original purpose of the tests is “to ensure that all children have a fair and equal opportunity to obtain high-quality education at minimum proficiency on State standards” (“Title I - Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged”). But, the test anxiety is becoming more prevalent, and is keeping students from performing their best (Kohn).

Standardized testing is a topic that is all too familiar for those families whose children are still in school, but also for young adults where standardized testing has passed but still remains near. There is a stigma about standardized testing that looms as student’s abilities are put into question. Factors, for example, racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds of students are also questioned due to standardized testing. Characteristics such as these are not types that students can control or change, but “high-stakes testing is widely viewed as positively discriminatory” against such static characteristics (Thernstrom, 2000, page 46).

Many people believe that standardized testing is helpful, common, a great way to measure growth, fair towards minorities, and takes away very little class time. The author, Laura McKenna, emphasizes the fact that parents only argue about the effectiveness of standardized tests and they “view the Common Core and the accompanying tests as a threat to their ability to keep their kids safe in a hostile world”. Some parents say that they don’t want their child’s imperfection to be revealed. The article also disputes that standardized tests are no different than the common core because “teachers’ approval rate of the Common Core dropped from 76 percent in 2013 to only 46 percent in 2014”. This article addresses the complaints about standardized tests and proves that the complaints are ridiculous in order to show that testing is

Another issue arising for students developing educationally in a high-stakes testing environment is the overwhelming consensus of the failures associated with the testing in meeting the needs of the economically disadvantaged and the students with special needs. As high-stakes testing became the prevalent norm for Texas and the U.S, supporters were adamant that this testing provide new opportunities for those students in the highest risk of failure. This new level of accountability would reportedly help struggling schools better meet the needs of their students, however the results have not proven favorable (Tim Walker, 2014). Even before NCLB legislation nationally, as high school students were required to pass an exam for graduation, the retention rates for minority and economically disadvantaged students began to soar. In a 2003 article in the journal of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, authors Amrein and Berliner report “Many teachers retain students if they doubt their potential to pass the TAAS the following year” (Amrein & Berliner, 2003). The fact that minority and economically disadvantaged students have been retained at alarming rates in the state of Texas has not gone unnoticed around the nation. Critics have used this to show the lack of effectiveness of testing on actually increasing students’ knowledge base (Amanda Walker, 2005). Often, economically students, with minimal opportunities for outside intellectual growth, have been

Diane Ravitch, former Assistant Secretary of Education, said “We must take care to make our public schools once again the pride of our nation” (Ravitch 260). At this point in time, the testing process that most, if not, all schools have adopted is proving to be an impediment to our education system that many are not proud of. Students today are more focused on getting the grade rather than the knowledge and experience that is needed for their future. Standardized testing, in a nutshell, could be a positive policy for today’s students. The execution of these baseline tests are not conducive to learning or measuring a student’s true ability or intelligence due to the emphasis on passing tests instead of actual learning and critical thinking skills, as well as having the same parameters for every student regardless of their situation. The current state of our standardized education system is leaving our students with a massive educational impairment.

“Standardized testing has swelled and mutated…to the point that it now threatens to swallow our schools whole” (Kohn, 2000). Comparing standardized testing to a swelling monster that is taking over the school systems is a bit of a reach but there is some weight to this statement. Standardized tests have become so frequent in elementary and high school education that they have become the most important tool that is used by school boards and colleges to determine a student’s achievements, but how accurate and reliable are these tests at showing all of these achievements? The answer? Not very accurate. Standardized testing, at both the elementary and secondary scchool levels, are not effective at accurately showing a student’s achievements.

On January 8, 2002, former President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law, requiring all states to test students in reading and in math in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school (Klein). This testing was designed to, as the act states, “leave no child behind.” However, because of this testing, many children are falling behind because of this very idea: standardized testing. For high school students specifically, standardized testing is the ultimate factor in whether the students are “college ready” by the school’s terms or not. A test where bubbling A, B, C, or D determines whether or not

“Children feel like failures now as early as PreK, preschoolers are being expelled at 4 X higher rates than K-12 children. . .” These are the words of Dr. MArcy Guddemi, Gesell Institute’s Executive Director. Testing is filling lives of children now with stress and negative feelings for school instead of the happy place full of learning it should be. Test scores’ impact on learning is not even effective and most score change is due to life outside of school. Schools also spend great amounts of spending on these tests every year. School is important for numerous life skills and lessons; with excessive testing children aren’t able to learn these lessons. The U.S. Department of Education and its local counterparts needs to administer fewer standardized tests because they don't accurately show learning, they are costing us too much money, and the impair growth.

Baldry and Farrington (2004) employed an experimental pretest, posttest design to test their intervention. While the use of an experimental design helps protect the internal validity of an experiment, there are still a number of threats evident in this study (Bachman & Schutt, 2017). Baldry and Farrington chose schools according to convenience and accessibility, and randomly assigned students to control and experimental groups by classroom. The authors also showed that statistically, the control and experimental groups were comparable in their responses regarding bullying and victimization (Baldry and Farrington, 2004). Similarly, there were not many significant differences between groups in terms of the prevalence of specific

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

Standardized tests are part of every student’s life but not for a good reason. These tests haunt students in their sleep and give them a nightmare. To understand what I am writing just study your kid on the week of standardized tests. One can see the fear, anxiety and helpless in their eyes. Standardized testing has become an important part of our modern education. There is not an American student who doesn’t sit down these test many times a year in their educational journey. These tested are heavily monitored, they are supposed to measure students’ knowledge and performance. However, there are may problems with standardized tests, including bais, anxiety and not inclusive. Nevertheless, how effective are these tests? Do they really measure knowledge? Many scholars have talked about the role of standardized tests in students performance. The answer is no. Standardized tests do not measure student 's education or knowledge. The topic of standardized testing is complex in that it provokes a system that has been established for a long time and that is used by every college and school in United States. Many people believe that standardized tests are biased and aren’t inclusive while others argue that they are effective in testing student’s knowledge. This topic also proposes a big change to our educational system.

Before stating the mains findings of the study it is important to mention that the researchers’ hypotheses were, that the victims of bullying in 10th grade will have lower achievement in 12th grade regardless of their race/ethnic background and that high-achieving black and Latino students, as indicated by 9th-grade GPA, will be more vulnerable to bullying. In contrast they expect that low-achieving Asian students, as indicated by 9th grade GPA, will be especially susceptible to bullying. Their main focus was to examine how bullying affects academic achievement. After conducting their research, the researchers came to the conclusion that although family background and school characteristics notably affects students’ performance, bullying also have significant influence in students’ educational achievement. As stated in the research article their studying found that bullying decreases 12th grade GPA after considering key student and school characteristics associate with achievement. Moreover, they concluded that the impact of bullying has an abiding effect on students’ academic achievement even after the bullying incident. The second finding of the study gave partial support for their second hypothesis which suggested that Asian, Black, and Latinos students were going to be more likely to experience bullying when they did not meet their stereotype. According to research Asian students are perceived to be high achievers, thus the researchers’ theory suggested

Educators and administrators in West Coast public schools have begun to initiate an imperative discussion on the occurrence of bullying in grades three, four, and five. The purpose of the cross-sectional study was to expand upon a past study, which had examined the correlation between rates of bullying involvement and an individual’s perception of academic achievement in students in grades six through ten. The current study being assessed sought to gather objective evidence between academic successes in correlation with self-reported levels of self-esteem in addition to identifying personal bully involvement. In the end, students’ academic success lies not simply in the score on a standardized test, but rather on the positivity of their social interactions and learning environment. Results of the survey have the potential to be utilized to create more effective bully prevention programs in order to foster long-term academic success for students.