Testing And De Grading Schools : Authentic Alternatives For Accountability And Standardization

begun their education and the tests that are sure to come with it. The road

The Department of Education concludes that high-stakes testing and statewide standards puts too strain on both the teacher and student. Multiple studies show evidence of miscalculation of scores, teachers being blamed for low test score, and too much time spent on preparation for the tests. The purpose of this policy brief is to elaborate on the non-beneficial components of high-stakes testing and statewide standards. Thus, peer-reviewed research articles and evidential articles are reviewed on high-stakes testing and statewide standards. In addition, the state of Florida has shown the greatest amount of dissatisfied outcomes. The information provided in this policy brief will precisely indicate why high-stakes testing and statewide standards should be abandoned from the school system. I request the action of Congress to outlaw high-stakes testing and statewide standards for the betterment of all National citizens by passing a new law to force states away from standardized testing.

Not only has the increased amount of testing placed enormous pressure on teachers to perform, but on students as well; the pressure to do well on these assessments is causes young students to suffer from anxiety and stress. Brookside Elementary School in Norwalk, Conn., was just one of the thousands of American public schools classified as failing during the 2010-2011 school year, according to their standardized test scores (Berger). In "Raising the Curve: A Year Inside One of America’s 45,000 Failing Public Schools”, Ron Berler, a journalist who has written for The New York Times and Chicago Tribune, documents the year he spent observing students and educators at Brookside as they struggled to meet the demands of No Child Left Behind. “The

“…only twenty-two percent of those surveyed said increased testing had helped the performance of their local schools compared with twenty-eight in 2007” (“Public Skeptical of Standardized Testing.”). Furthermore the poll indicated an eleven percent increase, compared to last year, towards the favor of discontinuing the usage of students’ test results for teacher evaluations. William Bushaw, executive director of PDK International and co-director of PDK/Gallup Poll also stated, “Americans’ mistrust of standardized tests and their lack of confidence and understanding around new education standards is one the most surprising developments we’ve found in years” (“Public Skeptical of Standardized Testing.”). All in all, not only are these tests a concern for students, who are forced to sit through them, hoping to get a decent enough score to place into a class, receive their diploma, or even get accepted to the college of their dreams, but they are a concern for parents as well, who only want the best for their children and to see them succeed.

Parents and professors speculate why children no longer display excitement and ambition for learning. Most share the common goal of educating the youth to take on the “rights and responsibilities of citizens” (Ravitch 109). Unfortunately, educational requirements have strayed from the original purpose and began to aim their attention toward the “importance” of standardized testing. As a current high school senior, my experience has been that students are branded by their grades and test scores as if they determine who we are as a person. Diane Ravitch’s “The Essentials of A Good Education”, successfully critiques the extensive use of standardized testing in order to pursue change in our education systems and prove that focusing on test scores corrupts a child’s inner creativity.

The use of standardized examinations have long been debated in American society. In fact, the last several years have seen an immense shift from the prioritization of standardized testing to more holistic measurements of student achievement. Despite this shift, many school districts across the nation and college/university entrance requirements still place a significant, if not pivotal, emphasis on test-taking and standardized exam results. Throughout this paper, I will explore 1) the history of standardized testing, 2) arguments for and against its practice, as well as 3) situate the consequences of its use in one of the three philosophical goals of schooling. All of this will subsequently paint an investigation into the purpose of schooling in American society.

State-mandated standardized testing has lately become a monster to be feared by students from the beginning of their school career. According to well respected educational author Alfie Kohn, “[…] Most of today’s discourse about education has been reduced to a crude series of monosyllables: Test scores are too low. Make them go up” (Kohn 1). Why all the testing? Some is to meet the federal government requirements, some to meet state requirements, some for the district and some for the school, and still more tests are given simply to help students prepare for the ones already mentioned. So much testing has reduced time for instructors to actually teach. In addition, many of the tests neglect to cover all important material,

The author makes a very logical argument that by giving students inflated test scores, teachers are hurting students in the long run. Moore describes high school as a place where students

What once began as a simple test administered to students yearly to measure understanding of a particular subject has, as Kohn (2000) has stated, “Mutated, like a creature in one of those old horror movies, to the point that it now threatens to swallow our schools whole” (p.1). Today’s students are tested to an extent that is unparalleled in not only the history of our schools, but to the rest of the world as well. Step into any public school classroom across the United States and it will seem as if standardized testing has taken over the curriculum. Day after day teachers stress the importance of being prepared for the upcoming test. Schools spend millions of dollars purchasing the best test preparation materials, sometimes comes at the cost of other important material. Although test

In response, Lewis decided, “I’m not going to let the state slap them in the face and say they’re failures”(Aviv). Lewis decided to tamper with the test so the progress he made with his students would not undermined by the shutdown of the school as whole. Here, Lewis attempts to justify his tampering with test materials. He refuses to have his students be told they are failures, and thus breaks testing protocol in order to protect their self-esteem. His actions, though wildly unethically, bring to our attention to the grave and unethical extent in which our public education system uses test scores as a measure of success. Lewis’ radical actions serve as a response to an upsetting educational reality where test scores reign above all else. There are no exceptions made to address the cyclical patterns of poverty and oppression, which causes students to perform poorly in the first place. When the results of a multiple choice test are used as grounds of school closure, it is clear that, above all else--above unquantifiable talents in arts, and above the preservation of student validation--test-scores are what the public school system uses to brand a school as success or

Alfie Kohn states in the book “The more we learn about standardized testing, the more likely we are to be appalled. And the more appalled we are, the more inclined we will be to do what is necessary to protect our children.” Kohn discusses how fixated the education system is on grades and test scores, and that standardized testing should be eliminated from schools. He discusses the experiences he has had with standardized testing as a former teacher. Alfie Kohn continues by stating that many of the standardized tests used in school systems now were not meant to test teaching and learning, standardized testing is “damaging” to students who do not have equal opportunities as others, and there are a vast majority of other solutions to better

Notes on Theme Development: Standardized testing is always a hot topic, constantly debated by schools, students, parents, and basically the whole entire world. While this might sound like a typical biography of overdramatic teen angst and stress, I chose to focus on a theme that encompasses the injustices and flaws behind the ACT and the entire American educational and economic systems. Throughout my work, I explore that devastating cycle that plagues the less fortunate, as well as the obvious advantages gifted to the wealthy. Additionally, this brings me to one of my main focal points; ACT scores are negatively affected by socioeconomic status, which ultimately makes the rich richer and the poor are never able to break out of poverty. Also, throughout my piece, I thread in the idea that there is too much emphasis placed upon ACT scores, and how the test does not truly expose a student’s intelligence. Overall, as I delved deeper into this project, it became apparent to me that there are so many flaws with standardized testing, and the educational

Today, it can be observed that society has shifted education drastically from the time schools were constituted, to now. Throughout history, schools have gone from private, where only the elite can attend, to public schools where virtually anyone can attend. One of the factors that goes along with education is standardized testing. Frederick J. Kelly, father of the standardized test, once said, “These tests are too crude to be used, and should be abandoned.” Not only has this shift occurred within education itself, but it has occurred within the testing concepts found within standardized testing so much so that the founder of these tests has chosen to give up on it.

There are many different types of standardized tests used in schools around the country, but “high-stakes” achievement tests in US elementary and secondary schools have produced

Koretz take the readers on a journey in his book to talk about through the most fundamental issues that arise in educational testing and shows how they apply to some of the most controversial issues in education today, from high stakes testing to special education. He talks about everyday examples to show what tests do well, what their limits are and how easily tests and scores can be oversold or misunderstood, and how they put a lot of stress on school, teachers and students because that is what you would use to judge how