The Dangers Of Standardized Testing In Public Schools

Standardized tests can place a huge amount of stress on students and teachers. Some students do well with certain levels of stress, others not so much. A lot of students suffer from what is called test anxiety which hinders performance. Studies suggest that too much stress is psychologically and physically harmful. Stress is so overwhelming that the brain shifts into a “fight or flight” response. Which means that it is impossible to engage in a higher order thinking process that

One issue that is severely overlooked in today’s society is mental health. It is estimated that 20% of teens experience depression and 25% of teens deal with anxiety. These are staggering numbers and the sad thing is only 4% of our health care budget is spent on mental health. This all plays into standardized tests, believe it or not. Testing places copious amounts of stress on students, which can affect their mental health. The

Introduction: Standardized testing is used to hold schools accountable. The pressure to have students pass the STAAR test has negatively impacted education, because teachers to narrow curriculum in order to focus on material on the test. Standardized testing is causing the deterioration of a meaningful curriculum in the Texas Education System

It's 8 A.M. on a Saturday, and masses of students around the United States wake up and head to their testing sites in order to take the SAT. This is a common occurrence that happens multiple times a year, but it raises the question as to how seriously should society take these tests and other standardized testing, such as the Regents examinations in New York State. The answer to this is obvious, clearly these exams, and all standardized tests, must be taken seriously, due to the fact they provide vital information for colleges such as which students are the best, they provide ample data for high schools and state governments to prove that the academic standards are being upheld, and they also provide useful information to various institutions

Many schools statewide are facing the contradictory topic of the exemption of standardized testing amongst their students. This format of assessing with American Education began in the middle 1800’s and grew when the NO Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) mandated testing in the US in 2002. These actions taken were said to mainly have been put in place to keep teachers and schools accountable for the assurance of those paying taxes and what government money is being spent on. Despite these comments, the vast majority of people would say that the proficiency level aligned with the state’s reading and math, find it to be an impossible goal to aim for. And throughout the course of time, multiple days in the school year have been eradicated with test

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.

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 test are not even necessary because it barely shows what we already don’t know. It has proven to just be a waste of money and even teachers will tell students that there is no need for the testing” (Jouriles). Plenty of needs for the state can be taken care of if the state would let standardized test go and distribute the test money to other needs. The test are rigged anyway therefore, students cheat because the curriculum is too hard. “The performances from the assessments are not great and that is mainly because the tests are not taken seriously and the information is not relevant to what has been taught” (Jouriles). With that being said standardized testing is neither worth the budget nor importance of education.

For many years now, standardized tests are used in most schools and institutions. The assessments are a way to measure the student’s intellect and prepare students for the real world. The standardized tests are timed and each student is given the chance to answer the multiple choice questions, true or false, or fill in the blank to the best of their ability. The evaluation measures the beginner performance and prepare them for college. Most of these exams are important for graduate or undergraduate programs. Most of the schools around the world have standardized testing in their class to grade the student. Some schools do not use computerizing scoring because they want to remove any bias that is happening. The students strive their best to

Standardized tests can cause unnecessary stress on, already stressed, students. Reports show that stress levels increase during standardized testing. Three fourths of psychologist in New York claimed that statewide assessments create larger amounts of stress than school mandated assessments. In fact, students are more stressed than adults. On a ten point scale, students ranked a 5.8; adults ranked a 5.1. When students are put under stress, their academic performance suffers. Stress affects the quality and amount of sleep students obtain. 36% of teenagers report being fatigued due to stress. Lack of sleep can cause a student to be unable to focus during tests, which causes them to perform worse. Many students are not getting enough sleep. Test preparation activities, given as homework, reduce the amount of of sleep students obtain. Teenagers report sleeping about 7.4 hours a night on average, but doctors say they should be sleeping 8.1 to 9.25 hours. In 2015 a young students was so stressed during a

Standardized testing is a large part of the education system today. Most schools take at least one every year. The tests were put in place with good intentions, but overall failed as a way of raising standards. Standardized tests should be removed from our schools because they have a negative effect on most school environments, effects both students and teachers emotionally, has yet to be proven to increase overall educational performance, have been proven to be biased in multiple studies, limit the creative ability that is used in the classroom setting, is not an accurate measure of a student’s intellect, it takes up valuable class time and results in overall counterproductivity.

A standardized test is “any form of test that (1) requires all test takers to answer the same questions, or a selection of questions from common bank of questions, in the same way, and that (2) is scored in a “standard” or consistent manner, which makes it possible to compare the relative performance of individual students or groups of students (Standardized Test Definition).”

In Florida, there is a huge concern among teachers, parents, and students regarding the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT). They view the impact of standardized testing in fear as it harms the future of their students. Tracy A. Sumpter, who has six years of experience in youth service and public administration says that “For the most part I have seen more of a negative effect of standardized testing on youth’s emotional and social development. Children of testing age seem to suffer from stress in result of worrying about passing the test; and negative results more often than not yield low-self-esteem, higher incidents of seclusion and lower academic progress. Children who pass the test are just happy to be done with it and gain no

Intelligence is not standard anymore. In fact, few schools truly understand how to effectively teach a variety of students the curriculum for their future careers. Therefore, to encompass every student’s needs, schools are obligated to prepare students to be ready for college and their careers. To receive funding, the state requires standardized tests to be implemented in the schools. Naive policy makers believe it is essential to prepare for an exponential amount of time for these tests; however, unbeknownst to these policy makers that the outcome of the students through this rigid system is not actually preparing students for their future; consequently, it just forces students to barely survive school without getting much benefits out of

Teachers used to teach to students and for students, now they teach for test; today, “45 percent of National Education Association teacher members surveyed considered leaving the profession of teaching due to the adverse effects of standardized testing.” Testing has evolved over time from basic reading, writing, and arithmetic to curriculum based on standardized testing such as the ACT, SAT, and TCAP. Many years ago, students did not have to take as many tests, and there were not as many opportunities for different types of classes. Schools have evolved as standardized test evolved, and this has forced teachers to evolve as well. As time progressed, the frequency of these standardized test increased and the student scores were used more