The Debate Over High Stakes Testing Essay

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 The need for standardized testing has proven to be ineffective and outdated; some leading educationalist also believe this because the tests do not measure a student’s true potential.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.

In this paper I discuss the creation, distribution, and results of a psychological test. The test consisted of knowledge and self-report sections, which tested the construct of “The AZA and Zoos”. According to their website, The Association of Zoos and aquariums (AZA), is an independent, non-profit organization that grants an optional accreditation to zoos, aquariums, and wildlife sanctuaries. Institutions that meet their strict standards for animal welfare and care after a series of inspections and interviews are granted a five-year accreditation. In addition to their standards for animal care, they are also invested in conservation of species, and education of the general public (AZA, 2016). The knowledge portion evaluated general knowledge of the AZA policies and procedures, while the self-report evaluated overall opinion on Zoos. An example item for the knowledge portion was item three “An AZA accreditation is not necessary to operate a zoo “. An example item for the self-report portion was item 32 “I think zoos are a positive enrichment activity for children “. The intended survey population for this survey was the general population.

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.

The problem with STAAR testing is the enormous pressure it puts on Texas students and teachers. With STAAR testing, it affects everything with students from preceding to the next grade level, attending college and eventually their futures career choices. STAAR testing affects Texas teachers as well. For Texas teachers and STAAR testing, starting January 2016 a new elevation system will base 20% of students’ scores towards teachers’ livelihoods, reputations, pay, promotions and even determining if they get to keep their job for another year. TEA will then take these teacher elevations and determine if schools will receive funding for the coming school year. With one test putting so much pressure on students and teachers, we continue to see

Houston which is ranked number one largest school district has 203,354 students enrolled. (Michels .2013) Statistically, Houston should have a greater propensity percentage for low performing test scores but they are not. Here lies the question why are we out performed by other districts if not by number of students enrolled then what? The main problem exists in the first place because of the standardized tests. Because we are a large district there are problems with the funding and getting good teachers to teach at the schools in Dallas. If we are constantly changing the test format and we keep getting lower scores who would want to work for Dallas ISD. By changing the format of tests students take they have to reassess their objectives in each respective grade level. Teachers are often forced to teach for the tests rather than their subject. It used to be that we were only graded by our teachers and how they taught their classes. We only had to make sure that we knew the subject matter as taught by the teacher. Then standardized testing came into play which made it fair for all the students because teachers had a power over student’s grades. A system of checks and balances came into play and standardized testing became the norm. Then there were more and more changes in testing and still today teachers focus more on what the test will be about rather than subject

Another challenge is how often Texas changes its statewide testing regiments. So far it has changed four times over the past century, TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) was one of the regiments lasting from 1999 to 2011. The system currently in use and that will end by next year is the STARR exam (State of Texas Academic Readiness). The testing regiments change constantly because they do not accurately gauge a students performance. Also the fact that the main goal of the curriculum is religious and ideological control further hinders the academic performance of students. For example,

Texas contains a lot of issues when it comes to its education policies. The issue that has the most people thinking about and I feel more passionate about when it comes to education is the high-stakes testing in the Texas high schools, middle schools, and even elementary schools. This issue has brought plenty of attention from students and their parents. The testing situation in Texas has been addressed from time to time, but there hasn’t been a proper solution that keeps the student performance numbers from decreasing in numerous reports. The problem is that Texas education emphasizes the importance of standardized testing - such as the current State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness or STAAR - implemented to

Now a day’s Texas is growing profoundly, but as it cultivates so does its problems. One of the major issues facing Texas today is in the education department. The matter ranges from school funding to standardized testing. Not only are students themselves complaining about the matters at hand but also parents, some teachers, and even state legislature. There have always been five major issues in Texas education; school finance, school choice, expanding pre-kindergarten, school calendar, and testing. Of these issues you could never think of them separately because no matter how hard you try they will, in the end, affect one another.

In classrooms all across America, students sit perched over their desks in the process of taking standardized tests. As the students take the tests, teachers pace nervously up and down the rows of their classroom, hoping and praying that their students can recall the information which they have presented. Some children sit relaxed at their desks, calmly filling in the bubbles and answering essay questions. These children are well prepared and equipped to handle their tests. Other children, however, sit hunched over their desks, pondering over questions, trying to guess an answer. They struggle to recall information that has been covered many times in class, but they can’t.

The “Texas miracle” described how the increased accountability and testing had led to an increase in student’s performance. George W. Bush promoted the “Texas miracle”” on the campaign trail. According to GW Bush, the achievement gap was narrowed, tests scores and graduation rates increased all based on the Texas Reform. However, it was discovered that was not the case. During this time, I believe, many people were looking

The article, Four Effects of the High-Stakes Testing Movement on African American K-12 Students discusses four ways in which high-stakes testing has harmed African American students in particular and recommendations for improving their school experiences. Standardized tests have become the main criteria to which student’s knowledge, teacher efficacy, and school quality are assessed due to No Child Left Behind.

“Our educational goal [is] the production of caring, competent, loving, lovable people” . The students found in the schools across the United State are the future of America. They are the doctors, teachers, business people, lawyers and many other roles, that will be out in the workforce in the years to come. What they learn in school will impact them immensely; it is the responsibility of a teacher to give students the best education in order to ensure the common good of the future. It is essential for students to not only learn content matter, but also the skills to enable them to participate in a democracy. Due to standardized testing, the emphasis of education has become on score and rankings rather than learning. A standardized test does not look at the whole student, the scores provided are on a very narrow aspect of education. In the classroom, there are countless ways for teachers to assess the student as a whole person not as just a score. Standardized tests scores should not be the sole criteria for determining a student’s academic achievement.

Students may receive different levels of instruction based on the classroom or district, which may pose a threat to the reliability, validity, and fairness of the scores. The article mentioned that the scores may be improving because teachers are more accustomed to the state exams. Teachers may be adapting their classroom lessons and formative assessments as well as feeling more comfortable with the content (Balingit, 2016). This implies that teachers may be teaching more to the test and narrowing their curriculum, which would make the score interpretations not valid. The scores might not be reliable

Every spring for the past 4 years since 2012, every student attending 3rd grade through 8th grade and including high school students across The State of Texas, sit down and take the Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness or The STAAR Test. The STAAR test is what student’s in Texas are taught about from the very beginning of the school year and what teachers are required to teach. The STARR test includes 3rd grade through 8th- graders, taking reading and math, 4th and 7th graders taking writing, 5th through 8th graders taking the science portions, and with 8th-graders taking the social studies section. In high school, students are required to take the following portions of the STAAR test which includes English 1, English 2 which contains two tests of Writing and Reading, Algebra 1, Biology, and U.S. History. The STAAR tests for students in Texas determines each individual student’s assessment of where they are educated, towards the following subjects and what grade level they should be proceeded at. With state testing like the STAAR tests, there are more and more negatives and problems in the news, with the way our students are being taught in Texas, this state test not only follows them through their next grade levels but their academic careers, even following them into college and eventually their careers, with that and the amount of pressure being put on them from one test, the bar is being raised too high for our children in Texas, this not only affects our children

Usually, people think that these types of tests are a good way of comparing students across the whole country. However, what people ignore is the fact that these types of test are an inaccurate way of measuring the performance of a student. According to an article published by Education Week, non-instructional factors explain most of the variance among test scores when schools or districts are compared. According to the article a study in 1992 showed that the combination of variables such as number of parents living at home, parents' educational background, type of community, and poverty rate accounted for 89 percent of the differences in state scores. Also, this type of testing is an improper and imprecise form of judging a person’s