The Importance Of Standardized Testing

Additionally, standardized tests have the ability to make or break a student. Today, children are being failed, denied access to an advanced program or school, or even refused a high school diploma on the basis of a single standardized test (Sacks 3). Moreover, these tests can determine whether students will spend their summer vacation on the beach or sweating out summer school. Since standardized tests have a great deal of power, students are forced to prepare for them rather than learn valuable knowledge, simply for the sake that they can graduate or enter into the program or school of their choice.

Each year high school students from around the country take the SAT or ACT. The ACT and SAT are both standardized test used by colleges to determine the knowledge of a student and predict what their performance will be in their first year of college. An immense amount of pressure is put on student to receive certain scores in order to obtain scholarships and admission into college. Even just one point on a student’s score can determine if they will be accepted into their dream college. However, the results from standardized tests, such as the ACT and SAT, are often inaccurate. Because of this one’s knowledge and academic ability are misrepresented, and they are denied certain opportunities. Standardized tests such as the ACT and the SAT

Standardized tests are an unreliable measure of student performance. This is because students go by a certain curriculum in school, but the wording on the tests

Kevin Kumashiro points out in his article for The Progressive that “ The 2015 ‘Nation’s Report Card’ shows a declines in students test scores in reading and mathematics” since 1990. Over the years, school mostly focus on getting the right answer on high-stake tests. Herbert J. Walberg, wrote in his article standardized testing is the best to measure students “educational goals” (Walberg, 1) Apparently, getting the right answer on a test makes a student ready for the real world. “The scores don’t provide very much useful information for evaluation a student's achievement” (Harris, 1) Most individuals disagree with the states passing new laws since NCLB to make the opposing side happy. No matter how much the government tries to add laws to fix about measuring students ability it will backfire. Phillip Harris argues standardized test does a “poor job” with measuring students achievement. How the high-stake test fail in measuring “important attributes as creativity and critical thinking.” (Harris,1) Studies show standardized tests “reward superficial thinking.” (Harris,1) and discourage analytical thinking. Richard Rothstein, an educational economist stated ‘Measurement of students achievement is complex-too complex for social science presently available.’ (Harris, 1) These methods include standardized testing. Rothstein statement was made in 1998. More than a decade

Views on rather or not Standardized testing effectively translates to student achievement and ability vary greatly. According to an analysis of social economic status, SAT Scores, and grades, the evidence found a correlation between standardized testing and grades. (SD.12). The data exhibited that, as socioeconomic status increased, so did the probability of having

Standardized testing has for so long been the determinant of success and progress in many school systems around the world. Students get exposure to standardized tests at one point or the other, and the result from these tests are used to determine if a student can advance to a higher level or not (Moore, 2014). The school system in the United States has in place standardized tests for students who wish to join college and this need to be taken and passed for one to be sure of a college education. Even at lower levels of learning standardized tests remain to be the primary determinants of one’s performances, and in many instances, failure of standardized tests may be the reason why one is retained in the same class for a second consecutive

Standardized testing alone is not an accurate gauge of a students overall knowledge. We start indoctrinating our children in the first grade with standardized testing to prepare them for the next 11 years of testing. These tests put a lot of undo stress on students to preform well on standardized tests throughout the year. While some students are excellent test takers others become over whelmed with the process and fail to rise to their true academic level. “On Mar. 14,

The clock ticks on, and the school day drags slowly. As the pencil hovers over the four answers, the student sighs heavily in distress. This is how many students feel while taking standardized tests. Standardized exams have been a major part of the American education since the mid-1800s. The use of the tests shot up after President George W. Bush signed a bill known as the “No Child Left Behind Act” on January 8, 2002. The act required all fifty states to have their students take the tests. Although, the purpose of the exams was to measure a student’s and their school’s academic improvement, but this idea is incredibly flawed. Many times the tests graded unwell and many people believe that the exams are a waste, which is just a few of the many reasons that students opt out each year. However, eliminating standardized tests from a student’s educational school year is necessary because the tests cause great stress, they are unfair and the tests

tests were primarily employed as measures of student achievement that could be reported to parents, and as a means of noting state and district trends (Moon 2) . Teachers paid little attention to these tests, which in turn had little impact on curriculum. However, in the continuing quest for better schools and high achieving students, testing has become a central focus of policy and practice. Standardized tests are tests that attempt to present unbiased material under the same,

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 high stakes testing could be dangerous due to multiple corruptions within the education administrations in the school systems (Nichols and Berliner, 2007, pg.6). First, standardized high-stakes testing shows a correlation between increased drop-out rates (Amrein and Berliner, 2002, pg.2). Another warning about the dangerous side effects of standardized high-stakes testing surfaced when a plan a pay teachers on the basis of their students' scores was offered, making student test scores very high-stakes testing. (Roderick and Bryk, 2007, pg.11). Lastly, standardized high-stakes testing encourages teachers to watch the examiners foibles and to note his idiosyncrasies to prepare for questions that were more likely to appear on the testing which can lead to failure within the classroom (Wall, 2000,

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.

“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.

Schools should put more emphasis on the growth and development of a student, instead of ranking and determining their worth based on test scores and grades. Standardized exams are an unreliable way to grade students and prepare them for college. In addition, they do not teach or advocate life skills that students need when they are developing and later on in life. As Albert Einstein has said, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Einstein’s quote perfectly describes today’s education system. Not everyone processes information the same way or has the same talents; therefore, one test cannot measure a student’s abilities, talents, and

A significant portion of No Child Left Behind demands that students must participate in yearly standardized testing that adheres to state standards (Education Week). Advocates of No Child Left Behind believe that standardized testing provides a reliable way of measuring students’ achievement, but it does not for multiple reasons. The first is that standardized testing places too much emphasis on success than actually learning and mastering the material. “Teaching to the test” has, for the most part, replaced teaching to ensure learning and mastery: American students are receiving only the basics of education and cannot compete with the top-performing nations of the world (Education Next). A study from the American Federation of Teachers states