The idealized picture of a child or teenager’s school life is one of learning and social activities. The years of school, Kindergarten through twelfth grade are characterized by growth in knowledge and interests. Many students discover subjects that fire the imagination, perhaps the beauty of the written word, maybe the intricate patterns of mathematics, or the stories of history and science. As romanticized as this picture is, it is increasingly more mythical in the landscape of the Untitled States Education System.
The trend of high stakes standardized testing has narrowed the focus of the curriculum, makes the classroom a high pressure environment more conducive to anxiety for both students and teachers, rather than learning. My hope is that through Marylhurst Master’s of Education program I can join with other educators to make the classroom a place where a test score is less important than the education of the whole child.
In recent years, the test scores of school age kids in this country have fallen. The response to this problem has been, extreme. A test is something that measures how much of the subject the student understands. Individual scores gives the teacher a general idea of what a student is grasping and what they might need help with. Classroom averages may give the teacher an idea of how to adjust their teaching technique. The scores are representative of the student’s progress, they are not the end goal of learning. Yet high stakes testing makes a test
With the added pressure to do well in school, standardized testing becomes a means to added stress, anxiety and further complicates the pressure to succeed in a student’s life. Rather than a focus on learning and understanding, school has become a massive rope skill memorization test designed to have students memorize subjects to pass the test, and forget the material the next minute for the next test. When asked to speak about standardized testing, education chairman, Larry Taylor, said “It’s heart-wrenching, and it’s also insanity when you see the level of achievement these kids are already doing and yet they can’t even pass this test.” (Smith). The utilization of standardized testing further exemplifies and validates the idea that no matter how hard or long you work in school, your work will never be worth the few answers you write for the
To many students standardized testing has become another part of schooling that is dreaded. Standardized testing has been a part of school since the nineteen-thirties; in those days it was used as a way to measure students that had special needs. Since the time that standardized test have been in American schools there has been many programs that have placed an importance on the idea of standardized testing such as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Evans 1). Over the years the importance of standardized testing has increased tremendously and so has the stakes, not only for teachers but also students. All states in the United States of America have state test in order to measure how much students learn, and help tell how well the
Standardized tests are exams that are supposed to measure a child’s academic knowledge but have long been a controversial subject of discussion. Although it is one method to see how a child is performing, is it the best method? Standardized testing can be biased or unfair, inhibit both the teacher’s and the children’s creativity and flexibility, affect funding for schools, cause untested subjects to be eliminated from the curriculum, and cause anxiety for children and teachers.
Standardized tests inhibit the ability for students to perform well on stress inducing tests; thus, students question their abilities to succeed, and they lack engagement in their educational learning. Standardized tests produce the feeling of anxiety as heart beats accelerate, bodies’ tremble, faces flush, sweat pores open, hands grip tighter, and muscles tense. As the test dates come closer, students are
Many people in the United States are concerned with the role that standardized testing has on education. Most of them have very strong views on this subject and as it usually happens with large-scale issues these views are very diverse and often opposite. Some claim that standardized testing is the best way to determine student’s skills and qualities because they are equally designed for everyone and not biased. Others, on the other hand, argue the fairness of these tests. They believe that test scores do not represent student’s knowledge. What is certain, in my opinion, is that this subject needs more attention followed by actions that will actually make difference in the education system.
The argument Jessica Lahey produced were words directly from any readers mind while deciding how one would and should prove to any audience that tests are needed in all Colorado School Districts. The removal of tests from any school district is truly devastating to Colorado’s schooling system. The knowledge of summative testing and formative testing will be presented to the audience for a better understanding. Tests are the main reason why we can see student’s true competency levels in certain subject areas. Jessica’s argument was very logical in the eyes of someone who wants growth within our multiple school districts and our world. I will produce an analysis of her critically convincing argument as to why our students need to be tested to show our rankings, and too improve the overall schooling of America’s children. In ‘Students Should Be Tested More, Not Less’ Jessica Lahey provides an extremely convincing argument that supports the increase of testing within all school districts. In this argumentative analysis of Jessica Lahey’s argument I will bring forth key points from her piece that support our extreme need for testing, I will also show readers how we are totally failing our students and their brains true potential.
School testing is a very controversial topic. Many people believe that SOL testing is useless and unnecessary, while others believe it is very helpful. In “Problems With Standardized Testing” by Jasmine Evans, she states the issues and irregularities that come with testing. She explains how the stakes are too high, pressuring students harshly: “That pressure to succeed creates a poor environment for learning” (Evans par.
Tests, especially some standardized tests, not only make some students suffer from Neuro-psychentonia but also make teachers unable to handle the newly added knowledge in the tests that they even have not learned yet. Hence, truly effective standardized exams should test students’ understanding of the knowledge as well as their critical thinking instead of making standardized tests unreasonably tougher. And in order to buttress this perspective, the editor and publisher of The Nation Magazine: Katrina vanden Hevuel utilized many rhetorical appeals’ strategies to write her article “Stakes on standardized testing are too high,” which was published by The Washington Post. In the article, Hevuel displayed the uselessness and adverse aspects of improper standardized tests and emphasized her opinion that suitable and proper tests should truly focus on what students learned and how their teachers have been taught. Hevuel hopes her article can attract the attention of readers such as students, parents, and particularly educators and get their approval. Moreover, Hevuel
Standardized testing does not truly evaluate a student’s knowledge. “High schools are turning into ‘giant test-prep centers’, effectively closing off intellectual inquiry and undermining enthusiasm of learning (and teaching)” (Wallace 4). Students are now being taught in such a fashion that all
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
When high stakes tests are used as a large part of a teacher’s performance evaluation it fails to show the bigger picture. Students come from diverse learning backgrounds and testing does not show the growth that the teacher helped the students to accomplish. High stakes testing forces teachers to focus only on subjects tested and spend many, many hours on teaching test-taking strategies. By narrowing the curriculum, testing does not allow students to focus on a deep understanding of material or develop critical thinking skills. There has also been a “trickle down” of curriculum into the lower grade levels to help prepare them for standardized testing.
Tests have become the most important indication of a teacher’s success and school’s performance. As a result, teachers may feel the need to ensure that the scores stay high and continue to rise. Teachers tend to cover only what is expected to be on the
In public schools today standardized testing is what the teachers are most concerned with. In the educational system so much stock is placed in passing the required test to graduate and to move on that many educators feel as though they are no longer able to do their job. When faced with the pressure of the testing many students become anxious and worry so much about passing the test that in all reality they make their performance suffer. In high stakes testing about nine percent of students showed signs of high anxiety, this is about the same as the amount during low stakes in class testing. The big difference in high and low stakes testing is that 59 percent of students were
Nowadays, students across America are subjected to take tests that determine whether they are liable of going to the next level. Standardized tests have become the agenda by which students’ achievements are measured. They have become the only way teachers and schools measure the achievement process of students. Because they have become the only way to rationalize students’ learning progress, teachers have begun teaching to the test (Longo 56). Standardized tests only measure students’ learning progress; it does not improve it.
“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.