Thesis Statement On Standardised Testing

Anyone who has ever taken the ACT or the SAT knows how stressful and difficult the tests are. Students are forever judged because of the scores the receive by colleges and peers. The ACT/SAT are standardized tests that are meant to calculate what students have learned in previous years of high school. Colleges then use this score to determine whether a student will succeed in college. Specific problems with this process include the fact that high schoolers are extremely busy and may have other things on their minds, the tests require brutal test prep, the test can cause stress and anxiety, and the tests do not accurately gage a student’s college success. For these main reasons, students should not be required to take the ACT/SAT to get into college.

Standardized testing has been around since the early 1900’s. Today, it determines a high school student’s future. Every year juniors in high school start to prepare months in advance for the SAT’s and ACT’s. Along with the test itself, comes stress that is not necessary. The debate of standardized tests defining a student’s academic ability or not has become a recent popular controversial topic. Many colleges and universities are starting to have test optional applications because they are realizing that a single test score does not demonstrate the knowledge of a student. There is more value in a student that should rule an acceptance or rejection. In the article, “SAT Scores Help Colleges Make Better Decisions” Capterton states, “The SAT has proven to be valid, fair, and a reliable data tool for college admission” (Capterton). Capterton, president of the College Board, believes that the SAT’s and ACT’s should be used to determine a student’s acceptance because it is an accurate measure. What Capterton and deans of admissions of colleges and universities don’t know is the abundant amount of resources upper class families have for preparation, the creative talents a student has outside of taking tests, and the amount of stress they put on a 17 year old.

I agree with the idea to lessen the importance of any type of standardized test. Just as Stu Schmill, dean of admissions at MIT, stated, “’I do believe that most

Thesis: The effects of standardized testing have negatively impacted students across the United States. High Stakes testing has led to a decrease in student motivation, high retention rate, and a notable change in early dropout rates.

Colleges have a plethora of ways to judge if a student is going to be successful in their establishment. Bryant University, Holy Cross, and the University of Texas at Austin represent a minute group of schools that have an optional SAT admission, with a thriving student population (Turner 1). These colleges focus on the application,

Standardized testing has been ruling over the lives of students, making or breaking them in their education without fair judgement. Tests like the SAT and the ACT count for way too much when applying to colleges, which in turn limits the student 's capabilities to thrive in an environment that would benefit them. There are many problems within a standardized test that deems them to be unreliable as a true test of knowledge. Although designed to test groups of students on intelligence, standardized testing neglects to fairly acknowledge the abilities of each unique student which reflect their true capabilities.

Students are overwhelmed with school, work, extra-curricular activities, family, etc. Perhaps standardized tests are a major contributor to students’ stress. A standardized test is any test scored in a consistent manner and requires test-takers to answer identical questions. Among the most common include the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the American College Test (ACT). According to the article “Standardized Testing Has Negatively Impacted Public Schools” from Opposing Viewpoints in Context, the beginnings of standardized tests occurred during World War I when the American Psychological Association developed a “ground-administered test” to eliminate inefficient recruits (Solley 3). Today, standardized tests are necessary for college admission. Just last month, in March of 2016, College Board, the non-profit organization responsible for administering the SAT, altered the format of the test. It is now formatted more similar to the ACT and includes an optional essay reducing the score from 2400 to 1600. Many advocates argue standardized tests accurately measure academic intelligence and hold teachers and schools accountable. In today’s society, standardized tests have become the norm, and unfortunately, people overlook their negative effects despite research substantiating arguments about their disadvantages. Standardized tests are disadvantageous because they hinder education and contain bias.

One thing strikes fear into the hearts of most high school students across the United States: the ACT and SAT. Before a high school student can be accepted into most colleges or universities they must first take a test. Whether it is the ACT or SAT, students are forced to sit in a silent room for hours on end while answering hundreds of question about information they are supposed to know. The truth is that our students are suffering from such gruesome tests knowing that it could potential hurt their plans for the future. One teacher compares testing to “checking to make sure a plant is growing properly by repeatedly ripping it out of the ground and examining the roots. When the plant is placed back into the soil, it does not remain the

For many years, standardized tests have been a pillar of college admissions. Students are persuaded to take the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) or the American College Test (ACT) because colleges believe the scores can predict an applicant’s academic success after high school. However, an increasing number of colleges have made reporting test scores optional due to inconsistencies with the tests, many of which have been emphasized by students. These inconsistencies and other problems with test distribution have led to increasing demands for standardized testing to be reformed or become optional in the admissions process. Standardized testing should be eliminated as a criterion for college applicants because the tests have made education less significant, have made scores vary among students with similar academic abilities, and have not contributed a noticeable improvement to children’s intelligence.

A college as early as 2008 began to follow their results as to eliminating SAT scores. Their director of admissions, Ann B. McDermott, speaks out about the positive changes its testing optional policy has created. “...After three years of an SAT-optional policy, Holy Cross has become more geographically and ethnically diverse as well as more selective in admissions… Students are the beneficiaries of this change in policy because they are rewarded for good choices and habits throughout their high school career, and not judged on the basis of a single test” (2012). Without SAT score requirements, Holy Cross has seen many more applicants who might have shied away from applying because their scores did not fit the average, and more diversity is prevalent as well (McDermott). With such positive outcomes from just one college, one can only imagine if all colleges made SAT scores optional in

While all four-year colleges and universities that have testing requirements accept either the SAT or ACT; hundreds of colleges and universities have no requirements regarding standardized testing for admission.

In the United States, two popular tests are the SAT and the ACT. These tests are as crucial as they can determine what college a student can attend. The reason for this is the SAT and the ACT provide colleges with an unbiased look at what type of student they are looking at. The SAT is curved, so that a 1500 is consistent across every test so there is no worry of grade inflation or deflation due to deviations among tests and their level of difficulty. For this reason standardized tests allows universities across the world to easily compare the applications they receive. This is needed as some colleges receive upwards of fifty thousand applications per year.

It demonstrates why the SAT does more harm than good in admitting students to universities and colleges. Although racial inequality and high school GPA versus SAT scores can account for some variation in why we should eliminate the SAT, I found that the test-optional approach offers a better understanding in the choices behind my reasoning. Scholars argued that the test-optional approach gives the less privileged students a better chance; as shown at Bates and UC. It allows for a more diverse student body because the requirement is not strictly based on test scores but on other factors, and it allows for a broader pool of applicants hailing from different socioeconomic backgrounds and ethnicities. It also gives students who do well on testing, the opportunity to submit their scores if needed. Thus, the test-optional approach does not restrict either party, but rather accommodates both types of students without affecting their

Their dean of admissions had said “We struggled in the admissions committee for years.” The committee had asked themselves what the difference between a 1250 and 1350 score on the SAT was. They came to the conclusion that the SAT measured family income, not ability. “Wake Forest points to Natalie Casimir, now a sophomore, as the kind of student test-optional attracts.” She is a Haitian-American who's parents didn't graduate college. She describes her 1580 score on the SAT as embarrassing after she had graduated high school with a 4.0 grade-point average. Her dream school was Cornell and she was not able to attend there with a low SAT score. She also did not get into Davidson college, both of which schools required test scores. “Wake Forest gave her a full ride without seeing her score. Her current G.P.A. is

Students in lower income families or from lower income towns have access to lower quality technology. It is reasonable as well to believe that students in situations such as these may also have access to a lesser quality of formal education. John Fraire, vice president/or student affairs and enrollment at Washington State University, states his point of view of the SAT and how they negatively affect the potential of future college students. “The College Board and Coleman do not seem to understand that the SATs have become a tool for exclusion and unfairness. College rankings and other prestigious designations rely heavily on the test'sprofile of an entering class despite the fact that scores have little validity for a large portion of this country's changing student population.”(A44) The truth that the SAT hasn’t changed enough to meet the diverse range of the new college applicants can be distressing. It can discourage students from not only applying to certain schools, but scholarships that could potentially help them reach their secondary school goals. Changes in the growing student population applying to secondary school are rapidly accruing, the SAT will soon decrease in its ability to represent the mass majority of college