Kara McCollister
Ms.Murphy
November 17, 2017
Advanced LA 10
Against Standardized Testing The implementation of standardized testing has students dreading coming to school even more than they already do. They've inflicted this overwhelming stress on students since the 1930’s, and people are still working on ditching them as a whole. Not only do standardized tests create stress, they are inaccurate and give false information on levels of academic achievement. An abundant amount of students do not take these tests seriously because the results of the test do not impact their grades. Standardized tests are unnecessary and should not be used in schools because they inflict stress on students, takes away opportunities from them and are not a credible source of academic growth. The main reason most students do not want to take standardized tests, and why they should not be existent, is because of all the stress prior to taking the test and while taking the test. Standardized tests dictate whether you are going to go to college and are going to live a successful life, so the stress put on students to ace these tests is immense. Being nervous about this does not help you perform as well as they could have on these tests either, and often leaves students about to cry or even vomit. Some students might be so worried about the outcome of these test scores that they will do anything to ace them. This may include cheating or even more extreme things like taking
Parents oppose the standardized tests because they can cause stress and anxiety to their children. Students disagree with many tests because it can cost them admission to a university, or passing to the next grade. Teachers oppose the tests because it takes too much time. They have to teach their students what is going to be on the test. Also, the schools and teachers lose funding depending on the results.
“When we began the map test I knew my students were gonna dread it, I myself dread it, and I am not even taking it. So I decided how about a reward for these kids, if you got above your past score you got 7 extra credit points for the test, which made a lot kids eager to get a good score. They went to sleep early, read before bed, and got a good meal beforehand, everything the test recommends the students to do before taking it. These kids fully ready to take it, mindset clear. When they got their scores back most were shocked because the did not score the same or higher, they got a lower score. All across the room I saw devastated faces because they wouldn’t receive their 7 extra points, and all their hard work was a complete waste. I decided to start an investigation so I called the test company and explained the situation and the only thing they told me was ‘well maybe they lied to you.’ this could not be true, 90% of these kids were A average students in an honors class.
It is true that standardized tests are being used to evaluate whether our schools are doing their jobs. Our schools prepare our students for life in the workforce and college. If we do take away standardized testing, it will seem as though we have no way to evaluate our schools by, but the fact is we already have a way. What is it that students are typically evaluated by? Their volunteer work? Their extracurricular activities? Their clubs? Students are typically evaluated by their grade point average. Scholarships, school rank, and colleges take GPA into account. Everything that is important to a high school student, scholarships, school rank, and college, is in some way determined by their GPA. Some corporations use GPA as a cut-off point
Should high-stake tests determine if students can move on a grade? Standardized test should not be used to determine student promotion. These test held back one-third of all fourth graders in Louisiana. The test doesn’t tell you w the student is learning or not. These standardized test across the country tell whether a student is able to obtain their high school diploma or their eighth-grade diploma.
me people considers that Standardized Testing can’t sufficiently assess students’ potential. They describe that the tests restrict creativity, fail to give every student a fair chance, and are not able to comprehensively analyze a student’s future. Nevertheless, as a student of my generation, I can look around the circumstances and my fellow contemporaries, and find that Standardized Testing is the best way for now to assess a student’s potential. This point of view will be supported by the following paragraphs.
Albert Einstein once 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’s stupid.” Recently, there has been discussion about whether the method of standardized testing is best for our education system. There are a lot of flaws that come with the system of testing. Opposers argue that with all of the flaws, the testing significantly holds American citizens back from greater potential to success. Standardized testing weakens America’s education system, because it can cause teachers to “teach to the test”, does not truly measure intelligence or abilities, and cannot always reflect what a student has learned.
Through the creation of the No Child Left Behind initiative in 2001, the government started requiring every state to set content standards for each grade level, as well as develop ways to assess student progress with meeting specified standards (Guide,22). The amount of standardized tests in schools have increased, but not everyone shares the belief that they are effective to students’ overall learning. Therefore, the purpose of this research, is to answer some of the toughest questions regarding standardized testing which include, is standardized testing an effective measurement of student ability? As well as, is standardized testing beneficial to students?
We hate standardized tests. We hate how boring they are. We hate how much pressure that comes with them. And most of all, we hate how they only measure how well we can take a test.
Standardized tests have caused disagreements all across the U.S. According to http://standardizedtests.procon.org/, though they don’t improve most student achievements, it does improve positive effects in 93% of students. Hundreds of thousands of teachers and parents around the U.S are very against Standardized Tests. The teachers opt against the tests for the simple fact of they are evaluated from the results of their students. Parents opt because the tests end up stressing out there children. Standardized testing teaches students to take tests. The average student takes about 113 tests from kindergarten to 12th grade.
Don’t we all enjoy waking up before sunrise going to school sitting in the same uncomfortable spot for nearly three or more hours in a stuffy room with no air condition; just to take a test that will simply tell us if we will fail or succeed. Former President of the American Educational Research Association defines standardized test as being, “any test that’s administered, scored, and interpreted in a standards predetermined manner (ProCon, 6). It is often administered in multiple choice format. The earliest known history of standardized testing was administered during the 7th century in Imperial China. It was given to people applying for government jobs (ProCon, 6). Since the mid-1800’s it has been a major part if American education history
Education is an integral part of any society, and assessing the needs and improvement of students is an important part of any education, however, is constant testing the right way to do it? In this essay I will be exploring the world of testing, specifically the famous standardized test, the good and the bad, the uses and the alternatives. Did we as a society stumble upon the best, most effective way to assess the ability and improvement of our children? Could we implement a better way to help all children reach their full potential? Standardized tests equalize things for students, when not all students learn in the same ways. Does it accomplish more than ranking our nation's children?
Students stress about this test greatly since they do affect their educational future. Students get test anxiety being rushed through questions they may have learned years ago. Students know his whole test determines their future and cannot choke during it, but most of the time that is the result. The timing puts a toll on students. Students performing a math equation on a demanding task can be a hard on the memory of the brain. Standardized testing test us over many years of individuals education rather than task needed for after your educational career. Standardized testing is putting students at a high level of expectations while education is not focussing on important tasks, like laundry, cooking, and
Schools and the state should not make students take standardized tests. First of all, for most of the test, the students have not learned the material. Also, it only examines how someone does that one day and not of the whole year. Lastly, some of these tests rate the school and teacher’s performance, and not actually seeing what the students are learning in class.
After viewing “15 Reasons Why Standardized Tests Are Worthless”, readers can conclude a number of things. Some students are natural test takers, but unfortunately, a number of students are not. Most standardized tests are multiple-choice, meaning any good guesser can past a test; even tests with short answer or constructed response are easy to get by if the student can master a strategy or template to answer those question. Standardized tests do not value the diversity and creativity of students. These tests expect all students to make the same cookie-cutter answer, but students will think of their own answer and their own reasoning. Their answer may not have been wrong; it was just different from the very basic answer key. Perhaps the biggest and most negative impact is that because of these tests, kids spend less time actually learning. Tests, do not only weigh a lot in the grade book, it weighs a lot on a student’s confidence and their promotion. Instead doing the real work and trying their best, some kids end up cheating (teachers do it too because their job is at stake) because as long as they get away it, they have made themselves a hundred. Standardized testing has taken over schooling. Instead of school being about discovering new things and helping shape the youth into functioning adults, it is completely based around a test developed by, not
Stressful standardized testing turns many classrooms into training centers instead of offering an engaging, well-rounded, preparatory environment. Long lectures and teachers preaching causes students to grow bored and dose off ultimately dropping test scores. Students feel like they are nothing more than their test scores, and feel a sense of not knowing who they are. These standardized tests also lead to anxiety and depression in students, and can lead to students feeling like dropping out is the only option. No, standardized testing should not be eliminated completely, but rather be evaluated by universities as well as things such as volunteer hours, extracurricular activities, and grades. “The Essential of a Good Education,” written by Diane Ravitch, states this very clearly. In this aricle: she critizues the education system in America today.