School Standards and Testing Everyday, schools all over America are pushing students to the brink of insanity. They are giving many quizzes and tests, along with anxiety and sleep deprivation. Teachers have very high expectations, leaving students to worry about keeping their grades up. Meanwhile, students have to juggle with five to seven different classes, learning new material for each class, keeping up with sports and other after-school activities, studying each night for tests, etc. 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. 5). Standardized tests can also place a heavy weight of anxiety on students’ shoulders. This test-induced anxiety can be problematic, hindering the scores of tests. …show more content…
He’s not saying that one shouldn’t try to get a degree, but in a way it’s not that important to life, so don’t stress over it. Students learn new things in class that they most likely won’t remember after the big exam. Breaks states that there’s more to life than just being an educated woman or man. Life is more than waking up and testing. Life is meant to be lovely and enjoyable. There are many celebrities who have won Grammy Awards and Academy Awards but didn’t graduate high school. Breaks explains through statistics and vivid examples how he believes that school is not very
In Linda Lees "The case against college", she argues that going to college may not always be the right move for every high school gradatuate. She explains that, "only 27 percent of Americans have a bachelors degree or higher". This does leave a staggering amount of room for people that have had success without degrees, such as bill gates or the average hard worker entrepreneur. She uses a personal anecdote from her own experience of why college isn’t for everyone. Lee explains that her son got into a pretty good school, and enrolled because all his friends were going and it should be fun, but he wasn’t ready, he elected to miss classes and was there for all play and no work, while Lee was paying one thousand dollars a week for her son’s education.
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
As the writing advances, the argument shifts to people capable of hands on jobs out of high school considering whether going to college should really be advocated as much as it is today. Along with this, he says that eventually attending vocational schools will become scarce due technology and the fact that many things accomplished at these schools can be done online. He also claims that income statistics of high end jobs today are skewed considering the fact that when you look at average incomes of a profession, many of us will end up in the lower percentiles. For many people, he says, the best option is to pursue a service or hands on job that doesn’t require a four year education. He ends the essay by claiming that “College isn’t all it’s cracked up to be” as well as depreciating the value of the normal B.A. that little college pursuers end up achieving. Murray writes: “the misalignment is in the optimistic direction, as adolescents aspire to be attorneys or physicians without understanding the educational hurdles they must surmount to achieve their goals”.
In “Why I hate school, but love education”, Suli Breaks argues that school limits one’s creativity in thinking through the use of allusions, personal opinion, and acknowledging personal views to show that attending a prestigious school is not something that success relies on only. Allusions are often used by Breaks throughout his speech in order to prove to the audience that it is possible for one to succeed without a high education. Role models such as, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, are mentioned as people of high value by Breaks since they became one of the wealthiest people without graduating with a high education, but rather by developing their ideas through their own form of thinking. All the people listed in Suli’s speech were able
When people think of the education system, most can say that there are some problems, though they might not be able to pinpoint what needs to change first. If you ask most teachers, they will say that the first thing that needs to be changed in the schooling system to help the students more is the standardized testing. They will say that while it can be helpful it has a lot of faults and needs to be updated or changed to help its students. Standardized testing has often been a topic for discussion, between parents and people in the schooling system. It seems that a lot of people either hate standardized testing for not giving every child a chance to succeed, or love it for being a fair way to test whether a child knows what they need to know at their age. There have been many articles, books, and documentary’s debating on whether or not standardized testing is doing more harm then good. There was a comic made that shows the brutality and bluntness of what standardized testing is really like. Standardized Testing causes too much stress by putting unfair expectations on teens and doesn’t give every single student the chance to succeed.
According to education researcher Gregory J. Cizek, these tests are not helping the child. They’re hurting them. He knows that teacher need to show off what their students know, but he just doesn't understand why we have to do these tests. He can tell by his work that more than half of kids have an anxiety toward testing. The student may know a lot, but will freeze during the test. “Standardized testing can create a lot of stress for both educators and students. Excellent teachers quit the profession every day because of how much stress is on them. Students especially feel the pressure when there is something meaningful tied to them. In Oklahoma, high school students must pass four standardized tests in various areas, or they do not earn a diploma, even if their GPA was a 4.00. The stress this can cause on a teenager is not healthy in any way,” he states. His plan is to show people that this is a wrong thing to do and is unhealthy for both educators and the
The use of standardized examinations have long been debated in American society. In fact, the last several years have seen an immense shift from the prioritization of standardized testing to more holistic measurements of student achievement. Despite this shift, many school districts across the nation and college/university entrance requirements still place a significant, if not pivotal, emphasis on test-taking and standardized exam results. Throughout this paper, I will explore 1) the history of standardized testing, 2) arguments for and against its practice, as well as 3) situate the consequences of its use in one of the three philosophical goals of schooling. All of this will subsequently paint an investigation into the purpose of schooling in American society.
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
The current period of learning is being determined by standardized testing, and has become the main focus of many arguments within the education system. Students all over the United States are being subjected to standardized tests often throughout their years in school due to legislation that has been set by Government over the past several years. While there are many upsides to the reasons for these assessments, there are also negative effects of this. Students are expected to make a certain score on tests to get to where they want to go. It is an unfair advantage for people who can pay their way through their education. From Star
Standardized testing creates a lot of stress on students and educators alike. Because of how much stress is put on them to prepare students for these tests, many excellent teachers quit their jobs everyday. In fact, in April, new federal data stated that 17 percent of new public school teachers leave their profession after four years due to stress and other reasons. Some teachers fail to teach students skills that go beyond the tests because they’re so pressured to get their students ready for these exams. This amount of stress can lead to feelings of negativity towards school and learning in general as well as cause negative health issues. Standardized tests places a large amount of stress on both teachers and students.
What once began as a simple test administered to students yearly to measure understanding of a particular subject has, as Kohn (2000) has stated, “Mutated, like a creature in one of those old horror movies, to the point that it now threatens to swallow our schools whole” (p.1). Today’s students are tested to an extent that is unparalleled in not only the history of our schools, but to the rest of the world as well. Step into any public school classroom across the United States and it will seem as if standardized testing has taken over the curriculum. Day after day teachers stress the importance of being prepared for the upcoming test. Schools spend millions of dollars purchasing the best test preparation materials, sometimes comes at the cost of other important material. Although test
The author argues that if you have finished school you need to keep on learning because what you learned in school was getting good grades is the only way to be successful isn’t always true. “You can’t just focus on the grades; you have to find your potentials and your talent. That is how you build confidence and eventually lead a successful life”. He cites, “it is a fact that some people who failed at school didn’t fail in life”. His strongest supporting claim is people like Steve Jobs, and Oprah Winfrey they didn’t do well at school but they achieved financial wealth, influence and status. He states, “School systems fail students that schools and teachers force students to follow rules, and give them no room for originality and to think outside of the box. What you need for a good and successful life is not learned at school. Life is a really long lesson, so long that you can’t define a person’s success by just one section of it”. I have no issue with this
Standardized testing is not an effective way to test the skills and abilities of today’s students. Standardized tests do not reveal what a student actually understands and learns, but instead only prove how well a student can do on a generic test. Schools have an obligation to prepare students for life, and with the power standardized tests have today, students are being cheated out of a proper, valuable education and forced to prepare and improve their test skills. Too much time, energy, and pressure to succeed are being devoted to standardized tests. Standardized testing, as it is being used presently, is a flawed way of testing the skills of today’s students.
The debate on standardized tests and its adequacy in testing a student’s knowledge about a subject has been going on for many years. Tests, in general, has been around for centuries and without them there would not be progress and no gleams of progress. Students ranging from elementary school to high school have experienced standardized testing. Teachers, educators, and parents are also involved in the students’ lives, which revolves around the tests, one way or another. There are many views on standardized test. However, the three most common views are: educators who are for standardized test which benefits students, educators who are at the other extreme of opposing standardized tests, and educators who view tests are a benefit if done in appropriate amounts.
As he states in his lyrics “That major that she majored in don't make no money, but she won't drop out, her parents will look at her funny. (http://songmeanings.com/songs/view/ 3530822107858498808/, Non-lyrical content copyright 1999-2016 SongMeanings).” Some students would study anything just to get a college degree so they won’t let down their parents. It really just