Why Sols Should Be Banned

Test anxiety is a real and measureable problem student’s face regardless of their grade or level of academic achievement. Test anxiety can also adversely affect how students participate in and view the learning process long term. This study was designed to examine the effects of test anxiety on high school students specifically, and how the stress associated with the processes or outcomes of standardized testing can negatively impact their performance. There is also a theory that contributing factors of test anxiety can also impact social anxiety. The purpose of this study is to determine if students with determined higher levels of test anxiety perform lower overall on standardized

On the other hand, OCadiz (2013) argues that standardize testing negative effect on instructional decision making in the classroom. He suggests that “the content of standardized test is not usually in tandem with typical classroom instruction and behavior because it must be generalized” (OCadiz, 2013, para. 7). Teachers have been known to modify their teaching practices and their classroom instruction to prepare students adequately for tests. Standardize assessments are known to reduce group activities among students. The disadvantage of standardize testing is that some students simply do not perform well on tests because of test anxiety. Test anxiety hinders student’s performance and has a negative impact on children’s social, emotional, and academic well-being students are intelligent and understand the curriculum, but it does not show

These tests tend to cause the student’s too much stress and puts pressure on them to obtain a certain score on these test that are required on a yearly basis. Teachers also set aside too much time to teach strategies for taking the test and lecturing on how to eliminate some choices. According to Kathy Frandle this is “A huge waste of instruction time” (Fridy). Furthermore, the unneeded stress generally leads to a state of anxiety and it is “setting too many of them up for devastating failure and, consequently, lowered self esteem (Perrone).

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

A challenge students face is the SOL test because the test can be tricky, they might not have time to study, and they might have after school activities to do. The SOL test is a very tricky test, it has everything you learned that whole year. Some kids might not be able to study because they have chores to do, some chores can take all night. Kids also play after school activities such as sports and clubs like drama. Not all kids can study for the SOL.

During the time of instruction students are drilled with testing and learning strategies, along with numerous mock test throughout the year. There is a emphasis placed on the importance of high test scores, not because high scores help the student personally or academically, but because the scores help the school, school district and state. Through current research taken in south Texas elementary school, to include twelve districts," Teachers stated that they experienced a great deal of pressure, especially from the emphasis on outcomes of state-level tests, campus principals, central office, and other teachers." (Cruz and Brown) This places a tremendous amount of stress on the student, as if just the stress of taking a test isn't enough, but now their scores not only effect them, but their teachers, school, school district and even the state of Texas. Should our students at any have this amount of stress placed on them, or even more so, our third graders? How does placing this much stress on these students, teachers and administration surrounding the STARR test benefit them, their scores, or their education? Some individuals my argue that repetition and stress is the key to success, and that by drilling the students they are more apt to retain the information taught to them.

As I stated before, those are only a few pros and cons. Now, to the main question at hand, are the SOL's helping us? In my opinion, no. The SOL's are a useless test that causes useless stress on countless students and teachers. It tests you on how to test. It isn't helpful beside it being better than written tests. In my opinion we should completely get rid of the SOL's and let other items rank the school, like graduation rates, or after school activity options. The only reason SOL's are good is because they get faster return of student scores than paper pencil tests.

One of the issues is SOLs putting too much stress on children, the answer is yes. SOLs have increasingly gotten harder every year, and children have the pressure of just passing it or failing it and risk not progressing to the next grade. For example in Florida, there were some parents discussing issues with the board about their children used to like school, but due to the testing they don’t want to go to school. One parent broke down in tears about the stress and is thinking about taking their child out of public school to homeschool her/him because of SOLs. Consequently, there have been countless stories of children taking Xanax to cope or even having to go to the emergency room due to stress related incidents. Let’s examine the list of students who

Students who feel that they will not do well on the test lose interest in school and begin to become frustrated ,students can experience anxiety and children with learning disabilities are treated

The STAAR test creators can find a way to help them or change the test in a way that will make it less stressful. Remember we could just take shorter challenging tests and then the students won’t have to worry about failing and won’t suffer anymore.

Many other factors are taking place during the test, many students suffer from a high amount of anxiety on the test day. Which prevents them from using primary thinking skills.

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently,” Henry Ford stated. Students need to learn to fail in life to eventually succeed. Standards Based Grading (SBG) was created by Thomas R. Guskey. The point of SBG is to focus on the most recent work the student displayed. Frankly, that concept is unrealistic. The reality is traditional grading provides a more effective means of showing student progress and engagement. Not only is traditional grading understood universally, but the system motivates students to try their best on every assignment. Standards Based Grading may make the learning environment more relaxed for students, but is that always positive? To put it differently, civilians who have the perception that SBG is better are not understanding the reality that traditional grading is a more superior method.

Anxiety is a very common disorder when it comes to students in school. There are various types of anxiety, one common example is test taking anxiety. Test taking anxiety is a nervous feeling that students have while taking a test, and sometimes before or after taking the exam. This makes it impossible for students to do their best and to show their knowledge. When students are under stress it causes them to have physical symptoms, such as sweating or rapid breathing. Students who aren't prepared for tests, but care about doing well are also likely to have test anxiety before taking any type of test. Supporters argue standardized tests effectively measure student achievement, and opponents argue that tests are good for measuring students’ performances.

In addition, these tests rates a student’s performance on simply one certain day and does not take into account outside factors. There are many kids who just don’t do good on tests. Many of these students understand the content and are intelligent, but it doesn’t appear on the test. Some students also develop test anxiety, which affects how well they

Students are stressed. But, what is the goal of these tests? Are we trying to make students compete with one another to see who gets the higher score? Or are we preparing them for life outside of school? Maybe at one time these tests were used to measure how well the future leaders of our countries were learning, but now it is no longer like that. These tests seem to show no post-school value except to find the most successful kids and give them scholarships to college. Going along with this, everyone, depending on their grade, is required to take the same exact test. Despite their different ways of thinking, students are grouped together and the ones who are different are “wrong” simply because they were unable to learn it due to the way they were taught. Holding every single student to the same standards avoids the fact that everyone has a different mindset and each person may excel in different subjects. This poses a question: when will the system change? Students are held to such enormous pressure that when they meet the standards, they are convinced they’re stupid, and I struggle with this, too. However, it would be easier if all of the intimidation encountered when we are testing would just be withdrawn and students can be able to take a test, try their best, and if they don’t succeed, they can continue to work hard because, after all, a test shouldn’t determine how