Alternatives to Standardized Testing Within The Education System

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This paper explores a few of the many alternatives to standardized testing within the education system. Also, this research helps the reader understand what standardized exams are, why they are used, and how educators can use other ways of assessing to “test” the children’s/students’ abilities throughout the year. Some of these substitutions may include personal portfolios, developmental benchmarks, and a variety of analyses on comprehension by recording different sessions. Furthermore, this exposition uses research from many different resources to support the importance, credibility, and objectivity of other assessment tools besides standardized test. By reading this composition, one will learn the pros and cons of uniform evaluation implementations and why it is important for everyone’s individual learning and development that standardized testing are no longer required. Alternatives to Standardized Testing There’s nothing worse than to have students sum up all their knowledge, skills, thoughts, talents, and abilities into one multiple-choice test with one “right” answer. This is why assessments must encompass more ways of evaluating students than a paper and pencil strategy that does not account for the various competences of every student. This is one of the many reasons why standardized testing has been undoubtedly one of the most controversial topics in education to date. With this being said, there are alternatives to standardized tests that involve different opportunities including portable portfolios, performance exams, exhibitions, and/or recorded sessions to better “test” a student’s knowledge and abilities. What is Standardized Testing? “Standardized testing can be defined as any form of test that (1) req... ... middle of paper ... ...ild. (8th ed.). Boston, MA:S4Carlisle Publishing Services. O’Malley, K. (2103). Standardized testing: what is it and how does it work? Retrieved from http://researchnetwork.pearson.com/college-career-success/standardized-testing-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work Peterson, B. & Neill, M. (2014). Alternatives to standardized testing. Rethinking Schools. Retrieved from http://www.rethinkingschools.org/restrict.a sp?path=archive/13_03/assess.shtml Puckett, M., & Black, J. (2008). Meaningful assessments of the young child. (3th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc. Standardized Test. (2013). In The Glossary of Education Reform. Retrieved from http://edglossary.org/standardized-test/ What’s wrong with standardized tests? (2012). Fairtest: The National Center for Fair and Open Testing. Retrieved from: http://www.fairtest.org/facts/whatwron.htm

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