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Standardized tests have been a scourge of student life in America for more than fifty years. Throughout the United States, high school students prepare for months for the day in which they have to take out their No. 2 pencils, to endure four everlasting hours of bubbling-in answers. The ACT, American College Testing, and its counterpart, the SAT, Scholastic Assessment Test, are known as the high school exit exams, in which they have become one of the largest determining factors in the college-admissions process. Both standardized tests judge a student 's performance, in which it measures how well students learned skills to meet state standards. Although standardized tests are meant to measure what one learns in high school in order to determine …show more content…
Although teachers spend a majority of the course getting students ready for these future depending standardized tests, they do not actually teach you. As a student one does not learn, instead, one gains skills on how to achieve a higher score, and that is where teachers fail as mentors to help a student that has to take the ACT or SAT. Furthermore, standardized tests may contain biases that prevent certain groups of students from doing well due to differences in learning styles, cultural diversity, and language barriers. That being said, I believe that standardized tests are not fair toward those in which English is their second language. The majority of English Learning Language students do not perform as well as native English speaker on the standardized tests being used for accountability purpose under the No Child Left Behind. NCLB was created so that schools are held accountable for what students learned throughout the school year. According to Atkinson and Geiser, far from promoting equity and access in college admissions, compared with traditional indications of academic achievement, standardized tests had a more adverse impact on low-income and minority applicants. Standardized tests were closely correlated that other indicators of socioeconomic status and so tended to diminish …show more content…
Students spend the majority of their time preparing for standardized tests, instead of spending their time learning. In addition, standardized tests give students anxiety, and could lead them to want to drop out of high school due to all of the stress. I believe that standardized tests should not carry so much weight in the education system. They should serve as checks of the educational system rather than as a determinant of the future of
According to Fyona Rose, “Not only do these tests belittle students' and teachers' hard work, they also leave them with negative feelings toward school and drain their love of learning” (Rose, 2015). This means that standardized testing can ruin the enjoyment of learning for both students and teachers. The reason standardized testing still happens is because it has become a standard for schools each year. But if the standard is bad something should be changed. Many who do not like standardized testing to do not believe that testing should be done away with, but rather be changed to accommodate the growing needs of society as a
Michele Obama once stated, “If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn 't be here. I guarantee you that.” The First Lady is, in other words, to say that standardized testing was a major factor into her life’s outcome and her scores could have potentially not put her in her position of power that she is highly recognized in today’s society. Although standardized tests do play a large role in any college application, standardized testing may not count as much toward one’s college admissions or success because standardized tests are not the only factor toward college applications, these tests only benefit a specific target group of people, and standardized tests are better used for giving insight on one’s
The current education system implemented by most schools measures a student’s progress using two methods: letter grades and standardized tests. However, the pressure put on students to achieve high grades causes standardized tests to be overlooked throughout the school year. Because of this, students enter tests with false hopes of scoring well when in reality they are severely underprepared. Honor roll students with perfect GPA’s can score in the average percentile if they are not adequately exposed to the test material. Schools should put a larger emphasis on preparation for standardized tests so students will be better equipped to take these tests and receive a score that more accurately reflects their knowledge.
Standardized tests, such as the SAT and the SOL, have been implemented for many years now for individuals in grade school to take. The SOL’s, or Standards of Learning tests, are Virginia’s version of standardized tests that students are required to take in order to pass a class, evaluating their knowledge on a specific subject. SOL’s are mandatory for students to take as soon as they reach third grade. Additionally, the SAT is a test taken in the final years of high school that colleges look at when comparing students for post-secondary school. People concerned with student’s education can come to the common consensus that education is important and there should be some way to compare a student’s achievements to one another. However, the process
Standardized testing is not the best way to measure how well a teacher teaches or how much a student has learned. Schools throughout the United States put their main focus on standardized tests; these examinations put too much pressure on the teachers and students and cause traumatizing events. Standardized testing puts strain on teachers and students causing unhealthy occurrences, Common Core is thrown at teachers with no teaching on how to teach the new way which dampers testing scores for all students, and the American College Test determines whether a child gets into college or not based on what they have learned during high school. Standardized tests are disagreeable; tests should not determine ranking of people.
Standardized testing, I feel, is a waste of time. There are multiple kids, such as myself, that after long periods of testing no longer do their best because they begin to get discouraged. There are students that get good grades throughout the entire year but do so poorly on their standardized testing that it makes them feel as though none of their school work even mattered. Not only do these tests not test the ability of a student, but they also give teachers different ratings on how the children do. With the tests giving ratings for each teacher it not only puts pressure on the students taking the tests, but also the teachers to make sure all of the information is covered for the standardized tests that they don’t even get to create on their own. I don’t understand why we put so much pressure on these tests when in all reality they don’t even show your true growth in
Standardized testing doesn’t provide a true picture of a student’s ability. According to the article “Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing”, Standardized testing evaluates a student’s performance on one particular day and does not take into account external factors. Meaning that the student is judged on how smart they are with this test. This is unfair because there are many people who are smart but have test anxiety allowing them not to focus on the test. Many other people understand the subject and know what to do but don’t show it on the test.
Standardized testing is the most commonly used and well known method of testing used in the United States and many other countries around the world, but can harm educational quality and promote inequality. Standardized testing is used to determine student achievement, growth and progress. Standardized tests are tests that attempt to present unbiased material under the same, predetermined conditions and with consistent scoring and interpretation so that students have equal opportunities to give correct answers and receive accurate assessments. The idea is that these similarities allow the highest degree of certainty in comparing results across schools, school districts, or states. Standardized tests are also used to determine progress in schools,
Do standardized tests measure a student’s intelligence or ability to think critically? How does the ACT and SAT play a big role in placing students in categories without any real concept of that student’s capabilities? There are many reasons standardized tests are used; to get an idea of where a student is academically in the school year, to see how much a grade has improved academically year after year, as well as, what schools a student can attend throughout their schooling careers. Standardized tests have a variety of different uses, but unfortunately do not define any particular student’s intellect.
Standardized testing is a down fall to many students but also an opportunity for many others. Standardized testing has its pros and its cons. It can be the make it or break it factor into getting into colleges you are hoping to attend or the scholarships you want to earn. Some people may have their opinions about the test, whether they hate it or not but the fact is that it’s here to stay.
One of the biggest topics in the educational world is standardized tests. All fifty states have their own standards following the common core curriculum. There are many positives and negatives that go with the standardized tests. A standardized test is any type of “examination that's administered and scored in a predetermined, standard manner” (Popham, 1999). These standardized tests are either aptitude tests or achievement tests. Schools use achievement tests to compare students.
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.
Almost every student takes them, dreads them, and stresses over them. They measure the growth and knowledge of a student, determining their aptitude for college. But are they truly accurate? Standardized tests “are defined as any test that is administered, scored, and interpreted in a standard, predetermined way” (Mooney 10). Both the SAT and ACTS are controlled, unvariable systems that supposedly assess students in the most fair method. Primarily, “in the West standardized tests in schools appeared during the Industrial Revolution” (Mooney 11). Gradually growing and becoming more common, these tests became “standard” for their time. However, “in 1983 a report cited statistical evidence- 23 million American adults were functionally illiterate
Recall your years in Grade school through High school. You must have taken some form of standardized test in one grade or two. Can you recall on how you felt about it? Did feeling of Panic, Anxiety, Stress, and when the results came back did you feel Disappointed or relieved? If so then that is a good thing for that means that the test is functioning, it’s purpose. The purpose you may ask is beside making students feel stressed out (although it is beneficial) is to help you improve and for teachers it is a way to see if the student is learning and if not then which area to focus on. Even if the test seems formidable they are beneficial for a student and teacher.
A standardized test requires all students to answer the same questions with the goal of getting the same answers so that the government can compare groups or individual students based on a certain standard. Originally standardized tests were to be used so that different schools or states could compare to other schools, but since the government passed the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), elementary, middle, and high schools only care about meeting the requirements so they can get funding (Improving). Since schools focus on receiving funding so much, students are getting extremely stressed out, which leads to lower scores and schools not meeting the set requirements. All of these issues are what creates the vicious cycle of the American education