Education is an integral part of a society and essential for the advancement of that society. Throughout the years, multiple reforms to the Educational system in the U.S were made. A few examples of these changes would be the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the No Child Left Behind Act. The most recent reform of the education system was Every Student Succeeds Act passed by Obama Dec. 10, 2015 (Klein). One of the key parts of this act is the focus of annual testing in order to monitor the progress of students. States will individually determine the criteria they will test their students in order to evaluate their progress. In some cases, States have decided to standardized tests into their graduation requirements. Pennsylvania has
While standardized tests may provide a decent indicator of student performance lie, they should not determine whether a student should graduate or not. Standardized tests, similar to the Keystone tests, are not a reliable method of judging individual student’s progress and can even negatively impact some students involved. There is a plethora of problems in regard to the accuracy of standardized tests. Lynn Olson points out that averages are drastically altered if there are any extreme scores, whether it be high or low, in her article Study Questions Reliability of Single-year Test-Score Gains. As a result of these extreme scores, the average can be either dragged down or raised higher than it should be, which may inevitably lead the school as a whole being labeled as a
Most standardized tests consist mainly of multiple choice questions. The biggest argument in regard to these types of questions is objectiveness. Supporters of standardized tests praise the objectiveness of these questions as machines grade the results, with no help from people. As a result, there is no human judgement or bias, however this is not so. While it is true that a machine grades the paper, it is people who create the questions. “However, humans decide what questions to ask, how to phrase questions, and what "distractors" to use. All these are subjective decisions that can be biased in ways that unfairly reward or harm some test-takers. Therefore, multiple-choice tests are not really objective,” (Fairtest). As stated in the article “Multiple-Choice Tests”, submitted by Fairtest, Multiple-Choice tests can still be biased against some test-takers. This can add to the accuracy problems found in standardized testing. Biased questions are not the only issue with multiple choice
Any diverse group of organisms will not respond identically to a standard test; some will respond positively, and some will respond negatively. The student population of the United States is an extremely varied group, and students will respond differently to the same "standard" test. The format of the current standardized test, all multiple-choice questions, does not allow for variables among the test takers. In fact, the test attempts to erase all the variables and create a uniform ...
Standardized testing requires student to answer same or similar questions with given answer choices that are often in multiple choice or true or false form. Dating back from 2200 B.C standardized testing is recorded being used in China ,where people applying for government jobs had to take an examination ,testing their knowledge on confucian philosophy and poetry.During the mid-1800s in Industrial Revolution ,soon after child labor laws were enacted taking children out of farms and factories and putting them into schools the use of standardized test was introduced to America in Boston. Standardized testing was being used to compare schools and teaching quality; Boston’s program was soon adopted nation wide. Types of standardized test including the most common achievement tests and aptitude test. Achievement test measure the progress a student has made academically in a time period. Whereas an aptitude test attempt to predict a student’s ability to succeed academically.Standardized test are used on a large scale because computers can score them quickly, consistently, and inexpensively rather than open ended essay questions which need to be evaluated essay by essay, though essay questions allow for deeper thinking.The purpose for standardized testing is to create a standard on which all students can learn equally,but in “The Real threat to American Schools” by Alfie Kohn, the author claims that idea of standards might not be true. The author makes an interesting point in that if the possibility that all students met the state standards and passed all the tests would those students be considered ‘perfectly educated’ of would the politicians and test takers believe instead that the test was too easy and the standards were too low. B...
Although standardized testing has been proven to be ineffective, the creators of the tests are still humans of different races. As a creator of the tests much be created to represent all races and ethnic backrounds. When considering the contents of the tests, people should be looked at as an individual and not placed uder a category with their race.
...ry curricular diversity, test developers have to create a one size fits all test. These test developers however, can’t really pull it off. This leads to some questions in a standardized test that are not necessarily aligned with the curriculum in a particular setting. An important study done in 1993 in Michigan regarding this issue on standardized tests concluded that 50 to 80 percent of what was measured on standardized tests was not covered in the textbooks for that particular curriculum. Based on this study, it can be concluded that if the content of standardized tests is not addressed in the textbooks, topics that are covered on the test may not have been covered in that particular classroom setting This is an unfair flaw in test design which can result in lower test scores not enabling the tests to accurately measure the students’ learning achievement.
These flawed tests are not truly able of measuring students how well students will perform in college as they are supposedly used to predict. A single test that students have to wake up for at six, seven in the morning on a Saturday and travel to some random location to take a difficult test should not impact the student's chance of getting into college, let alone predict how well they will
So, using these long multiple choice exams are what college’s consider to be a reflection of a student’s grades during their first year at college. The test maker itself explains that grade point averages during high school paint a better picture than their tests ("The ACT: Biased, Inaccurate, and Misused" 1). College’s use these standardized tests as a quick measure of ability. However, a test cannot explo...
To add on to that, standardized tests are more frequently used. On January 8, 2002, President Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the latest reauthorization of the Elementary and secondary Education Act. The new law will require that students in grades 3-8 take statewide standardized tests every year in math and reading. The cynical symphony of the cynical symphony.
Standardized testing caters to one population of people and one style of learning. These tests are supposed to measure if you are on your grade level but can be extremely ineffective. I remember taking the SAT and them asking questions that I did not know how to solve and it was so long that it made me not want to take it. This creates a problem for students because they figure why take a test I know I am going to fail and that take hours to take. The success rate for that is very low. These tests cater to people that a tolerant enough to sit down for hour and comprehend the work in one particular way but everyone is not tolerant enough for it. Just like one of my old professor said everyone learns and comprehends and has tolerance for a lot of things but taking a test that is four hours long with work that you can’t comprehend because you don’t have enough time to think in that particular section is not fair to every stud...
The Every Student Succeeds Act is a federal statute that became a law on December 10, 2015. This law reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. ESSA gives the state’s power to determine how to use required tests for accountability purposes, includes grants to help fund different programs, and provides states with flexibility that they did not have before. There are also some requirements ESSA includes, such as; it requires schools to consult stakeholders for the planning and implementation of safety standards and academic achievement, and schools must continue to give the same amount of standardized tests. However, the ESSA gives the states the right to determine how much the standardized tests matter and states are allowed to include other forms of measurement of school and student performance. States are also required to continue to give graduation rates and English proficiency rates for English language learners. Struggling schools will be given funds to design and implement research-based interventions. This bill has several major provisions. These include:
Standardized testing scores proficiencies in most generally accepted curricular areas. The margin of error is too great to call this method effective. “High test scores are generally related to things other than the actual quality of education students are receiving” (Kohn 7). “Only recently have test scores been published in the news-paper and used as the primary criteria for judging children, teachers, and schools.”(2) Standardized testing is a great travesty imposed upon the American Public School system.
Whatever the reason may be, many people, including Price, Kahl, and Ayers do not support standardized testing. These authors all have one opinion in common; they are all against testing for the sake of the children, because of the pressures kids already endure without the pressures of testing. They all claim that tests may be an unfair way to rank children in the world today due to: teachers not teaching children the right material in preparation for the test, family upbringing, and even worrying the children would affect the test results. As Ayers indicates, one single test could not determine where a child stands in the business world, due to the fact that the test analyzes specific topics on school and nothing about their personality or more personal traits.
President Bush is promoting annual standardized testing for all students in grades three through eight. This bill is currently being considered in Congress, and has garnered much support. As of right now, 15 states test students in those grades, and more than 20 have high school exit exams, which look only at the test score of a student, not at his or her academic achievements.
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.
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.
It's nearing the end of the school year, and students and teachers alike are in a panic. Have the teachers taught enough? Have the students learned enough? All this worry and stress stems from one very specific issue: standardized testing. All of this commotion is just another indicator the standardized testing does more harm than good. Standardized testing is an inefficient and harmful practice that puts too much pressure on students, incorrectly categorizes test-takers, and results in ineffective teaching. (maybe rephrase, order-wise)