Imagine taking a test that impacting one's life greatly and made a huge decision for their future. In the state of Oklahoma, High School students are required to take and pass EOIs in order to graduate. An EOI (End-Of-Instruction) is an exam that is based on the Oklahoma state standards, which define what students should be learning each school year. It helps the state determine what the teachers need to focus on and it shows the weakness of different areas of specific subjects. It also gives the state of Oklahoma a ranking compared to other states. Students must take all seven EOIs, but only need to pass four specific exams to graduate. Despite the fact that everyone is different, an EOI should not determine whether a student graduates. Graduation requirements are set at a high standard along with the passing of EOIs. "The Achieving Classroom Excellence (ACE) law states that: Beginning with students entering the ninth grade in the 2008-2009 school year, every student shall demonstrate mastery of the state academic content standards in the following subject areas in order to graduate from a public high school with a standard diploma: Algebra I, English II and two of the five: Algebra II, Biology I, English II, Geometry, and United States History"(White). Within these subjects each question is scored differently depending on the difficulty level. One receives a diploma when they graduate and of course have all their credits including the passing of EOIs. If one does not pass the required amount of EOIs or for a specific subject, they will not get a diploma. An example of a test is like having a biology exam and having to answer 32 questions out of 60 to pass (Archer). There are certain goals in different subjects th... ... middle of paper ... ...cher, Kim. "Rural Educators Concerned over ACE Testing; Students Required to Pass Four of Seven Tests or No Diploma." Tulsa World (OK) 27 Feb. 2012: Newspaper Source Plus. Web. 13 Jan. 2014. Brunk, Jason. "End-of-instruction Tests Should Move Forward." The Oklahoman 07 Mar. 2012, Opinion sec.: 7A. Print. COPPERNOLL, CARRIE. "2,000 Students May Not Receive Diplomas." The Oklahoman 18 May 2012, Metro & State sec.: 3A. Print. COSGROVE, JACLYN, and CARRIE COPPERNOLL. "Testing System Fails." The Oklahoman 1 May 2013, Front Page sec.: 1A. Print. Tingle, Devante A. "Your Experience with the Eoi." Personal interview. 10 Feb. 2014. Page, Russell. "Such Gal!" The Oklahoman 09 Apr. 2011, Opinion sec.: 9A. Print. White, Melissa. "ACE Graduation Requirements." Welcome to Oklahoma's Official Web Site. Oklahoma State Department Of Education, 12 Apr. 2013. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.
Since this test has been devised, the number one question everybody is asking is, “ isn’t it unfair to base a student’s entire future on one test, when he or she simply could have had a bad day when taking the test”? The president Kirk T. Schroder of the Virginia Board of Education, answer this question by saying, “First of all, these tests are untimed, so no student is under arbitrary time pressure in taking the test.
The overall purpose of schooling is to advance one’s knowledge and skill base and through standardized testing the belief is that one’s knowledge and skill base can be assessed and analyzed, but what occurs many a times is a teacher's difficulty to expand upon the learning process due to the confinements that testing has on his/hers ability to teach. In a qualitative study performed by the Morehead State University it was determined that in a particular rural school standardized testing had implemented a limit on the amount of time that teachers were able to instruct, as well as limitations on the “instructional resources and the types of assessments teachers employed” (Thomas, 2005). Even if a teacher was content with teaching the state
High school graduation exit exams continue to make news across the nation. California along with 25 other states, requires students to pass a high school exit exam to graduate. The California version is administered to students in the beginning of their sophomore year and measures student abilities in reading, writing, and mathematics. If students do not pass the test, they are given the opportunity to retake the section failed or the entire test up to two times per school year in grade eleven and up to five times per school year in grade twelve. In addition to other graduation requirements, public high school students must pass the exam before they receive a high school diploma. Although California
Even with material being taught incessantly, standardized tests can not accurately measure a student’s ability. The tests are “single-target—meaning that every student, no matter what level of achievement or ability, course selection, or cu...
Regularly, a student receives a diploma after a certain required course load is completed. On the other hand, some students can complete high school by a means of an equivalency test and receive a diploma that way. Unfortunately, each state, district, and even school uses the term dropout differently (USDE, 1996). The United States Department of Education?s National Center for Educational Statistics has stated three separate ways used to calculate the dropout rate. The first is when the percentage of students who drop out in a single year are reflected by the event rates. The second is when the status rates reflect a percentage of those students who in a certain age range have not finished high school ...
Evans, Donia. "The Case Against Standardized Tests." The Meridian Star. 24 Nov. 2013. The Meridian Star. 01 Dec. 2013 .
Almost every person who has graduated from high school has taken the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), which is generally used for college admissions. We all remember the stress of taking a test that could affect our future educational plans. Now due to the “No Child Left Behind Act” of 2001, this kind of test is now being administered to children from the 3rd to 8th grades as a way to determine if the school or teachers are educating them properly. High-stakes standardized tests of this nature should not be used to determine the educational abilities of either schools or the teachers.
Today, schools are making it a priority for teachers to follow the strict guidelines of a “one size fits all testing curriculum.” Educators must prepare students for the tests that could make or break their future. This curriculum is focused only on teaching students what they need to know in order to pass the test. “Because the test is based largely on the memorization of facts, teachers will have to teach their students these specific facts instead of teaching for deep comprehension and understanding of material.” (Martin, 309) As a result, students do not learn the true lesson. Although it is highly important that students pass “the test,” this strictly based curriculum is ignoring the important academic skills and fundamentals needed for their future, even beyond the years of high stakes testing; without these needed skills students will be left in the dark once they have graduated from high school. Students often learn on different levels and their educational requirements are not being met with the “one size fits all” approach. Those who create these tests tend not to include those who learn on a different educational level; rather their focus is pointed towards the money rather than on the success of all students. Children need to learn sk...
At Kellenberg Memorial, each teacher construct a Comprehensive exam based on their subject. The Comprehensive Exam is about 200+ questions. The Colonel Magazine states,“Teachers don’t need to make up a chunky test packet of fifty multiple choice questions with a 45 minute essay prompt. These days, the summer time occupies half of everyone’s brains.” Teachers also have to report the student who failed their class. This can be heartbreaking for them, because the teacher’s objective is to teach well for students to succeed. The result of this, is that the teacher has to administer the exam, again during the
Currently, many public high schools allow students to select their own classes and in turn, some students enroll in classes far below their intellectual ability. Major problems are down the road should students decide to go on to post-secondary schools. Students should be assessed when entering the 9th grade. Standardized tests should be given to help determine what course of study would be best for a particular student to pursue during their four year high school career.
Medina, Jennifer. "New Standards Mean More F's In State Testing." The New York Times. The New York Times, 28 July 2010. Web. 19 Apr. 2014
U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment (1992). Testing in America's Schools: Asking the Right Questions. OTA-SET-519 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office).
Kohn, Alfie. The Case Against Standardized Testing: Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann 2000.
Every year many students are kept from graduating high school because of these exit exams. This makes students and parents very angry. Students who have had high passing grades throughout high school do not understand why they cannot pass exit exams. Sometimes the student blames him or herself by thinking that he or she did not learn enough, when in fact there is nothing wrong without heir knowledge. These students do not realize that they lack good test taking skills. Parents are angry that their child was kept from graduating because of a single test, even though the child had all the he credits required. This situation occurred to Lee Hicks, another student from Paris (texas) High School. Had he lived 14 miles away in Oklahoma, which has no statewide exit test, he'd have received a diploma and would now be serving his country in the Navy. Instead Hicks severs customers in a Paris supermarket; he won management's Aggressive Hospitality Award for 1996. "He's a great employee, a bright young man--extremely hardworking," says store director, Larry Legg.
Columnist, Guest. "Test Scores and Teacher Competency." The Oregonian. Oregonlive.com, 4 Feb. 2010. Web. 18 Jan. 2014.