Persuasive Essay
Angry, worried, lack of clarity and inadequate support, these are just some of the many words teachers around Scotland, parents, I and other pupils are saying about the Scottish Qualifications Authority’s (SQA) new “simplified” exams. Around 65,000 pupils and I are in our 4th year at high school and are studying to sit the “new and improved” exams. After over 30 years of Standard Grades they have been replaced with new “simplified” exams, these exams are called Nationals. These exams have replaced the old, much admired and beloved Standard Grades but why? The standard grades are admired as one of the best exam papers in the world!!! Other countries model there whole exam paper around standard grades! So why the big change??
Well “The new changes, which will come into effect from 2013, will deliver qualifications that reflect Scotland’s new approach to teaching and learning with a more streamlined system, which is simpler for pupils, parents and employers to understand.” This is the reason the SQA have given for the huge change. But my Mum, Dad, Granny, Uncles, Aunties don’t understand what they are! Even when I try to explain (the very little knowledge I have about) the exams! Is this just me and my family or am I not alone? Because these new exams will decide my and 65,000 other 4th year pupils future and is it right we know so very little about them? Also in that statement released by the Scottish government in 2009 mentions nothing on how the teachers- the most important people of the whole operation- felt about the change or how they would understand the new course and qualifications. Was this to cover up something or was it that the teachers didn’t like the course and didn’t find it easy to understand?
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...cottish students whose exam results were affected will have missed out on university places. Eventually on the 20th of August nearly 2 months from the distribution of the results the SQA says more than 2,000 of the 5,000 pupils affected will have their results clarified by tomorrow and the remaining 5,000 will have their results dealt with quickly and can expect clarifications "in a matter of days". But the 21st arrives and no results arrive!
Nearly 5,000 mistakes affecting 4,264 students are discovered in Standard Grade results following preliminary check.
It emerges up to 300 students who sat Standard Grade physical education could have their results adjusted downwards following a data entry error.
Nearly 200 still not dealt with by the 29 October deadline. Bill Morton not told the deadline was missed.
Works Cited
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/1005043.stm
The article written by Michael Thomsen addresses the issue: should we as a society continue using a standardized grading system. Thomsen includes many reasons supporting his ultimate conclusion that we should not continue with any system of standardized grades. However, the reasons he uses to support his conclusion are affected by significant ambiguity which weakens the overall argument.
In the 1990’s, I grew up taking the TAAS test or Texas Assessment of Academic Skills. I did not know why we had to take them but everyone had to and teachers tried to prepare us as much as they can. Then in the 2003, the state decided to change it to TAKS test or Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. I knew that I had passed, but as a student we do not question why we have to take these tests. We are only told that they are important to our education and graduating to the next grade or from high school. A few years afterwards they had switched to a new standardized test form called STAAR which stands for State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness. It seems that a last few tests were not accurate in monitoring students’ progress and controversy surrounding incorrectly scored questions. The STAAR test which has been supported in legislative passage will now be the current standard method of assessing students and districts. The focus shifting mainly on standardized testing has left Dallas Independent School District with less than stellar performance compared to other districts.
How standardized are standardized tests? In America, we strive to perfect them as well as give our students an education they deserve but at what cost? Standardized tests have been the easiest way to ultimately evaluate a student against every other student in America. However, standardized tests are not as great as they are made out to be. We need to take a step back and look at the faults of standardized tests. Quite simply: Standardized tests are not standardized.
In effort to maintain high education standards and being labeled a “Distinguished School”, the educators decided the best plan of action would be to change the student’s answers, due to the fact the students were not preforming to the level needed to pass to the next grade. The No Child Left behind Act of 2001 set measurable goals to improve education. Sadly in this case the standards set by government did not help the students it did a horrible disservice to the students. The educators did not teach or tutor the students when they fell behind. Changing the scores of students whom did not grasp the information and just passing them on sets them up for epic failure.
“Students are taking between ten and twenty standardized tests, depending on the grade. A total average of one hundred thirteen different ones by graduation.”(Locker) A few years ago the United States, along with other nations, was given a test to assess the academic strengths and weaknesses of each nation and rank them accordingly. When the results were released and the United States was ranked near the bottom, it was decided to start incorporating more testing through school. Between benchmark, TLI, PARCC, and common core standards, teaching technique was forced to change. Standardized testing has had a negative effect on teachers and students, implementing inadequate grading standards and the common core curriculum, such testing has made
What are the results? The students are the ones who are suffering and they are stressed, discouraged and disheartened. There is much too much time spent on the actual test taking success and subjects of enjoyment are removed from the curriculum. The federal government is lacking funding and the students are being shorted. The teacher shortage is pre...
These facts also relate to the poor quality to which standardized testing has fallen and directly to the poor quality of education received in our public school systems. These tests ...
Baker, M (2010) Are Exams Really Getting Easier? [Internet], UK, BBC. Available from: [Accessed 2nd January 2012]
The Standardized Testing System, instituted in the public school system, has been used as a guideline in assessing a student’s comprehension of the subjects taught in the classroom and for measuring a teacher’s aptitude of relating the subject material to the students (Fletcher). Florida has instituted a new Bill SB-736 that will now no longer grant teacher’s tenure, and will use the scores from the FCAT to decide whether a teacher will keep their job. While originally created to help the school system, standardized testing has been shown to have many problems, and even to cause harm to students, teachers, and schools. The standardized testing system must be severely revamped, as well as the way the scores affect the schools the students attend.
Standardized testing is a deeply flawed system. The American government continues to throw money at a program that has little or no hope of achieving the goals it set at its inception. The important message is that no test is valid for all purposes and “high stakes” decisions should not be made on the basis of a single test score. Test scores provide only a small picture of student achievement or potential (APA 2014).
Many oppose the newly revised SAT that will be published in 2016, and proclaim that there will be many benefits for a large amount of students because it won’t be as stressful or time consuming as the old SAT. They strongly stand firm in their beliefs that lowering the standards will prevent high school students from achieving a greater score on the SAT. Some say that the revision of the SAT will be beneficial towards the students because it can “now write about their experiences and opinions, with no penalty for incorrect insertions”, on their essays (David Coleman). Many are happy that the revised SAT is moving towards the direction of achievement, rather than aptitude because it was made “to make the test to reflect more closely what high school students did in high school” (Tamar Lewin). Many people are being misled because they don’t know enough information to know that there are many consequences when it comes to the SAT being redesigned.
Standardized testing has taken over the education realm and led to a shift in the institutional goals and values of education. In the last 40 years, standardized exams have changed; they were once used to determine the learning level of students, but now they are being used to determine the teacher’s ability. Standardized tests do not measure education quality and are incorrectly used, leading to the wrongful evaluation of teachers and the limiting of education for students by schools.
The present-day education system in Ontario has progressed tremendously over the past few decades, but additional improvements can always be crafted. The government you direct has the potential to make revolutionary changes to the education system, which will benefit future generations of students in the long run. The following proposal deals with the topic of standardized testing within secondary schools and the consequences it may bring. Standardized tests are not necessary in secondary schools as they severely impact the mental health of students and subject material is not remembered in the long term. As a result, standardized tests should be removed from the curriculum and instead replaced with more class lessons relating
Instead, it is stifling the individual talents and abilities of too many students and killing their motivation to learn” (16). Growing up, I have always enjoyed learning. In my sophomore year of high school, many subjects have weakened my motivation to learn. For example, AP World History was great until the exam came into place. It was enjoyable learning about history all over the world, but then we had to spend many weeks preparing for the standardized test. It was terrible because we were cramming everything we learned to perform well on the test and to pass the requirement for AP credit. It was a mess because we had to rush through all of the multiple choice questions. Overall, I do not like what standardized testing has done to the education
Because of the importance placed on how students perform on the standardized tests, teachers tend to alter the strategy; they use to offer instructions and also the content in the curriculum, so students can perform better on the tests (Karr-Kidwell, Meadows and Stacie 4). The tests discourage students who do not perform well even if they were performing well in their schools. For example, students perform well in their schools but this performance is not the same in the standardized tests. Most people who get good grades in school end up failing after they seat for the standardized tests (Boaler 503). The academic system fails to address poor performance in schools and concentrate more on how schools are rated in relation to the standardized tests. Students keep failing in schools, and they become less successful in life because they did not receive the help they needed in