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Effects of standardized testing on college admission
Effects of standardized testing on college admission
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A blank canvas entering high school—a freshman—being told "get ready for the college." Immediately, haunting rumors and frightening myths about the SAT roll into your mind, and sends shivers down your spine. Time is ticking down, your future is nearing, and your anxiety is worsening. Junior year is here and so is the beast needing to be slaughtered—the SAT. One test could make or break your dreams, or receive scholarships, or even as simple as college admission. One test dictating if you are ready to go to the next level—college. Entering the exam room, palms begin sweating, stomach begins churning, your mind begins scrabbling; you sit down and pick up the pencil. Times up. Did you slay the beast? One test, one score, one key factor into college—are you deemed ready? You must wait to see if you scored a 1550 or higher; if not, good news you can go through the battle all over again. At least you get to show colleges how well you can take a test and place you better “if” you’re even accepted. The bottom line is students shouldn't have to take standardized aptitude tests such as the SAT, and ACT, for college admission.
College entrance exams are outdated and a tool to further the “achievement gap” or better phrased “developmental gap”.
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She said she had a difficult time getting into the school of her dream—in fact, denied because of her SAT score. As far Washington State was concerned, she already achieved “measures of quality for an institution as a high SAT.” Now, they have the right idea, she is well rounded, experienced and knows how to deal with life…oh wait her SAT score wasn’t high enough, so she doesn’t qualify to be admitted into the
Students should not have to take a test just to enter in to college because students are more than a test score, they are people too. Why are students compared with a test score that – more often than not - does not reflect their academic ability? These tests are biased because people write the questions and, therefore, they can make the question wordy and choose which ones to omit (Pollard). These test do not measure a person’s intelligence; rather, their test taking ability. As proof, the ACT science portion of the test do not pertain to science knowledge at all; rather, it ...
A young girl is excited about graduating high school and attending her first year at college. She tries hard at school and receives above-average grades. She is an active student involved in student council, band, the drama team, and peer tutoring, but her ACT scores are extremely low, disqualifying her from many universities. The young girl represents many students who are not successful at taking standardized tests because they have not developed the advanced skills required to take a test like the ACT or SAT. An academically motivated and responsible student should not be prevented from attending college because a "standard" test is not his or her standard. The current methods of testing for the ACT or SAT should be abolished and replaced with modified and less "standard" questions to better measure a student's learning potential. In addition to different testing techniques, a student's learning potential should be a measure of a culmination of activities and methods; testing should be less important than other methods in determining a student's learning potential, if not the least important. Standardized testing must evolve to encompass a more diverse student population, and it should not be the primary factor in measuring learning potential.
The SAT's have sometimes been the deciding factor when determining a student's admission to a certain college, but recently colleges have stopped regarding SAT scores as the most important factor, and in some cases, colleges are now not even requiring applicants to submit their scores. This change in significance of the SAT's is due to recent controversy over the fairness of the test. According to Fair Test (2001) three hundred and eighty-eight schools do not require applicants to submit their SAT scores, and hundreds more do not place much emphasis on the scores. Because of the recent controversy and the number of schools not looking at or de-emphasizing the SAT's, the College Board, (the company in charge of designing, administering, and grading the test), has decided to make several changes to the format of the SAT's (which was just revised in 1994). These changes will take effect in the year 2005.
According to Robert Jackson in . “Retooling education: Testing and the Liberal Arts” Colleges who changed their admission by making the SAT optional have directed their aims into a more high school grade based admission. This solution is the only true measurement we have at the moment and it is a better measurement than the SAT states Robert Jackson. The writer also goes on to say scholastic aptitude should be abolished, as it has no true value or indicator of student’s ability. A more precise measurement based on four years of schoolwork is a pretty good indicator of student’s ability. It gives equal playing field for all students from their freshmen year in high school until their senior year in high school. Students have equal opportunities to perform giving them four years to accomplish good grades for college admissions. this method gives unprivileged students the opportunity to go to college who previously could not attend college because of SAT Prep cost. Also this method benefits college admissions by providing an indicator on how students will perform in college classes making it easy to admit or deny
"Former Bates College Dean of Admissions, William Hiss, said that intelligence is so complex, varied, and multifaceted that “no standardized testing system can be expected to capture it”(Westlund). Throughout the years standardized testing has changed its purpose and not for the better. In the late 1930s, the goal of taking standardized test was to award scholarships to "diamond in the rough" students (Westlund). Currently, the whole idea of taking the SAT or ACT is getting admitted into a college. Standardized test should not be a deciding factor of being admitted into a college.
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.
Thousands of students around the country and around the world will be preparing for the SAT and ACT tests while trying to maintain a high GPA. These tests will potentially have a significant impact on students' lives. Some will be taking these tests for the second or even third time to get that 1500 out of 1600 or that 33 out of 36, that they long desire. These flawed tests are not truly able to measure 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 do in college.
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...
Today, in the United States, standardized tests are administered every year by states to their Kindergarten-12th grade public school students. Different states place different weight on their standardized testing results where some states differ their funding based on results and annual improvement, whereas other states allow schools to simply gauge where their students are scoring relative to other schools in the state. These tests, however, are only standardized within one state. One of the few tests standardized throughout the entire country is the SAT, the Scholastic Aptitude Test, administered by College Board and required by, “More than 800 of the nation’s colleges and universities,” (Comras, 1984). This test will be the standardized test focused on in this paper. While standardized testing is that, standardized, and enables the comparison of one student to another, the meaning of the score does not equate to a test of intelligence. Therefore, while standardized testing should be applied in the education system, it needs to be more indicative of the material learned in school and should hold less weight than it currently does in the college admissions process.
For most young Americans, college has always been preached to them as being a vital part to their success in the adult world; but as they reach this educative rite of passage many find they must take out inflated loans, work part time jobs, or even become dissuaded entirely due to the exorbitant costs of higher education. We must forsake this current antiquated system in favor of government subsidized tuition. Therefore, college education must be free because of its benefit to the economy, creation of equal opportunity, and the resolution of the student loan crisis.
Why is standardized testing part of the college admission process? Some of us might still remember taking the SAT or ACT when we were applying for college; however few of us question why we have to take such a test. Millions of dollars are spent on prep materials all so we can achieve a decent score and hope colleges will be impressed. The College Board claims a high SAT or ACT score correlates to college success which is defined as a good GPA throughout college. However if you stop and ask yourself what the SAT or ACT has to do with college success, most of us will arrive at the conclusion that these tests have almost have nothing to do with college success. Some of the questions are simply on these tests are simply ridiculous and will never
Think about this: a straight F student with a family that has a sufficient amount of money. This student gets to go to the best college that their family’s money can buy, which will probably go to waste on partying. Now compare that to a straight A student, living in a too-small temporary place, and no way to pay the bills. This student is everything a college could dream of having, and they actually care about their education. Sadly enough, though, they will never go because how can someone possibly go to college when their family cannot even pay the bills? Considering this scenario, should students in temporary living situations with 3.0 GPAs or higher earn free college tuition? I believe that students in these situations with a 3.0 GPA or above should earn free college tuition. I feel that students willing and determined to excel in their education deserve to have equal, if not more, opportunities than anybody else interested in college, no matter what. Students in temporary living situations have financial problems which cause stress for the students; therefore, if given the chance to earn free college tuition, their stress levels would decrease rapidly.It is astonishing how rare it is for students in a poverty situation to have a 3.0 GPA or above, let alone to go to college. I strongly believe that having college paid for would mean so much to them and be such a great accomplishment and reward.
Westervelt, Eric. “College Applicants Sweat The SATs. Perhaps They Shouldn’t::NPR” NPR.org , 18 Feb 2014. Web.17 May 2014.
To give a personal example, the first time I took the ACT I had such high anxiety and received a score that did not measure my cumulative GPA of a 4.2. The second time I took the test my composite increased by six points. It is proof that one day does not provide an accurate reading of someone’s skills. I also know someone who was one point shy of a perfect thirty-six on the ACT. Due to his lack of a work ethic he failed all his college classes last year and dropped out. Numerous cases like these exist across the country that prove colleges should become test optional, or standardized tests should be abolished.
The average income for someone with a college degree is $ 97,563. Higher education mostly leads to more understanding of what what is going on in the world. The cost of college has been rising dramatically in recent years by climbing 27 percent. The government not paying for higher education is just for them to save money. It is important for people to be educated both to to learn a job and to better themselves. Higher education is a special interest group that has hooked on government. The government should pay for higher education for people. With the government paying for college it will help some people out. The poverty in the world could decreased because some people would’ve went to college. By going to college it helps people get careers that lead to money for house. Government should pay for higher education. More and more students have been taking on debt to help finance their education. There is no link between education and economic growth. When gaining power between college graduates and non-graduates doesn’t matter. Every career shouldn’t require a college degree because it leads to more dropouts. If all 18-24 year olds were in college, we would reduce the unemployment by 2 million people. Louisiana has TOPS which pays for students to go to college. The requirements are you need at least a 20 on the ACT and a 2.5 GPA in your senior year. After that you get a free ride in college. Recently, Gov. John Bel Edwards remove TOPS for a small amount of time. They recently said that TOPS will not be fully funded by next year. Higher education helps more people gets better jobs and higher positions in life. If the government pays for people to go to school after high school more jobs can be developed make the the government mo...