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Effects of standardized testing on students
Negative impact of standardized testing
Negative impact of standardized testing
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Problems with Standardized Testing
“Where is the standardized test that can measure passion for learning, respect for others, and human empathy?” These are the words of Tom McKenna, a disgruntled high school teacher from Portland, Oregon. Like many other educators and students across the nation, Tom is tired of the system. The educational system today is composed of a series of standardized tests. Standardized tests are bad for many reasons. They cause teachers to limit their curriculum, put low-level income and minority students at a disadvantage, cause school districts to focus too heavily on raising test scores, and extract the passion for learning from students.
In many cases teachers are encouraged to teach only material that will be seen on certain standardized tests. For this reason, teachers are forced to extract superfluous material from the course. Instead, teachers focus only on specific items from the test. Students are encouraged to memorize isolated facts and regurgitate short responses. In an article published by the FairTest organization, this method is called “teaching the test.” Teaching the test seems to be conducive to improving test-taking skills but real academic progression is not always represented.
The aforementioned Tom McKenna was put in this very predicament. In his article titled, “The Straitjacket of Standardized Tests” he tells a story of two of his high school students engaged in a project which enthralled their interest in an unlikely subject. McKenna had become friends with a man named Sol Shapiro. Shapiro, now in a retirement home, had once been a resident in South Portland, Oregon, which was a Jewish immigrant community. McKenna’s students accompanied him to Shapiro’s house in order to conduct an interview. A few seconds into the interview Shapiro broke down in tears and the students immediately turned off the video camera and tape recorder. The students comforted Sol. They finished the interview, much of which was unrecorded.
McKenna noted that these students had an increased interest in oral history following the interview. “They wanted more.” he noted. He then adds, “Unfortunately, given the demands of current educational reform in Oregon, teachers are finding it difficult to give students the "more" they desire.” McKenna was referring to the fact that teachers in Oregon are encouraged to striv...
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... craft to focus like drones on getting the scores up." If teachers were concerned with inspiring students, they could cause students to be passionate once again.
In my personal experience, my freshman history teacher would totally agree with my argument. He always told me that the most important part of the education process is “knowledge for the sake of knowledge.” This means that students should want to learn in order to gain intelligence. I have always kept this philosophy in high regard and have tried to apply it to my everyday scholastic life.
The educational system should be less of a system and more of a process. It should focus on the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual development of its’ students. As long as we continue to use standardized tests a change will never be made.
Works Cited
Elmore, Richard F. “Testing Trap.” Harvard Magazine Online. October 2002
FairTest: The National Center for Fair and Open Testing. How Standardized Testing
Damages Education.
McKenna, Tom. The Straitjacket of Standardized Tests. Spring 1999. Rethinking Schools
Online.
“Rethinking Standardized Testing” The Seattle Press Online. 17 May 2001.
Students dread the time of the year when they stop with their course material and begin to prepare for test. Everyone is in agreement that some type of revolution is needed when it comes to education; eliminating standardized test will aid the reform. The need for standardized testing has proven to be ineffective and outdated; some leading educationalist also believe this because the tests do not measure a student’s true potential. This will save money, stop labeling, and alleviate stress in students and teachers.
“Standardized Testing Has Negatively Impacted Public Schools.” Opposing Viewpoints: Education. Ed. David M. Haugen, Ph.D. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2009. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center.
Standardized tests have been used to see how much a child has learned over a certain period of time. These tests have been a highly debated issue with many parents and just people in general. In the article “Opting out of standardized tests? Wrong answer,” the author Michelle Rhee argues that people should not be trying to opt out of standardized tests because it allows the country to see how much a child has learned and the things they need to improve. On the other hand, in the article “Everything You’ve Heard About Failing Schools Is Wrong,” the author Kristina Rizga argues that standardized tests are not an efficient way to measure a student’s intelligence.
Ruthven, R. (2007, November 7). Is Standardized Testing Hurting Education? Associated Content. Retrieved March 16, 2014, from www.associatedcontent.com/article/438846/is_standardized_testing_hurting_education.html
Evans, Donia. "The Case Against Standardized Tests." The Meridian Star. 24 Nov. 2013. The Meridian Star. 01 Dec. 2013 .
Sacks, Peter. Standardized Minds: The High Price of America's Testing Culture and What We Can Do to Change It. Cambridge, MA: Perseus, 2000. Print.
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.
The National Education Association (NEA) conducted a survey, wherein teachers were asked various questions about the impact standardized testing has had in their classrooms. According to Tim Walker, “Forty-two percent of the surveyed teachers reported that the emphasis on improving standardized test scores had a ‘negative impact’ on their classroom, while only 15 percent said the impact was ‘positive,’” (para.5). According to this survey, fifty-two percent of teachers said that too much time on test prep, with it being estimated that the average teacher spends about thirty percent of class time focused on preparing for the test (Walker para.7). Despite the majority of teachers, the people who see the effects the most, reporting that standardized testing does significant harm to education, the results of the exams are still stressed far too much. It would appear that the stress on standardized testing has taken its toll on the educators, too, as forty-five percent of surveyed teachers reported that they had considered quitting due to the rising importance of standardized testing and their results (Walker para.
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.
Peterson, B. & Neill, M. (2014). Alternatives to standardized testing. Rethinking Schools. Retrieved from http://www.rethinkingschools.org/restrict.a sp?path=archive/13_03/assess.shtml
One of the major foundations of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, a national law requiring public schools to distribute standardized tests at least once a year, is that schools may be sanctioned by the federal government as a result of poor test grades. Obviously, this threat places an extraordinary amount of stress on schools to do well on their exams and holds teachers and administrators more accountable. However, it also causes teachers to teach the test rather than their curriculum, allowing students to perform better on exams without actually understanding the tested material (Karp). Test-teaching has become so common that students may actually take classes helping them to improve test scores, and whole days of public school are spent teaching kids better and faster ways to eliminate wrong answers (Gallagher). Such usage of classroom time and faculty effort is by no means useful to any child?s education, and its pervasiveness is unacceptable.
“If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn't be here. I guarantee you that.” This quote by Michelle Obama illustrates the idea that standardized testing should not have such a large influence on education in America. However, a majority of people are under the impression that standardized tests are an accurate method to measure a person's intellectual ability. I believe that standardized tests have developed into a very critical part of the American education system that is hindering the growth of students and teachers instead of providing a tool that can accurately measure knowledge.
One of the biggest, if not the biggest, challenge you face going through school is the standardized tests you must take at the end of the year, every year, starting in third grade. You must past these tests in order to move on to the next grade, or you keep taking them until you pass. A big question many people ask is how are these tests beneficial to real life education? The student, the teachers, the principal and the school districts are all judged based on the average scores on these tests. So, if you put that into perspective, our schools are being judged based on test results when the tests themselves are not ideal education. They are not a part of the ideal education that the kids actually remember and help them succeed in their everyday life. These standardized tests scores are not a good indication of a school’s competency because it does not prove knowledge or understanding. They take light away from real life educational understanding and put the emphasis on passing a silly test.
Standardized tests are used to evaluate a student’s performance, however, tests do not take external factors into account. This already means that tests are often inaccurate methods of measuring a students academic potential. Also, the tests do a disservice to students as they evaluate their proficiency at a time of testing, rather than their growth and improvement over the course of the year. The tests have become an outdated method of challenging students and only have negative impacts at this point. The tests develop high levels of stress in students, which is not healthy for an individual during the most important development years of their lives. Eliminating these tests will assist students in the long run as they can accommodate more time towards learning information rather than stressing over a single test. By replacing tests with more in-class lessons students will be free of constant stress and still learn the curriculum. Research shows that students are unable to remember information on standardized tests in the long run, therefore, by spending more time learning and understanding information, students are able to have a better understanding of topics. Therefore, by removing standardized tests students will be provided with a better, more effective, and fair educational
Although standardized testing is commonly used in most schools and educational intuitions nowadays, it does not measure a student’s intelligence. As such, standardized testing should be revoked because, not only is it an unreliable way of measuring a student’s performance, it also pressures educators and creates a grade conscious mindset. Schools should focus more on the development of students, rather than ranking them based on the grades they receive on a test. Not only are standardized tests an undependable way of grading, but also, it does not promote life skills the student will need when growing