If a student is having a bad day or going through a rough time on a test day, this may also determine their entire semester’s work. Standardized tests are often based on one topic, giving the student little room to express their strong points. Tests are called "high-stakes" when they used to make major decisions about a student, such as high school graduation or grade promotion. Tests are called "standardized" when all students answer the same questions under similar conditions and their responses are scored in the same way. Research has shown that high-stakes testing causes damage to individual students and education.
Standardized testing, as it is being used presently, is a flawed way of testing the skills of today’s students. Too much time is being devoted to preparing students for standardized tests. Parents should worry about what schools are sacrificing in order to focus on raising test scores. Schools across the country are cutting back on, or even eliminating programs in the arts, recess for young children, field trips, electives for high school students, class meetings, discussions about current events, the use of literature in the elementary grades, and entire subject areas such as science (if the tests cover only language arts and math) (Kohn Standardized Testing and Its Victims 1). Alfie Kohn, author of The Case against Standardized Testing, recalls a specific incident of how children are being cheated out of valuable class time.
This is detrimental to the student body by not allowing a them to be properly +assessed. Throughout the last century, American education has used standardized testing to assess the aptitudes and achievement of our students. These tests have been used to make informed decisions about curriculum and instruction. The validity of the tests have been questioned. Standardized timed tests are really just about a student's performance in a determined amount of time on a given day.
For example, if the educator saw that a certain student had particular interest in a topic but that certain topic was not being assessed in the exam his or her interest would most likely not be drawn upon. The end result is an increase in students dropping out of school because of their lack of motivation. Three million young Americans drop out of hi... ... middle of paper ... ...by "teaching to the test", therefore their students are way more prepared than those in the United States for life and work. It is obvious that the United States school board should look into changing these Standardized test or just flat out removing them. The United States would most likely see a boost in the amount of students that finish school and graduate.
The current education system implemented by most schools measures a student’s progress using two methods: letter grades and standardized tests. However, the pressure put on students to achieve high grades causes standardized tests to be overlooked throughout the school year. Because of this, students enter tests with false hopes of scoring well when in reality they are severely underprepared. Honor roll students with perfect GPA’s can score in the average percentile if they are not adequately exposed to the test material. Schools should put a larger emphasis on preparation for standardized tests so students will be better equipped to take these tests and receive a score that more accurately reflects their knowledge.
While taking the test, students realize they have not learned some of the material. This is due to poor planning on the states part because, the test is made to test above students’ grade levels. Before, when teachers were making their own teaching plans, they could tell how the test would be from past years and plan accordingly. Poor planning does not only affect the students but the teachers because teachers have to follow a curriculum blindly, they cannot teach their students how to anticipate an unexpected question. The best answer they can give is to try their best and pick the answer that makes the most sense.
State Exams are an unfair way of determining whether a student should or should not receive his or her diploma. Most students work very hard throughout high school to receive good grades. That should be enough to determine whether a student should pass high school. There are many intelligent students which do not have good test taking skills. State exams keep many good students from graduating and teachers have to narrow their lesson plans for these types of State exams.
High School Exit Exams Exit Exams are an unfair way of determining whether a student should or should not receive his or her diploma. Most students work very hard throughout high school to receive good grades. This should be enough to determine whether a student should pass high school. There are many intelligent students which do not have good test taking skills, exit exams keep many good students from graduating and teachers have to narrow their lesson plans for these types of exit exams. These are all good reasons why exit exams should not be required in graduating from high school.
Do standardized tests really improve the quality of public education? For years they have been used to judge schools' academic performance and assess the needs of students. No longer can illiterates be graduated from high school. No longer can teachers pass a student from one grade to another without having taught that student anything (Spellings). While these advances are beneficial, standardized exams often hurt already disadvantaged schools, promote states to lower their standards of education, and cause schools to focus more on the exams themselves rather than on their students' actual learning (Karp).
Under this act, achievement is measured annually on a multiple-choice test for reading and math. Statewide progress objectives are created to “ensure” students will be proficient within 12 years. Although this act has good intentions, it’s approach is weakening over education system. By holding each school accountable based on test score,... ... middle of paper ... ...and the financial support for schools need to be adjusting in order to see improvements. Putting children into specific classes based on their successes during standardized tests is not fair to kids who had a bad day, missed a bit too much school, or have yet to understand the importance of trying.