Standardized Testing: Is There Too Much at Stake?

592 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Controversy of standardized testing

In today’s day and age, the public school system has made it more and more rigorous to pass and graduate. One of the steps that students are now required to take is that they are now required to take a standardized based assessment. In many educational systems, if students do not pass this test they would not be allowed to pass to the next grade or even graduate in some cases. Not only does this test have severe negative consequences for them if they do not pass, but they also have negative consequences toward their instructors and their school. If students do not show growth or show proficiency this may affect their teachers’ pay or even their jobs. Schools may be unable to receive proper funding if their test scores do not show growth, which could cause a school to become less functional than they already are. There are many problems with the way that standardized testing is implemented in our public school system as stated above.
A total of more than 525 public schools in the state of Texas have signed a national resolution that calls for an end to the overemphasis to standardized testing. (Parents for Public Schools Inc.) “The resolution states that the over-emphasis on standardized testing has ‘caused considerable collateral damage in too many schools, including narrowing the curriculum, teaching to the test, reducing love of learning, pushing students out of school, driving excellent teachers out of the profession and undermining school climate.’” (Parents for Public Schools Inc.) This resolution also called for a reform that creates a new system based on multiple ways of assessing student growth and knowledge. Last month, President Obama granted relief from the requirements from the “No Child Left Behind” Act to st...

... middle of paper ...

...gress should be used. This is proved by the school systems in New York City; Campbell’s law also proves that the results from high stake assessments will be skewed; the cause of this is most likely cheating.

Works Cited

Amrein, Audrey L and David C Berliner. "An Analysis of Some Unintendedand Negative Consequences of High-Stakes Testing." December 2002. National Education Policy Center. 24 March 2014. .
Great Schools Partnership. English-Language Learner. 29 August 2013. 24 March 2014. .
Miller, Johanna E. High Stakes Testing. 2012. 24 March 2014. .
Parents for Public Schools Inc. Too Much Emphasis on Testing? 2014. 24 March 2014. .

Show More
Related

  • The Negative Effects Of Standardized Testing

    1149 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the United States of America, Standardized testing has become a way of life for students and children, especially in public schools. Many argue that standardized testing does not measure the students as a whole, takes up valuable classroom time, and creates drastic mental health problems in students and teachers. In recent years, a controversy surrounding the idea of standardized testing has been brought forth as something that needs to be changed or adapted to the growing needs of today’s students and this can be examined when exploring the negative effects, the testing has had on society’s future.

    Read More

  • Standardized Testing Has a Negative Effect on American Youth

    1129 Words  | 3 Pages

    This is precisely the problem. Standardized tests are old and outdated, and the harm they cause to America’s education system by far outweighs the benefits. These tests were intended to monitor and offer ways to improve how public schools function, but instead they have impaired the natural learning ability of students and imposed upon the judgment of experienced educators. Although a means to evaluate the progress of public schools is necessary, it is also necessary to develop more modern and effective ways of doing so. Standardized testing mandated by the federal and state governments has a negative effect on the education of America’s youth.

    Read More

  • The Shortcomings of Standardized Testing

    1649 Words  | 4 Pages

    Since the U.S. Congress passed the No Child Left Behind program, standardized testing has become the norm for American schools. Under this system, each child attending a school is required to take a standardized test at specific grade points to assess their level of comprehension. Parents, scholars and all stakeholders involved take part in constant discussions over its effectiveness in evaluating students’ comprehension, teachers’ competency and the effects of the test on the education system. Though these tests were put in place to create equality, experts note that they have created more inequality in the classroom. In efforts to explore this issue further, this essay reviews two articles on standardized testing. This essay reviews the sentiments of the authors and their insight into standardized examination. The articles provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate that standardized tests are not effective at measuring a teacher’s competency because they do not take into account the school environment and its effect on the students.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Standardized Testing In Public Schools

    1026 Words  | 3 Pages

    Do you like being bombarded with the stress of having to take so many tests? In 1845 the US brought standardized testing in the subjects spelling, geography, and math into public schools (Standardized Testing 1). Standardized tests were made to swiftly assess students abilities (Standardized Testing 1). The No Child Left Behind Act in 2002 mandated testing in all 50 states. In the article, “Standardized Tests,” it states that “US students slipped from 18th in the world in math in 2000 to 31st place in 2009, with a similar decline in science and no change in reading” (Use of Standardized Tests 5). Blame of the decline in rates are on poverty levels, teacher quality, tenure policies, and increasingly on the pervasive use

    Read More

  • The Case Against Standardized Tests

    1087 Words  | 3 Pages

    Standardized testing assesses students, teachers, and the school itself, which puts a great deal of pressure on the students. High scores show that the school is effective in teaching students, while low test scores make teachers and schools look as though they are not teaching the students properly. This is not always the case. There are teachers who do teach students what they need to know to pass the test, but their students are still unprepared. Although teachers try to improve instruction, student performance is still variable to other factors that the school cannot control.

    Read More

  • High Stakes Testing in the Public School System

    1197 Words  | 3 Pages

    High stakes testing has taken over every school curriculum from kindergarten through twelfth grade; teachers are often expected to “teach to the test.” Students are suffering due to a strict curriculum that is based solely on passing “the test.” Many wonder if high stakes testing is really worth the many sacrifices students and teachers must make. The high stakes testing curriculum deprives many students of valuable learning opportunities and much needed academic training.

    Read More

  • Standardized Testing and Teacher Cheating

    1628 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the contemporary American education system high-stakes standardized testing has resulted in a focus on extensive test preparation, as well as a large increase in the numbers of teachers cheating by alternating their students' test scores. Both these phenomena are a direct consequence of the incentives and punishments directly linked to standardized test results.

    Read More

  • Standardized Tests: Do They Really Work for Raising the Rank of the US in World Education?

    1813 Words  | 4 Pages

    In 2002, President George W. Bush passed the “No Child Left Behind Act” which tied in schools’ public funding to standardized tests and enforced the tests in elementary and high schools every year by state education departments. This law also began to put more emphasize on standardized tests which has diminished our level of education and the law “made standardized test scores the primary measure of school quality” (Diane Ravitch 28). Bush hoped this law motivated more students to do well on these exams and teachers to help them prepare better, but it ended up hurting many schools in the process. These exams like the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) should not play such a prominent role in schooling and the government should not make tests the main focal point.

    Read More

  • Standardized Testing a Failure in Education

    1339 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Sol's Pros And Cons Of Standardized Testing In Schools

    1900 Words  | 4 Pages

    Parents and advocates of education can all agree that they want their students to be in the best hands possible in regards to education. They want the best teachers, staffs, and schools to ensure their student’s success. By looking at the score results from standardized testing, teachers can evaluate effectively they are doing their job. On the other side, a proponent for eliminating standardized testing would argue that not all students care passionately about their education and will likely not perform to expectations on the test. However, receiving the numerical data back, teachers can construe the student’s performances and eliminate the outliers of the negligent kids. Teachers can then look at the individual scores and assign those outliers to get the help they need in school. This helps every student getting an equal chance at education. Overall, taking a practice standardized test can let a teacher look at individual questions and scores and interpret what they need to spend more time on teaching. A school also can reap the benefits from standard testing to ensure they are providing the best possible education they can. The school can look at the average scores from a group and hold the teacher accountable for the student’s results on the test. The school can then determine the best course of action to pursuit regarding the teacher’s career at the school. By offering teachers and schools the opportunity to grow and prosper, standardized testing is a benefit for the entire education

    Read More

  • Against Standardized Testing Essay

    1331 Words  | 3 Pages

    Standardized testing is not the best way to measure how well a teacher teaches or how much a student has learned. Schools throughout the United States put their main focus on standardized tests; these examinations put too much pressure on the teachers and students and cause traumatizing events. Standardized testing puts strain on teachers and students causing unhealthy occurrences, Common Core is thrown at teachers with no teaching on how to teach the new way which dampers testing scores for all students, and the American College Test determines whether a child gets into college or not based on what they have learned during high school. Standardized tests are disagreeable; tests should not determine ranking of people.

    Read More

  • How Standardized Testing Effects the Education

    2676 Words  | 6 Pages

    tests were primarily employed as measures of student achievement that could be reported to parents, and as a means of noting state and district trends (Moon 2) . Teachers paid little attention to these tests, which in turn had little impact on curriculum. However, in the continuing quest for better schools and high achieving students, testing has become a central focus of policy and practice. Standardized tests are tests that attempt to present unbiased material under the same, predetermined conditions and with consistent scoring and interpretation so that students have equal opportunities to give correct answers and receive an accurate assessment. The idea is that these similarities allow the highest degree of certainty in comparing result...

    Read More

  • Examining the Evolution of Standardized Testing

    1883 Words  | 4 Pages

    Stecher, “The net effect of high-stakes testing on policy and practice is uncertain. Researchers have not documented the desirable consequences of testing—providing more instruction, working harder, and working more effectively—as clearly as the undesirable ones—such as negative reallocation, negative alignment of classroom time to emphasize topics covered by a test, excessive coaching, and cheating. More important, researchers have not generally measured the extent or magnitude of the shifts in practice that they identified as a result of high-stakes testing.” Which means that in completion no test is truly valid or reliable for there are too many mistakes to be had by either the test takers or the Test

    Read More

  • Standardized Testing is NOT Effective

    2388 Words  | 5 Pages

    Sacks, Peter. "The Toll Standardized Tests Take." National Education Association. 2000. Web. 2 July 2015.

    Read More

  • Does Testing Measure a Students Knowledge?

    894 Words  | 2 Pages

    For many years, school systems and parents all over America have been asking- does high school testing measure a student’s knowledge fairly, accurately, and do they benefit the student. The tests do not accurately measure a student’s true academic ability. Furthermore, testing does not always fairly measure a student’s knowledge. High-stakes testing only adds stress to a student’s life. Studies have proven that testing is not beneficial to a student’s educational growth. Testing in high school is affected by different factors; therefore results can be unreliable and not beneficial to the growth of students.

    Read More

More about Standardized Testing: Is There Too Much at Stake?

Open Document