I have chosen standardized testing as my topic for this research proposal. I chose this topic because I have had to take numerous standardized tests throughout my years of school, and
I do not think they were helpful to me or my education. In my opinion, standardized testing is supposed to tell students if they have learned all of the required material for that grade or course, but in the process of all of this testing, kids have stopped learning for fun. All teachers can do now is teach what will be on tests such as the ISTEP and ECA, and I think that is a problem.
Teachers are no longer allowed to teach what they want because they have to teach the state standards. I chose to write on this topic because I feel like more people should know the
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“Countries such as Belgium and
Asian countries have as many as one standardized test per month” (Barshay, 2014). Even though the United States does not give the most tests, students here still take several different ones per year. I want to gain a lot of knowledge on this topic throughout the course of writing this paper. I want to look into sources who are from other countries and hear their perspective on standardized testing. Asian countries will especially have a strong input since they are the nations who take the most standardized tests per year (Barshay, 2014). I hope to find out why school systems feel that students need to take so many tests and how they think that they are beneficial to students. I would also like to get perspective from teachers and school board members to see whether or not they like their students taking standardized tests. I feel like it
RESEARCH PROPOSAL 3 would be interesting to hear the pros and cons of standardized testing from both teachers and members of the school boards. Some more information that I would like to find out is how standardized testing is different throughout different states as well as other countries around
According to Fyona Rose, “Not only do these tests belittle students' and teachers' hard work, they also leave them with negative feelings toward school and drain their love of learning” (Rose, 2015). This means that standardized testing can ruin the enjoyment of learning for both students and teachers. The reason standardized testing still happens is because it has become a standard for schools each year. But if the standard is bad something should be changed. Many who do not like standardized testing to do not believe that testing should be done away with, but rather be changed to accommodate the growing needs of society as a
The United States of America has placed low on the educational ladder throughout the years. The cause of such a low ranking is due to such heavy emphasis on standardized testing and not individual student achievement. Although the United States uses standardized testing as a crutch, it is not an effective measure of a student’s ability, a teacher’s competency, or a school’s proficiency.
First this paragraph will talk about how students take to many standardized tests. Students take 112 tests on average from pre-K to 12th grade. 112 tests is a lot considering it takes
Young, K. (n.d.). Pros: Standardized Testing. Michigan State University. Est. 1855. East Lansing, Michigan USA. Retrieved December 2, 2010, from https://www.msu.edu/~youngka7/pros.html
Standardized tests should not be used to measure student proficiency. These tests are becoming much more challenging and high stakes, resulting in a significant amount of stress and anxiety in students. Standardized testing has become a huge weight on students which is leading to test anxiety. Jasmine Evans writes in her article “Problems With Standardized Testing,” from Education.com about critics of the No Child Left Behind, an act passed in 2001 one under the administration of George W. Bush, who say that there is a lot of pressure on teachers, students, and parents, and school officials as a result of these tests. They say the pressure to...
Standardized tests have been around for quite a while now, and are used by a large number of schools. These tests are developed by large educational companies, and because they are distributed to such a large number of schools, they’re used as a standard with which to compare students from the state in which they reside, or across the U.S. Most of these tests are fill in the bubble, multiple-choice, versus essay tests, which are more expensive for the schools to have graded. Some of the better known standardized tests are: SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test), ACT (American College Test), CAT (California Achievement Test), ITBS (Iowa Test of Basic Skills), and TAAS (Texas Assessment of Academic Skills).
The United States is ranked in the Top 5 of the world, having the most intelligent people in the world. Being one of the most intelligent countries, our education system is not far from those being ranked higher and lower than the United States. Most countries around the world give their students what is known as a Standardized Test. A Standerized Test is a test given according to standardized procedures to students whose scores are then compared with a given standard. Students have been challenged annually by these tests, and most students do not score in the acceptable range in the United States.
“Students take 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.
Standardized testing is something all students fear, no matter what grade they are in. Whether they are in elementary school and middle school and fear the ELAs or Regents exams, or in high school and fear the SATs, PASTs, APs, ACTs, etc. Even with standardized testing being as feared as they are, students are still being able to take them. There are many ways students are being encouraged to take them, one being that they are impulsed.
The issue of standardized testing has been a highly debated issue in the United States for many years and shows no sign of being resolved any time soon. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 was an effort to standardize and improve our education system, but 13 years later it is still in shambles. While many people agree there is a need for some sort of measure for quality education, there is much disagreement about the effectiveness of standardized tests. Some even say federal programs like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top have gone too far in using test scores to evaluate teachers (Gordon 2013). Unfavorable results from these tests seem to generate more punitive consequences for the teachers and schools than help for the students. The words “high-stakes” are used often in numerous sources to describe the current testing system and refer to decisions that will make a significant impact on both students and teachers. These decisions include repeating a grade or not receiving a diploma for the student and possible loss of a job for the teacher. Standardized testing is an ineffective and expensive way to measure student achievement.
John Bishop of Cornell University found that nations that require standardized tests perform better on international tests compared to nations that don 't (Walberg). But the National Assessment of Educational Progress disagrees. In 2011, only thirty-five percent of U.S. 8th graders were identified as proficient in math. This places the U.S. in thirty-second place in the world (Peterson). But every state in the U.S. requires tests, so why are students performing so poorly? Phillip Harris states, “…[S]tandardized tests inadvertently create incentives for students to become superficial thinkers—to seek the quick, easy, and obvious answer.” For America to start performing well on tests again, we need to take the focus off of our test-taking skills and instead focus on the actual subject matter. To do this, the entire standardized testing system needs to be
"The Standardized Testing Debate: The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly." TakePart. N.p., n.d. 22 Feb 2013. Web. 15 May 2014.
teach to a curriculum handed down by politicians, who have little to no knowledge of how to
Sacks, Peter. "The Toll Standardized Tests Take." National Education Association. 2000. Web. 2 July 2015.
Standardized testing remains to be a major controversial issue for the American society today. Exams are given to students at different levels in their educational career and are supposed to measure their academic knowledge, but are these tests really the best way to evaluate students? There have been numerous alternatives suggested to replace or be used in conjunction with standardized testing.