Developed in the 1950s as a response to an increased interest in post-secondary education due to the G.I. Bill, the American College Testing Program, known today as ACT, was a non- profit, tax-exempt organization which provided standardized testing services meant to “help students make better decisions about which colleges to attend and which programs to study, and provide information helpful to colleges both in the process of admitting students and in ensuring their success after enrollment” (“ACT.org”). Historically, the ACT has played an integral role in the developing the realms of education and the workforce, and it continues to support both education and workforce development in the 21st century. In 2002, the ACT organization announced a new corporate structure, comprised of “two divisions: Education and Workforce Development. The new governance structure consists of a 14-member Board of Directors, and the expanded advising structure retains the ACT State Organizations but now also includes two distinct Advisory Boards, one for each of the new divisions” (“ACT.org”) calling into question the company’s “non-profit” title. Adorning a corporate title, however, suggests that the role of the ACT organization and its purpose of standardized testing persist as an economic enterprise whose sole purpose is to create revenue.
The ACT organization relies heavily on economic and technical developments that help sustain productivity and reliability of a product. In the case of the non-profit, tax exempt entity of ACT, standardized testing is big business as “every year Americans spend millions on the tests they are required to write in order to be evaluated for admission into undergraduate and graduate programs, and many millions mor...
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...valuation of a text designed by, marketed by, and sold by ACT Incorporated. Ultimately, connecting the history of ACT testing, the creation of a test preparation study guide distributed by a non-profit “corporate” entity, and a qualitative study of technical design is undoubtedly a challenge. However, the findings of such research will potentially challenge or strengthen notions about the validity of both standardized test and test prep materials with respect to technical writing.
Works Cited
Works Cited
"ACT: The First Fifty Years, 1959-2009." ACT.org. Act, Inc., 2009. Web. 1 Oct 2010. .
Carter, Chris. The Case Against Standardized Tests. 6 Oct. 2009. testcritic.homestead.com. 23 Sep. 2010 .
Though standardized testing has played a part in America's education system it took several tries before it played such a large role in education like it does today. The No child left Behind Act of 2002 was the foot hold standardized testing needed in order to be implemented into schools at a national level with such force. During the 1990’s the U.S felt as though it was falling behind on the Programme for International Assessment. “After No Child Left Behind (NCLB) passed in 2002, the US slipped from 18th in the world in math on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) to 31st place in 2009, with a similar drop in science and no change in reading”(walker 1).
Since the release of the report by Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in December of 2010 many in the government and community are searching for ways to reform the American education system to give American students the greatest opportunity to succeed. According to the report, American students are not testing as high as other nations in the world (Duncan, 2010). There are many contributing elements that have brought America to her knees in the education system, however, the obsession with standardized testing is found to be one of the most influential downfalls.
Kohn, Alfie. "Standardized Testing and Its Victims." Education Week. N.p., 27 Sept. 2000. Web. 15 Jan. 2015.
What is a test? The Webster’s New American Dictionary defines a test as “a critical examination or evaluation”. The World Book 2000 Encyclopedia defines testing as “an attempt to measure a person’s knowledge, intelligence, or other characteristics in a systematic way”. The Wisconsin 2004 freshmen will have to take a graduation test in order to graduate their senior year. They have four chances to pass the graduation examination. This paper will explain how the current requirements for graduating compare to the graduation standardized test. Included are the obstacles that are involved with implementing the test, group and individual opinions concerning the graduation test, and a recent survey of people involved with the test.
"The Standardized Testing Debate: The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly." TakePart. N.p., n.d. 22 Feb 2013. Web. 15 May 2014.
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 tests are a tremendous part of most schools’ curriculum in the United States today. These tests are assessments of students’ knowledge on either one or more subjects. Standardized tests are a performance evaluation of students, teachers, and schools due to their importance. A standardized test is distinctive from other tests in two ways. One, it has common questions being answered in the same way and two, it is being scored in a consistent style allowing for comparative performance. Through extensive research Oliver’s and Visone’s statements and overall research have several key differences that shape their own separate arguments. Though their thesis and hypothesis have the same underlying idea that there is a problem with` standardized
In 1997, President Bill Clinton stated that the United States needed, “ a national crusade for education standards - not federal government standards, but national standards, representing what all our students must know to succeed in the knowledge economy of the twenty-first century”(http://books.nap.edu/books/0309062802/html/13.html). The way to succeed in this journey is through standardized testing that results in consequences for teachers and students.
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.
Sacks, Peter. "The Toll Standardized Tests Take." National Education Association. 2000. Web. 2 July 2015.
develop a test for admissions, that was reliable way to measure student achievement without taking into consideration who the test taker was or what background they came from. According to Kevin Finneran, editor of Issues in Science & Technology, Conant believed that through admin...
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.
Gerson, Sharon J. Gerson and Steven M. Technical Writing: Process and Product. Fifth Edition. Prentice Hall Education, Inc., 2006.
Goodman, Paul. “A Proposal to Abolish Testing.” Forming a Critical Perspective, Ed, Ann Spurlock. 1st. Boston, MA: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2010. 191-193. Print.