The educational expectations placed upon schools today continues to exceed. With the pressure growing increasingly tiresome by higher up school officials, both teachers and students find themselves stuck in the middle with no possible way out. Of all the many standards schools are held to, there is one that stands out above all. This standard has the ability to bring a school down to its knees if taken lightly and shatter any academic dreams students may have if not passed. The process is referred to as standardized test. Children who are in grades 1 – 11 are subjected to take these test. While high school seniors for example, often find themselves worrying about the SAT and, ACT test in order to gain entrance into colleges they wish to attend.
This test however, students are subjected to a “multiple-choice test in four subject areas which includes English, mathematics, reading, and science” (Ingersoll 7). The test is designed to measure students “current levels of educational development in these subjects.” If the student chooses to take the written section of the test which is in fact optional, he or she will be scored and measured by their skills in planning and writing a short essay. Both colleges and universities depend on these scores heavily, and in some cases it causes students who seek to further their education to miss the opportunity of a life time. At some point throughout this process, one must ask, are standardized test heavily depended on a students’ academic career plan? After experiencing first-hand the power these scores possess, I for one believe that schools place too much power and judgment into the SAT, ACT, and other standardized test exam scores. According to Jasmine Evans, an education mentor that believed the reason standardized test are being ramped up, is due to the adoption of the No Child Left Behind Act. The act was aimed to hold all schools and education systems to a higher standard based on the tests scores students
According to Ben Bernstein this theory causes a “disconnect between what the teachers are providing and what the students are really learning” (302). Because of this, schools begin to find themselves being forced to make these tough decisions about what classes to offer or accommodate for the time being spent preparing for standardized tests. Subjects such as art, music, and certain physical sciences for example that involves “The 7 Styles of Learning”, often times find themselves being excluded outside the loop of standardized testing and due to this nature, experience being eliminated from schools. Once that happens students (like myself), who enjoy to experience hands-on, visual, and physical learning fall behind in the shadows of education if they aren’t able to grasp the learning techniques for successful test taking
Standardized tests, such as the SAT and the SOL, have been implemented for many years now for individuals in grade school to take. The SOL’s, or Standards of Learning tests, are Virginia’s version of standardized tests that students are required to take in order to pass a class, evaluating their knowledge on a specific subject. SOL’s are mandatory for students to take as soon as they reach third grade. Additionally, the SAT is a test taken in the final years of high school that colleges look at when comparing students for post-secondary school. People concerned with student’s education can come to the common consensus that education is important and there should be some way to compare a student’s achievements to one another. However, the process
Standardized testing requires student to answer same or similar questions with given answer choices that are often in multiple choice or true or false form. Dating back from 2200 B.C standardized testing is recorded being used in China ,where people applying for government jobs had to take an examination ,testing their knowledge on confucian philosophy and poetry.During the mid-1800s in Industrial Revolution ,soon after child labor laws were enacted taking children out of farms and factories and putting them into schools the use of standardized test was introduced to America in Boston. Standardized testing was being used to compare schools and teaching quality; Boston’s program was soon adopted nation wide. Types of standardized test including the most common achievement tests and aptitude test. Achievement test measure the progress a student has made academically in a time period. Whereas an aptitude test attempt to predict a student’s ability to succeed academically.Standardized test are used on a large scale because computers can score them quickly, consistently, and inexpensively rather than open ended essay questions which need to be evaluated essay by essay, though essay questions allow for deeper thinking.The purpose for standardized testing is to create a standard on which all students can learn equally,but in “The Real threat to American Schools” by Alfie Kohn, the author claims that idea of standards might not be true. The author makes an interesting point in that if the possibility that all students met the state standards and passed all the tests would those students be considered ‘perfectly educated’ of would the politicians and test takers believe instead that the test was too easy and the standards were too low. B...
One time I heard a teacher at my old high school tell a new teacher that their job is to teach to the test and nothing else. I did not really know what she meant, but I knew something about what she said sounded very wrong. I thought why are they just teaching us how to pass the test instead of just teaching us what we need to know? Later I found out that whether or not I graduate depends on passing the test. The idea of standardized testing to say whether or not students graduate is a bad one. Not just bad for schools, principals, and teachers, but it can mean the end of a student’s future before it begins. That means not only does schools suffer, but everyone in our communities, states, and country suffers. It used to be that students had to take standardized tests every year. The results of these tests said what school districts would get more money or less money for the next school year. And it would also tell schools and teachers if some students needed to be put into higher level programs such as gifted and talented or advanced placement courses or if they were having problems and should be put in special education.
Many people agree that standardized tests are a reasonable evaluation of a student’s capability. Standardized tests originated in the mid-1800s, in the American education system. W. James Popham defines standardized testing by “any test that’s administered, scored, and interpreted in a standard, predetermined manner” (“Is the Use of…,” 2013). After the No Child Left behind Act (NCLB) came about in the early 2000s, the use of standardized testing became popular. NCLB required yearly testing for specific grades and subjects. If schools did not demonstrate adequate improvement, they were either closed or run by the state. This was done so the state and the tax payers of the schools knew that students were learning and knowing the material. Tax payers especially wanted to make sure their money was going to good use (“Is the Use of…,” 2013). High scores on standardized tests can result in funding for the school, along with bonuses to the facility and staff of the school.
Almost every person who has graduated from high school has taken the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), which is generally used for college admissions. We all remember the stress of taking a test that could affect our future educational plans. Now due to the “No Child Left Behind Act” of 2001, this kind of test is now being administered to children from the 3rd to 8th grades as a way to determine if the school or teachers are educating them properly. High-stakes standardized tests of this nature should not be used to determine the educational abilities of either schools or the teachers.
Standardized testing is a type of test usually serve to determine how well you understand a concept which is often used for placement. These types of test include questions in a form of an essay, short answers, multiple choices, or a combination of these together and are given out as early as in kindergarten. This practice has been used for so long that it has become a part of the American culture. Every year, high school juniors and seniors worldwide take the SAT or the ACT in the hope that they score high enough to get into their dream school. However, there has been a lot of ongoing debates revolving around the idea of the use of standardized testing in college admission and the whether or not they are effective in determining a student’s
Since elementary school, students have been sharpening their No. 2 pencils, preparing to fill in the bubbles on their standardized tests. To younger children, these tests aren’t a very big deal. But little do they know that the tests they take in elementary school are practice for the biggest test they will take in their lives. This test is the ACT, or the SAT. These tests are a huge deal. Students’ results on these tests could change their plans for the future, and that’s a lot of pressure. So are these tests really all that they are made out to be? Are they really that important enough to stress about so much? Many people have started to say that standardized tests are hurting American schools, and that they put too much pressure on students.
Standardized tests have been a scourge of student life in America for more than fifty years. Throughout the United States, high school students prepare for months for the day in which they have to take out their No. 2 pencils, to endure four everlasting hours of bubbling-in answers. The ACT, American College Testing, and its counterpart, the SAT, Scholastic Assessment Test, are known as the high school exit exams, in which they have become one of the largest determining factors in the college-admissions process. Both standardized tests judge a student 's performance, in which it measures how well students learned skills to meet state standards. Although standardized tests are meant to measure what one learns in high school in order to determine
Students should not have to take a test just to enter in to college because students are more than a test score, they are people too. Why are students compared with a test score that – more often than not - does not reflect their academic ability? These tests are biased because people write the questions and, therefore, they can make the question wordy and choose which ones to omit (Pollard). These test do not measure a person’s intelligence; rather, their test taking ability. As proof, the ACT science portion of the test do not pertain to science knowledge at all; rather, it ...
Standardized testing is something all students fear no matter what grade they are in. Whether they are in elementary school and middle school and have to 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 conformed to take them. There are many ways students are being confirmed to take them, one being that they are impulsed. It 's either a student takes the standardized test or fears that 's they will be left behind. For instance, some colleges will not even accept students if they have no taken SATs. This helps prove the point that each adolescent is taking some sort of standardized test, even if they do not want to. Also, they begin to conform students to take standardized testing as early as kindergraden. Thinking on kindergraden many think about coloring, reading on the big red carpet with the teacher as well as just having fun being a kid. But now even kindergraderners are feeling the wrath of conformity down their necks because of standardized testing. With prep books to help them prepare for the standardized testing they are unable to go outside and play and just be kids because they are inside studying for an exam. (book cover) Furthermore with standardized testing there is also an upwards trend of students being
In today’s society, the process of college admissions dominates the life of high schoolers and has become extremely competitive. Central to most college applications are standardized test scores. Whether they be ACT or SAT, standardized testing is required by most universities to use as a baseline evaluator for applicants. These scores are help admissions offices fairly compare students from different schools and areas of the country and allow applicant to distinguish themselves from others. Yet, standardized tests also inhibit creativity and imagination by limiting tests to memorable facts and inconsequential information. Additionally, students from wealthy backgrounds have a significant advantage when taking standardized tests, which often
One of the most popular standardized tests is the SAT which is short for the Scholastic Assessment Test. The goal of the SAT is to predict how well a student will do in his or her first year in college. There are two kinds of SATs: SAT I, which is a college readiness test, and the SAT II, which is just a subject test. The SAT I contains three subjects: Reading, Writing, and Mathematics. It has ten sub-sections that average twenty-five minutes each and all deal with the three main subjects. Almost every question has multiple choices with up to four given choices to choose from per question. According to the creators of this test and the colleges that require an applying student to take it, reading, writing, and mathematics are the three most important academic subjects to know and understand before going into a college. But how well does the SAT accurately predict a student’s college success? According to research, not very well. In the book Standardized Testing, Fair Test, which is the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, states that “The SAT I has li...
Ninety percent of secondary schools in the world today use standardized tests with only a 60% passing rate. Ankur Singh, a high school student, was ready for his Advanced Placement Classes (AP) but found that his excitement would soon turn into frustration and failing grades. Singh went into his class expecting to analyze character and themes of literature, but instead he found his entire year to be filled with 50 minute, questions based essays to prepare for the upcoming standardized tests. Rather than continuing his outstanding previous pattern of academic excellence, he began to do very poorly in his AP classes. Singh expressed his frustration by stating that all of his AP classes taught specifically around college preparation and standardized tests rather than focusing on genuine learning. He continued to state, “I’m not being challenged. My classes are easy. All I have to do is memorize the textbook and spew it out on the test. I’m not learning anything. I’m not growing.” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2012/11/09/one-teens-standardized-testing-horror-story-and-where-it-will-lead/) Not only do parents and students disagree with standardized tests, educators are finally standing up against it. At Seattle Garfield high school, the teachers unanimously decided to not administer the reading and math standardized tests. Teachers sent letters to the parents giving the parents an option to opt out of their student taking the test. Teachers comment that these tests are “inappropriate measure of teacher’s effectiveness of teaching.” (http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/11/when-parents-yank-their-kids-out-of-standardized-tests/281417/) Hiss, a former dean of admissions from Bates College in Lewiston, ...
One of the biggest topics in the educational world is standardized tests. All fifty states have their own standards following the common core curriculum. There are many positives and negatives that go with the standardized tests. A standardized test is any type of “examination that's administered and scored in a predetermined, standard manner” (Popham, 1999). These standardized tests are either aptitude tests or achievement tests. Schools use achievement tests to compare students.
Standardized testing is not an effective way to test the skills and abilities of today’s students. Standardized tests do not reveal what a student actually understands and learns, but instead only prove how well a student can do on a generic test. Schools have an obligation to prepare students for life, and with the power standardized tests have today, students are being cheated out of a proper, valuable education and forced to prepare and improve their test skills. Too much time, energy, and pressure to succeed are being devoted to standardized tests. Standardized testing, as it is being used presently, is a flawed way of testing the skills of today’s students.