Standardized testing? Those two words are being heard by students all over the world and is beginning to be a repetitive non constructive assessment. This nonconstructive assessment has become relied upon by the school board to somehow grade the students accurately on a subject that is taught in a small window of time. This is a window that is a two week period and doesn't give teachers nor students enough time to learn or teach it. 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. “The passing of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001 is responsible for this shift toward high-stakes standardized testing, requiring the states to adopt a system of accountability based on standardized test scores”(Tager, n.p.).
These days, if a school's standardized test scores are high, people think the school's staff is effective. If a school's test scores are low, they see the school's staff as ineffective. In either aspect because educational quality is being measured by the wrong yardstick, those evaluations are more likely to be an error. One of the chief reasons that students' test scores continue to be the most important factor in evaluating a school. Most educators do not really understand why a standardized test provides a misleading estimate of a school staff's effectiveness.
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... Lu. "States reconsider Common Core tests." McClatchy - Tribune News Service. 26 Jan. 2014 eLibrary. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.
Tager, Jane Anne. "Standardized tests, standardized mess." Asheville Citizen - Times; Asheville, N.C.. 19 May. 2013: A21. eLibrary. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.
"Council of the Greater City Schools Council of the Greater City Schools Holds News Conference on Its Report on Urban School District Performances." N.p.: Narr. . Federal Document Clearing House, 28 Mar. 2005. N. pag. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.
Lestch, Corinne, Ben Chapman, and Jennifer Fermino. "City Students' Scores Take Dramatic Plunge on New Standardized Tests ." NY Daily News. N.p., 7 Aug. 2013. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.
Bui, Lynh, and Ovetta Wiggins. "State Test Scores Drop as Maryland Schools Prepare for Common Core." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 26 July 2013. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.
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.
Strauss, Valerie. "How Standardized Tests Are Affecting Public Schools." Washington Post 18 May 2012: n. pag. Print.
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
"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 .
Standardized testing is a down fall to many students but also an opportunity for many others. Standardized testing has its pros and its cons. It can be the make it or break it factor into getting into colleges you are hoping to attend or the scholarships you want to earn. Some people may have their opinions about the test, whether they hate it or not but the fact is that it’s here to stay.
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.
Strauss, Valerie. "Eight Problems with Common Core Standards." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 21 Aug. 2012. Web. 18 Oct. 2015.
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...
Standardized testing has taken over the education realm and led to a shift in the institutional goals and values of education. In the last 40 years, standardized exams have changed; they were once used to determine the learning level of students, but now they are being used to determine the teacher’s ability. Standardized tests do not measure education quality and are incorrectly used, leading to the wrongful evaluation of teachers and the limiting of education for students by schools.
It's nearing the end of the school year, and students and teachers alike are in a panic. Have the teachers taught enough? Have the students learned enough? All this worry and stress stems from one very specific issue: standardized testing. All of this commotion is just another indicator the standardized testing does more harm than good. Standardized testing is an inefficient and harmful practice that puts too much pressure on students, incorrectly categorizes test-takers, and results in ineffective teaching. (maybe rephrase, order-wise)
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.
Young, Katie. “What’s So Bad About Standardized Testing?” Standardized Testing. Michigan State University, n.d. Web. 17 April 2012.
Urban schools don’t attain significant progress in math achievements “most urban school districts fail to make significant progress in math achievement in the past two years” Hechinger, Wall street Journal, Dec 2009. While exit exams do the least to improve these math test scores “Exit exams do the least to improve the reading or math test scores or already high-achieving students” Hechinger, Wall street Journal, Dec.2009.
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).