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Effects of standardized tests on curriculum
Overall effects of standardized testing
Negatives of standardized testing
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Recommended: Effects of standardized tests on curriculum
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. One issue with standardized assessments is the psychometric tendency to eliminate test items. According to a 2012 report by the Center for Education Reform, exam developers keep test items that are answered correctly by 40-60% of students because it allows greater score variance. Items answered correctly by 80% or more of test takers usually do not make it past …show more content…
As a result, instructors are now told to teach to the test and the amount of material presented to students in class is lessened to emphasize the key points on exams that will improve test scores. This lack of curricular diversity affects students more than any other party involved; students are held back from their ultimate potentials due to the mediocrity of information they are presented at school. No longer are schools attempting to produce brighter and higher achieving students, but rather, students who are good test takers. Although this seems to be against the purpose of education, schools must unfortunately consider these options in order to attempt their state receiving more federal funding due to higher test scores. Standardized assessments prevent educators from exercising their role as instructors of all subjects, schools from attempting to build educated and successful students, and students from constructing thoughts abstractly, rather than to the answer of a
Students dread the time of the year when they stop with their course material and begin to prepare for test. Everyone is in agreement that some type of revolution is needed when it comes to education; eliminating standardized test will aid the reform. The need for standardized testing has proven to be ineffective and outdated; some leading educationalist also believe this because the tests do not measure a student’s true potential. This will save money, stop labeling, and alleviate stress in students and teachers.
Michele Obama once stated, “If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn 't be here. I guarantee you that.” The First Lady is, in other words, to say that standardized testing was a major factor into her life’s outcome and her scores could have potentially not put her in her position of power that she is highly recognized in today’s society. Although standardized tests do play a large role in any college application, standardized testing may not count as much toward one’s college admissions or success because standardized tests are not the only factor toward college applications, these tests only benefit a specific target group of people, and standardized tests are better used for giving insight on one’s
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.
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.
The Standardized Testing System, instituted in the public school system, has been used as a guideline in assessing a student’s comprehension of the subjects taught in the classroom and for measuring a teacher’s aptitude of relating the subject material to the students (Fletcher). Florida has instituted a new Bill SB-736 that will now no longer grant teacher’s tenure, and will use the scores from the FCAT to decide whether a teacher will keep their job. While originally created to help the school system, standardized testing has been shown to have many problems, and even to cause harm to students, teachers, and schools. The standardized testing system must be severely revamped, as well as the way the scores affect the schools the students attend.
Standardized testing doesn’t provide a true picture of a student’s ability. According to the article “Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing”, Standardized testing evaluates a student’s performance on one particular day and does not take into account external factors. Meaning that the student is judged on how smart they are with this test. This is unfair because there are many people who are smart but have test anxiety allowing them not to focus on the test. Many other people understand the subject and know what to do but don’t show it on the test.
Do standardized tests measure a student’s intelligence or ability to think critically? How does the ACT and SAT play a big role in placing students in categories without any real concept of that student’s capabilities? There are many reasons standardized tests are used; to get an idea of where a student is academically in the school year, to see how much a grade has improved academically year after year, as well as, what schools a student can attend throughout their schooling careers. Standardized tests have a variety of different uses, but unfortunately do not define any particular student’s intellect.
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 been around since the industrial age where we began to see children returning from the factory to classrooms. After not being in the classroom for months or years, these kids were behind their grade levels’ skill set (Lee). The standardized test was introduced as a way to determine these missing skills. Unfortunately, the use of standardized testing has grown into the key assessment for students, teachers, schools, states, and countries. Such high stakes testing creates a learning environment where creativity is limited and stress is high for both students and teachers. Many schools have become less focused on learning and more on the memorization of test materials. Although many administrators and lawmakers believe standardized testing is a good way to evaluate student progress and teacher performance, standardized tests can create additional stress, loss of creativity, enjoyable educational circumstances and can be biased against certain 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.
Throughout the course of history, standardized tests have been implemented within the education system. These tests, however, have caused more harm than good, and there needs to be a change. Schools are no longer focusing on educating students on the material for the class, rather teachers are teaching students how to take the test and the information that is within it. Due to this, students have learned that these tests should be taken seriously, creating stress and anxiety the night before and during the test. Standardized testing is used to show how well students are learning; however, not all students are the same. In order to fix the problems that standardized testing has caused, change need to be done. If a system like common core was
“64 percent of Americans (and 67 percent of public school parents) say there is “too much emphasis on testing (Walker).” Standardized testing assess how well schools are teaching the content that a state believe is necessary knowledge. Schools place so much emphasis on scoring well on state tests because the state governments began “specifying goals, measuring outputs to ascertain whether the government was spending money wisely, and holding educators and students accountable for their performance.” This idea has continued to be used, even though it has been refined (Firestone). The emphasis can cause issues in students, teachers, and school districts.
Scores on standardized tests do not define a student’s worth. Nor does it define their work ethic, what they’re good at, or how smart they are. If they’re bad at math, does that mean that their job isn’t going to hire them? Or say chemistry just isn’t their thing; would their chosen college turn them down?
The year 2015 is rapidly coming to an end. Sadly, that means it won’t be long until standardized tests come back into student’s lives. Standardized testing is necessary just not as much of it! Too much time is wasted, teachers and students are measured, and tests are too stressful are all reasons that students should have less testing.
“If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn't be here. I guarantee you that.” This quote by Michelle Obama illustrates the idea that standardized testing should not have such a large influence on education in America. However, a majority of people are under the impression that standardized tests are an accurate method to measure a person's intellectual ability. I believe that standardized tests have developed into a very critical part of the American education system that is hindering the growth of students and teachers instead of providing a tool that can accurately measure knowledge.