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the importance of standardized tests
standardized testing impact on schools
standardized testing -pros and cons
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Recommended: the importance of standardized tests
“It’s awful. I just cringe every time I walk in the teacher’s room because these tests are the only topic of conservation in there, and it raises your anxiety just to hear how scared everybody is. A few years ago, I really loved teaching, but this is intense… I’m not sure how long I can take it “(Barksdale-Ladd, Thomas 390).
Two major classifications of standardized testing are norm-referenced and criterion-referenced testing. These two tests are the most frequently used and well known method of testing in the United States as well as numerous other countries in the world. The paper will go in detail about the history of standardized tests along with views from the testing companies, school administration, teachers, researchers, students, and parents.
History
Standardized tests have been a part of American education since the mid-1800s. Another form was seen in the late 1970s and early 1980s with a short-lived competency test (Linn 3). Horace Mann developed a test to administer to a group of students in the 1800s, his intentions were to make judgments about how the student was doing at their current level and determine if they would be capable of advancing to a higher level. Testing has changed in many ways since it first appeared with the beginning of public education led by Horace Mann. “The purposes of standardized testing have gone from an equalizer of opportunity to a tool of segregation used separate socio-economic status, wealth, and privilege” (Holmes 2).
Today testing is heavily relied on by school systems in the world. Testing was kicked into high gear in 2001, when the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was created. The act was created to help schools meet 100% with all groups of students in America by the year ...
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Henry, P. (2007). The Case against Standardized Testing. Minnesota English Journal, p. 40-71.
Holmes, Sarah E. (2009). “Standardized Testing and the No Child Left Behind Act: A Failing Attempt at Reform“. English 1200. 12 December 2013.
Lee, L. (2010). What Did The Teachers Think? Teachers’ Responses to the use of value-added modeling as a tool for evaluating teacher effectiveness.
Linn, R.L. (2001). A Century of Standardized Testing: Controversies and Pendulum Swings. Educational Assessment, 7 (1), 29-38.
Mulvenon, S.W., Stegman C. E., & Ritter, G. (2005). Test Anxiety: A Multifaceted Study on the Perceptions of Teachers, Principals, Counselors, Students, and Parents. International Journal of Testing, 5 (1), 37-61.
Wiliam, D. (2010). Standardized Testing and School Accountability. Educational Psychologist, 45(2), 107-122.
Miltich, Matthew. "Standardized Testing and Assessment Do Not Improve Education." Education: Opposing Viewpoints. New York: Greenhaven, 2005. 151-54. Print.
Birman, Beatrice F., et al. "State And Local Implementation Of The "No Child Left Behind Act." Volume VIII--Teacher Quality Under "NCLB": Final Report." US Department Of Education (2009): ERIC. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
The policy “No Child Left Behind (NCLB)” is a policy where Federal legislation has mandated that children be tested, and where there is compliance with standards. Simply means, that all children must meet standards. The standards are defined by the states, and all children will be subject to testing, starting from as early as third grade. The students will be tested annually, in order to ensure that they are getting the type of education that they are entitled to, as determined by their performance on standardized tests.
High-stakes standardized testing greatly impacts the environment in which students learn. When such a huge emphasis is placed on these tests and scoring well on them, it often creates, in excess, unnecessary anxiety and stress. In Florida alone the number of different standardized tests given to students spanned across kindergarten through 12th grade has increased to over sixteen. Often students are faced with the harsh realization that not scoring well can mean the difference from a pass and fail grade. That kind of pressure can lead to a complete shutdown of their learning. Although students are heavily impacted by the pressure and anxiety that accompanies standardized testing, they are not the only ones. Teachers not unli...
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 .
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...
Authors Amy Witherbee and Denise B. Geier of “Point: Standardized Testing is the best Way to Establish Education Standards” say, “Standardized tests are important, not for the testing, but for the standards. They are, in essence, a benchmark that when properly done, sets out for students, teacher, parents, and a nation, goals for the next generation” (1). Standardized testing can aid in measuring student success, but they are not always an accurate representation of a student’s knowledge or a teacher’s capabilities. The key phrase in their claim is “when done properly”, which is not something that is easily said or done. It is nearly impossible to ensure that the system is not being corrupt, or to prove that everyone is testing the same way, “standardized” or not. Some students are simply not good test takers. They could be the next Einstein, but when it comes to their ACT scores students may seem as though they lack basic knowledge. Other students may be master test takers but have no comprehension of what they are answering. Sure, they know the nucleus is the center of the atom, but do they know what that means? These tests are much less accurate than their supporters may
Standardized testing scores proficiencies in most generally accepted curricular areas. The margin of error is too great to call this method effective. “High test scores are generally related to things other than the actual quality of education students are receiving” (Kohn 7). “Only recently have test scores been published in the news-paper and used as the primary criteria for judging children, teachers, and schools.”(2) Standardized testing is a great travesty imposed upon the American Public School system.
Students and teachers both can have anxiety about testing. Teachers can be worried about the students’ performance on a test – a test that does not measure a student’s intelligence unless the student is good at taking tests. A student might be a gifted musician, artist, or athlete, but if they do not pass a standardized test, they are considered unfit for most colleges. Moreover, since the test is so important and they do not want to fail, students might be nervous while taking this test and because of this, they might not perform as well as they could. Also, a student’s self-esteem and self-worth can be lowered if they do not do well on a standardized test. This can be for two different reasons. One, a student might have thought they had done better on the test and the results could not be what they expected and they could feel like a failure. This can cause a student’s self-esteem to be lowered. Two, they might become worried about their future if they don’t receive a high score. There are many students who have the pressure of their family to do well and if they do not, they might become depressed. Even President Obama thought that standardized testing was not a good way to do things. Taken from an article written by Jonathan Glover (2016) of The
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.
Popham, W. James. “Standardized Achievement Tests: Misnamed and Misleading.” Education Week. September 2001. Web. 28 June 2015.
Standardized testing in the United States was not always common practice. In the Mid-1800s, Horace Mann, an education reformist, developed a test to administer to a group of students. Its purpose was to determine how students were performing at their current level and whether they were capable of proceeding to a higher level of education, although the student’s success on the test had no negative repercussions. These tests were a necessity at that time because the idea of public education was still being molded and these tests were the only means by which student progress could be measured. Within 35 years of the first recorded examination in 1845, testing became the factor which determined whether students were able to be promoted to the next grade.
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.