Intro
The purpose of standardized testing is to help guide the teachers teach students the basics of what they need to know in order to move ahead in school. These tests are standard for core classes in any grade but differ from state to state. For Virginia it’s SOLs (standards of learning) in Arizona it’s AIMS (Arizona’s instrument to measure standards), although the name differs the purpose it the same in all states. These tests are to measure how much the students have learned throughout the year. To help improve the results from these tests, the no child left behind act was created in 2001. The bill does this by making the states and schools more accountable for the student’s progression. It improves the academic achievements for the disadvantaged; improve basic programs operated by local educational agencies, and many other things. Unfortunately educational tests like the SOLs and other standardized tests don’t offer much in the way of improved academic outcomes.
Math testing does not improve academic outcomes.
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.
Also while United state’s eighth-graders already rank lower in math than students in five other “the results of a report issued by trends in international Mathematics and Science study (TIMSS) reveal that US eighth-graders ranked lower in math than students in five other countries, whi...
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Shriberg, D., & Shriberg, A. B. (Eds.). (2006, Fall). high-stakes testing and dropout rates. Dissent, 53(4). Retrieved from http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SVC00091-0-3436&artno=0000269881&type=ART
Standardized Tests: Whose Standard Is It? (1995, March 1). Contemporary Women’s Issues . Retrieved from http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/elibweb/elib/do/document?set=search&dictionaryClick=&secondaryNav=&groupid=1&requestid=lib_standard&resultid=1&edition=&ts=793C892686A3D30491965AC8AAA269E1_1267206624279&start=1&publicationId=&urn=urn%3Abigchalk%3AUS%3BBCLib%3Bdocument%3B125093447
Warren, J. R., & Grodsky, E. (Eds.). (2009, May). Exit Exams Harm Students Who Fail Them--And Don’t Benefit Students Who Pass Them . Phi Delta Kappan, 90(9). Retrieved from http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SVA1628-0-5416&artno=0000294152&type=ART
First introduced in the early 1900’s, standardized testing was a way to allow students of a lesser social standing a more equal opportunity
Miltich, Matthew. "Standardized Testing and Assessment Do Not Improve Education." Education: Opposing Viewpoints. New York: Greenhaven, 2005. 151-54. Print.
Another major criticism of the “No Child Left Behind” deals with the implications of using a standardized test as means of assessing achievement.
The act encouraged states to conduct standardized testing so that schools nationally could reach a proficiency level of 100 percent in math and reading as projected. However, the problem is that the Unites State has only met a twenty to thirty percent proficiency rate. Compared to other advanced countries, the U. S. has met only twenty-fifth in Math and a decrease in Science at twenty-five percent. Even though billions of dollars have been dedicated toward the academic achievement of the public school system, the Coleman Report revealed negative outcomes in the standardized test scores. This is when Americans confirmed how the system was broken.
Standardized tests have historically been used as measures of how students are compared with one another or how much of a particular curriculum they have learned throughout the semester or year. Consequently, standardized tests are being used to make major decisions about students, such as grade promotion or high school graduation, and higher education evaluation. Various numbers of students across America have had to repeat classes because of the way standardized tests are used to pass or fail students. Although the tests require students to retain information until the end of the semester, I believe it is wrong to allow just a single test to decide whether an entire semester’s work will be rewarded with the credits that may have been well-earned. Some standardized testing such as the SAT, are not fair to students who may come from a poor educational background and do not retain information as their fellow peers. Students are at a disadvantage if they have test taking anxiety, which is a condition that many students suffer from “a feeling someone might have in a situation where performance really counts or when the pressure's on to do well” (Test Anxiety). Standardized tests give a false pretense of objectivity and consequently of equal opportunity. However, "the only goal of standardized tests is the scoring, which is done by machine" (Facts on Standardized Tests and Assessment Alternatives). It is made clear that the purpose of testing is to provide information to be used in conjunction with, not in pl...
How standardized are standardized tests? In America, we strive to perfect them as well as give our students an education they deserve but at what cost? Standardized tests have been the easiest way to ultimately evaluate a student against every other student in America. However, standardized tests are not as great as they are made out to be. We need to take a step back and look at the faults of standardized tests. Quite simply: Standardized tests are not standardized.
Evans, Donia. "The Case Against Standardized Tests." The Meridian Star. 24 Nov. 2013. The Meridian Star. 01 Dec. 2013 .
At a time of wide public concern about the state of education, the legislation sets in place requirements that reach into virtually every public school in America. The law emphasizes accountability, teacher quality, parent choice, improved teaching methods, and flexibility. (Correa) Strict requirements and deadlines have been set for states to expand the scope and frequency of student testing, revamp their accountability system and guarantee that every classroom is staffed by a ?highly qualified? teacher in his or her own subject area. (I ed) The plan also mandates annual student testing in reading and math by 2005, and requires all school districts to allow students in consistently low-performing schools to transfer to higher performing schools, at the districts expense. (Hull) From year to year, states are required to improve the quality of their schools. No Child Left Behind has expanded the federal ...
In the contemporary American education system high-stakes standardized testing has resulted in a focus on extensive test preparation, as well as a large increase in the numbers of teachers cheating by alternating their students' test scores. Both these phenomena are a direct consequence of the incentives and punishments directly linked to standardized test results.
America’s children have found increasing difficulty with school. The curriculum in schools is claiming to be harder in higher levels, but the lack of focus and direction in the younger grades has made for decreased grade levels and lower mastery in several basic areas such as math, writing, and reading skills. Standardized test scores are at an all time low, as increasing amounts of children progress through the educational system having not at...
As stated earlier, many states require a student to pass a certain test in order to receive a diploma. This results in many capable students, who have finished all of their requirements, being denied their diplomas. If the Valedictorian does not pass the exit exam, are you going to bar him or her from graduating? It is a fact that some people are better at taking tests than other people. Intelligent students who challenge themselves throughout their high school careers and have high grade point averages can do poorly on a test, while a student who has only taken basic level classes can score significantly higher. Is that a fair representation of what ...
Chappell, Bill. (3 December 2013). U.S. Students Slide In Global Ranking On Math, Reading, Science. National Public Radio. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/12/03/248329823/u-s-high-school-students-slide-in-math-reading-science
As child growing up some of the frightful memories include a visit to the dentist; an evil man with scary drill whose solve purpose is to hurt you or the first day in elementary school you finally leave all behind the cozy classrooms and nap times of kindergarten and enter the big leagues. All of these are considered a cakewalk compared to standardize testing. Since the start of elementary school students in the United States are taught to test. In many instances students are held back or placed in remedial classes because of lower grades. But many don’t realize that some students are not great at testing taking and because of the lower grades some educators believe that these students are lower achievers. This leads to lower self-esteem and encourage students to drop out in later years. Also students are forced to memorize information merely as facts without sparking their creativity or enhancing their knowledge.
...arisons of math scores tend to be mixed for children in the first grade here and abroad. But by the time children have reached the fifth grade, the scores have diverged dramatically. Even when culturally fair tests are used, American students still fail to perform up to the level of their Asian counterparts. As Stevenson reported: "Even the best American schools were not competitive with their counterparts in Asia on mathematics achievement . . . The highest-scoring American school falls below the lowest-scoring Asian schools."'
Sacks, Peter. "The Toll Standardized Tests Take." National Education Association. 2000. Web. 2 July 2015.