Considering the great amount of money that is poured into education, you would think that we are producing geniuses by the freight-car load, however assessment geared toward measuring academic intelligence seems to suggest otherwise. First of all, the method used for measuring, standardized testing, can be greatly flawed just from the virtue that it’s a test. Tests are often described as tedious and nerve-wracking. Anxiety levels are higher than normal, and performance levels can be significantly suppressed. Many times we’ve heard people say that they choke or freeze up in test-taking situations. So is there any surprise that test results aren’t able to make as accurate of an assessment as we’d like to think? The results of the test often come …show more content…
Political groups are incented for poor performance, while better performance incents a public platform. Additionally there are reports that reveal that where schools have subpar performance on standardized tests, there has been a decrease in property value. It’s only common sense that achievement paves the way to effectiveness and students, like adults, are more effective if they understood what they have to gain. What would be the advantage in the success of the experience and how can the experience be applied in the future? Who should be responsible for student performance on assessments that carry so much weight in areas more than just school? Parents? Students? Teachers? There just doesn’t seem to be clear answers to any of these …show more content…
When I look back on my educational experiences at St. Mary’s Catholic School I have a greater appreciation now than ever before. Now that I have gained enough education to be able to understand the structure and the process of education during that period of my life I have a better understanding of what educating the whole person means. I believe very strongly that my elementary, middle school and high school teachers, principals and students were all on the same page and delivered on what should the model for education anywhere. The school administrators and teachers understood what to do to ensure learning took place among students throughout those fundamental years. They knew how to deliver that education and most importantly they knew why they were there to educate us. Understanding the why is the most important factor of all. The most successful individuals, organizations, companies, and schools, are the ones where they understand why they exist. “There is nothing more disturbing to me than an organization that can’t articulate why they do what they
Last week President Obama announced that he believes the school in america should have less standardized tests. President Obama says “students are spending too much time in the classroom taking tests, many of them unnecessary, and urged officials in the country’s schools to take steps to administer fewer and more meaningful exams.” The white house agrees by saying “a problem the administration acknowledged it has played a role in — has taken away too much valuable time that could be better spent on learning, teaching and fostering creativity in schools. To curb excessive testing, Obama recommended limiting standardized exams to no more than 2% of a student's instructional time in the classroom.” This would allow the student to spend more
There are also much better ways to test a student’s capability to learn; a 2006 Center on Education Policy conducted a study and found that a curriculum that follows state standards and uses the test data as feedback led to higher scores than those that prioritized test-taking skills. When teachers are more focused on teaching material rather than test strategies, their students benefit from it (“Do Standardized Tests Show an Accurate View of Students’ Abilities?”). Several alternative methods to state assessments for measuring a student’s academic success include comparing high school graduation rates and the number of dropouts, offering advanced placement courses, and looking at the percentage of the former students that are admitted to colleges. State assessments are more harmful than helpful to students; they are a large cause of test anxiety and a majority of teachers can never fully prepare their students. Although state assessments are an easy way to be able to see the growth of students, that does not mean that they are the best
In theory these tests are a perfect way to boost the education system but in reality it causes a lot of problems and hasn’t helped all that
Learning is not a one-size-fits-all principle. Kids and our schools shouldn't have their whole futures riding on how well children can fill in little circles, to be scored by machines. Others claim that Standardized testing is a good way to measure students learning. They want to make sure that high school graduates are have acquired the knowledge and skills they need for further education and adult life. “Over
World domination. It may simply begin through the depths of an evil scientist, but in reality, standardized tests are the culprit. Standardized Testing: two words that as soon as teachers, their students, and administrators hear this, they fret. The day where all outstanding abilities acquired throughout the year is assessed at once. All this joyful news of how standardized testing supposedly creates miracles of our knowledge, increasing student achievement, may be proven wrong or right, but that is not our deepest concerns.
One of the effects of the increased number and heightened stakes of standardized tests is that the roles played by teachers have changed. Specifically, teachers’ institutional tasks have increased because they are expected to take up work related to testing in addition to their regular teaching duties. Institutional tasks include: • collecting, organizing, and analyzing data associated with tests • grouping and regrouping students according to test performance • developing vertical articulation of the curriculum to align with tests • coordinating students’ assignments, based on test scores, to remedial programs As a result of spending more time on institutional tasks like these, teachers have less time for instruction in their own classrooms. One study found
Amanda Ripley argues in her article, The Case Against High-School Sports, that American high-schools should concentrate less on sports and more on education. One of the main points of the article compares the academic success of American high-schools to that of high-schools in other countries. The other main point of the article compares the academic success of American high-schools affiliated with sports to those that are not. The results of the two studies are both shocking and expected at the same time. America is one of the most affluent and demographically developed countries in the world.
Unfortunately, standardized testing only gives a rough estimate of what a student can do or knows. It is impossible to tell if a student will improve, or even tell if the student just guessed on all of their answers for the test. This explains how standardized tests do not measure the correct information that school’s are actually searching
I believe that all children are individuals, unique in their abilities, from a wide diversity of backgrounds and cultures, and they also have the right to be treated with dignity and respect. Educators are observers and designers who have to observe children’s abilities, interests and learning styles for designing a curriculum that fulfill everyone’s needs. Observers also play an important role on noticing individual differences and offering help to children who have lower ability to improve
One of the biggest flaws is standardized testing has not improved student achievement. " Despite using them for several decades, policymakers and educators do not yet know how to use test-based incentives to consistently generate positive effects on achievement and to improve education." So if these tests aren’t improving our students, then why do we have them? I believe we need to change the tests or improve them somehow so that we do see some sort of improvement. Tests are very crucial to education because they show what a student knows, if we took these tests out completely then we would have no idea if students are improving or declining.
Educational companies that produce these tests are ordinarily doing it for profit, the same tests are produced and used for the same things, evaluation of effectiveness of teachings on students, performance of teachers, classes, how well schools are doing overall, rather than individual tests and observation methods for different categories. These companies are more in the business for the financial aspect and acquisition they would earn from this, rather than enriching the minds of the new generation. The standardized tests do not provide any ways for students to improve and develop off of their test results. They are not being taught how to think, how to be inventive and imaginative, instead about memorization of content. (Armstrong, 1)
Thank you so much for taking your time out of your very busy days to join us. It is always wonderful to share thoughts with people of your expertise, especially on a subject that affects my everyday life. Education is paramount to achieving success, and living in the modern world. In my school we take several standardized tests that are supposed to measure how much knowledge I’ve retained throughout the year. These exams have changed the way that children are taught, and have made public schools int a limited learning environment.
Standardized Tests are ineffective because they don’t measure what is important. Other people may think that we don’t take enough tests. The text stated, “We need a lot of tests to figure out how smart people are getting.” This all may be true, but, parents are complaining that the teachers are “teaching to the test”. Other people may think that we don’t take enough tests while some parents are complaining about all of the testings.
A student could perform well on a test but that doesn’t make them smart; they could’ve cheated or just simply memorized something that they will probably forget in a few month. On the other hand, a student could perform profoundly atrocious but that doesn’t mean they’re dumb; they’re probably not exceptional test takers or blanked out because they were nervous. Standardized testing shouldn't be a source to see if a student is smart or not. Andy Hudlow once said “The goal of standardized testing is not to find out how well you think through problems, or if you can express your opinions, or create a presentation, the goal is to find out what you were able to memorize” This quote is accurate in many ways because students mostly care about passing not about problem
Yet, the question is do these test always always show accurate results? Most tests are designed to measure one of several things which are learning achievement, learning ability, aptitude and interests. A test has been standardized after it has been used, revised, and used again until it shows consistent results. Although test