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Analysis: Why Our Schools Are Obsessed With Standardized Testing

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There is a Problem with Standardized Testing
In today’s education department, the success of a student is determined by their ability to excel on a standardized test. However, society is starting to debate whether standardized tests should actually determine whether a student passes to the next level. In both Anaya Kamenetz’s book and TV documentary, The Test: Why Our Schools Are Obsessed with Standardized Testing but You Don’t Have to Be, she describes problems in within the school system, ultimately leading the corruption and mistrust of the school system. The book review and Book TV have a lot of similarities and differences regarding the way the author’s views are expressed.
On Book TV there was a book discussion on Cspan with Anaya Kamenetz where she talked about her latest book, The Test. Standardize tests such as the S.T.A.R and S.A.T can be over-whelming for many students because these tests determine where they are in terms of their skill levels. The Test is about the failures in American schools, targeting an audience of parents and teachers with children. Every child has a different way of learning; in most cases, there are some children that learn slower than others, and the modified tests are given to them are even more difficult than the regular tests. However, sometimes their …show more content…

Preparing for these standardized tests puts pressure on teachers, because there are deadlines that the students need to learn the objectives for each section on the tests. Kamenetz mentioned that in public schools, there are a large number of students that are failing based off of standardized test results; most of those students are in poverty. She also talks about different assessments for these teenagers to feel more confident and overcome their test anxiety for test preparation; it gives these children a chance to do better in the

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Standard testing is a very controversial and important subject because it deals with the progression of the American education system. The practice of these assessments has been highly scrutinized not only for the way it has changed the format of classrooms, but also for its accuracy, pressure, and abundance. In 2001, standardized testing became federally mandated through the No Child Left Behind Act by former president George Bush Jr. According to research from the Council of the Great City Schools, students have been taking “an average of 113 tests from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade” (K. Hefling). These numbers have increased to the point where parents have opted for their children to not attend standardized exams.

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Standardized testing has become a very controversial topic amongst the nation. There are two sides, one that agrees that these tests are doing well for students and school officials, and another that argues that these tests are hurting the students taking them and should be put to a stop. Norman R. Augustine wrote an article for the need of standardized testing, and Jessie B. Ramey States the ways that the tests are impairing the learning capability of the students. Norman uses three arguments that people opposing the standardized test would most often use.

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Education is most important item in our today’s society. However, education is also a social capital matter, due to the unity between student, parents, teachers and politicians. Jesse Hagopian had discussed in his lecture how standardized tests are destroying the American educational system because it forces the teacher to teach the students how to answer right on the test, rather than teaching them the important life skill. In addition, the standardized tests are very biased on areas where the student is from. In poorer areas, the school may not able to afford better technology or provide prep classes, compared to wealthier school.

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Introduction Standardized tests may be used for a wide variety of educational purposes. For example, they may be used to determine a young child’s readiness for kindergarten, identify students who need special-education services or specialized academic support, place students in different academic programs or course levels, or award diplomas and other educational certificates. Thesis Statement Standardized tests should not be eliminated completely, but should rather be evaluated in addition to other factors such as grades, extracurricular activities, and volunteer hours. This would take pressure off of students during standardized tests, allow colleges to see how well-rounded the students are, and give students who are better in other areas

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Time and preparation is “needed” for the younger grades. “Even though first-grade students would not be made to take any standardized tests until the third grade, they would spend the next two years practicing and preparing for the test” (Malott, Marie, and Curry). Not all of the time will be used to “teach to the test.” Students will gradually work towards the test, but teaching the young kids all the information needed will take time, slower students may need more time than others. Time is nearly everything when it comes to standardized testing.

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Going Against the Standard According to Tim Walker, “Only 14% of parents say standardized testing is important in measuring school effectiveness” (Walker). A standardized test is a test that is given in a consistent or “standard” manner. Standardized tests are designed to have consistent questions, administration procedures, and scoring procedures. When a standardized test is administered, it is done so according to certain rules and specifications so that testing conditions are the same for all test takers. They often provide some type of “standard score” which can help interpret how far a child score ranges from the average student (Johnson).

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Standardized testing is a very well known topic for a lot of people. Many people believe they are helpful to measure students intelligence and academic performance. Just as many people believe it is unfair, stressful, and affects the school and state as a whole. Standardized testing is an unfair approach to measure each student’s academic performance; and is something we should get rid of.

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For some, standardized tests become more than just the average little road block they are meant to be, they can become the wreck that changes one’s life. Standardized tests began all the way back in the 1800’s with the use heightening when the No Child Left Behind Act went into place in 2001, then mandating that all 50 states had to

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In fact, the increasing use of standardized testing will do more damage than good, because of its failure to capture the entirety of a student’s body of work. Furthermore, the overwhelming stress that the United States government, and school systems have placed on the usage of standardized tests has become detrimental to American education, and is not the most effective way to gauge the intelligence of American students. The American educational system should be fixated on providing each child enough attention and information so they can succeed in that class and in the future. However, the increasing focus on having to pass a standardized test has blinded schools of the real goal, because they are required to get their students to pass the standardized tests.

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There is nothing more agitating than having to walk into a classroom and sit in the exact same seat for upwards of four hours, just to take a test that will never be seen or spoken of again. Standardized testing has been known to take a toll on students, from elementary to high school. Studies have shown that between pre-k and twelfth grade, students will take over one hundred standardized tests (“Study Reveals”). Not only are these “assessments” time consuming, but they are also unnecessary. Standardized testing has been recognized as a huge issue in American schools, and journalists and comedians have addressed it through horatian satire.

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Standardized testing has been used in the United States since the late 1800s to test students in the subjects they’ve been studying for an entire year and ultimately decide if they pass or fail the year based on the results of these tests. After the No Child left Behind Act the use of the standardized tests increased, but have only negatively affected students in their learning. Backlashes to standardized testing has increased from students, teachers, and parents who deem these tests useless and unnecessary to a child’s education since students are only “taught to test.” Standardized tests should be removed as they offer students no life skills, they cause stress to students and teachers, and they only benefit the multibillion dollar companies distributing these tests. While many people are against standardized tests, many individuals still support these tests.

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According to Celine Coggins, “The debate on testing is an important one, but debating time devoted to testing without a discussion of test type and content misses the point” (Coggins 23). Time committed to standardized tests, as a matter of fact, might be a more critical controversy than the material included within them. James Popham says, “It has become increasingly apparent during the last decade that many standardized achievement tests are instructionally insensitive; they are unable to discern the differences between students taught effectively and students taught ineffectively” (Popham 5). Students spend hours, days, and years of their education preparing for certain tests even though these tests are not an accurate representation of their intelligence. Schools should reevaluate how they spend their time; less time toward test prep, more time spent towards improving

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The day has arrived; testing day. As one walks through the hallways, all that can be heard are students wanting to be already done with their test. According to the studies of the Council of the Great City School, in sixty-six districts of the big cities in The United States, students take about 112 mandatory standardize tests between pre-kindergarten and 12th grade. Students take tests for almost everything. Standardized tests are fundamentally flawed because students with special needs and non-English speakers have a disadvantage on them.

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Standardized testing has become a big part of students’ lives in the United States in every states(excluding 5 of them). Ever since the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001, students starting from grades 3 until 8 are required to take a reading and math standardized test. According to the Huffington Post, $1.7 billion are spent every year to fund these tests. This is a large sum of money spent on testing, testing that is very disadvantageous. Standardized testing creates stress for everyone, students, teacher, and parents.

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The average American student takes about 112 standardized tests between pre-kindergarten and 12th grade (Strauss). A standardized test is any form of test that requires the student to answer the same selection of common questions in a consistent matter, which makes it possible to compare relative student performance. Standardized tests restrict creativity, waste time, and waste money. We should get rid of standardized tests in our school system. Standardized tests limit a student’s ability to express creativity.

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