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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).
For many years, there has been a great deal of controversies on whether standardized tests should be used for college admissions. Standardized testing started in America over 50 years ago and are today, more pressure-packed and ubiquitous than ever before. The first standardized test was developed in 1959 by Professor Everett Franklin Lindquist. Many admissions counselors depend on a student’s ACT and SAT scores a great deal when determining if they should accept the student or not. Though many feel that these tests are a good thing and should continue to be used, others disagree due to the numerous problems that have been discovered when reviewing students SAT and ACT scores.
Standardized testing. Many people are highly familiar with those tests, especially the SAT, as they are used in the majority of schools and educational institutes. Standardized testing is often used as a “means to assess students, teachers, and schools,” making it the easiest way for the school board and Government to monitor educational institutes all over (Morris). Standardized tests are tests that are administered and measured in a specific and consistent way for every school that utilizes them. The students who are taking the tests have a set amount of time to finish a number of questions from different subjects, with the questions sometimes being multiple-choice or true or false (Morris).
Standardized testing is a way to test students’ knowledge of the class material over the course of the class time, or so it is believed. According to “procon.org,” standardized testing has been around since the mid-1800s (1). A standardized test can be defined as any test that has the same questions for all those taking it, and is scored consistently (Standardized Test, 1). Many tests can be considered “standardized,” by that definition, although the words “standardized test” is typically associated with larger tests (Standardized Test, 1). A few types of common standardized tests that many people have heard of classify under the following: Achievement tests, aptitude tests, college-admissions tests, international-comparison tests, and psychological tests (Standardized Test, 1).
On a sunny Saturday morning during the spring of my junior year, I was not sleeping in like most teenagers my age but rather sitting anxiously at a desk waiting for my SAT to be handed out. Test anxiety was consuming me as I was thinking about how this test was going to determine which colleges would accept me and which would not. Regardless, I ended up powering through and finishing my test. It was not until I received my test score two weeks later where I found myself looking at a number and feeling complete disappointment. I received an average score but could not help comparing myself to my other friends who had receive scores significantly higher than mine.
Jacob was forced to take the SAT test he felt super pressured because he has anxiety. Further into the test he started purposely breaking the lead of his pencil so he can get away from the test. but all the anxiety finally got to him and he blew up (not really) as he ripped the test in half walked out of the classroom Some people think that standardized tests are very beneficial but I am going to make it clear that standardized tests are actually bad for students and schools. Some reasons that support that standardized tests are harmful are that some kids might actually drop out of school because of these tests also, college preparation tests do very little to get you into or help prepare you for college.
In the field of education there is going to be multiple things that you as a teacher are going to have to worry about. One of the things that you are going to have to deal with is standardized testing. Standardized testing is one of the things that teachers and students worry about. Standardized testing in my opinion is not as important as others make it out to be. Multiple things are wrong with standardized testing, such as, stressing out younger students, unfair to non-English speakers and students with special needs, also standardized tests are an imprecise measure of teacher performance but the test scores are used to punish and reward teachers.
As Sarah finished circling the question she was on, she looked at a question on a standardized test. The question stated, What are the elements that have a weight of 10? A: Hydrogen, Lithium, Boron. B: Helium, Silicon, Sulfur. C: Oxygen, Neon, Argon.
tandardized tests. We also more so than ever before celebrate everyone's unique personalities and the diversity of different cultures. However, we expect everybody to be in a cookie cutter society and all look, learn, and feel the same way. Do you feel this is an accurate way to measure a student's intellectual abilities? This is no way to measure intelligence or the abilities of one.
Do standardized tests and grades accurately measure how well a subject is learned, or do students just cram their brains with what they are taught for the standardized tests? Covering a small sample of the topic is not necessarily learning it, but rather ingesting the information and regurgitating it for a test and then forgetting the information right afterwards. Different learning styles also come into play here and many instructors fail to teach in ways that all students may understand, leaving some students ill-prepared and with the possibility of testing poorly, or even failing. It seems that over time, the original concept of being in school to learn how to learn was lost, and the need to know how to be tested was found, resulting in lower test scores, less individual creativity, and the overall diminished desire for students to want to learn and attend school.
When it comes to standardized tests, many students, parents, and teachers have strong opinions about how effective it is and how they feel about it. In 1998 Florida introduced it’s first standardized test, the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) (Florida Department of Education; FLDOE). The FCAT consisted of various subjects for grades three to eleven to determine the students improvement toward meeting the Sunshine State Standards (SSS) (FLDOE). During the 2010-11 school year, Florida began the transition from the FCAT to the FCAT 2.0 and Florida End-of-Course (EOC) Assessments (FLDOE). Keep in mind that there were still certain grades and subjects taking the FCAT until the change was complete.
Imagine the difference in time between one day and 4 years; there's no doubt it is drastic. But most colleges around the U.S, take standardized test scores as much into account as a student's whole academic career as a high schooler. A standardized test score that only covers 3 topics and can easily be increased with expensive tutoring. Because of the limited range of topics covered and unfairness to lower-income families, standardized testing should not be as important as other factors, such as GPA and participation extracurricular activities.
Student Sudhanshu Pandey, was a happy, normal teenage boy who didn’t look like he would succumb into depression. On march 4, Sudhanshu seemed unusually reluctant to go school. Later than day his parents found him in his room hanging from the ceiling fan. Sudhanshu left a note, explaining how all the pressure and stress in his life from test exams has taken over. Not only has Sudhanshu Pandey been depressed and stressed from testing, its all over the world.
“Sometimes, the most brilliant and intelligent minds do not shine in standardized tests because they do not have standardized minds” Diane Ravitch. Standardized test are a collection of information about one or more students. This means that different students will take the same test and then the test will be evaluated by professors to see how students did. Standardized test also provide teacher evaluation, which is if the professor is teaching the students in the right way, meaning if students are understanding what the professor is teaching. Like many issues in education, standardized testing brings a lot of controversial opinions among teachers, voters and parents.
A standardized test, according to W. James Popham of ASCD.org, is “any examination that is administered and scored in a predetermined, standard manner.” In standardized testing, examinees are instructed to precisely answer a specific set of questions, which are usually multiple-choices. Although standardized testing is believed to be an objective method to grade students, administers should understand that these tests are not only a waste of time, but also a waste of money. Standardized testing is irrelevant to a student’s education because it is an unreliable way to measure a student’s knowledge, causes stress, and hinders a student’s overall learning potential.