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Argumentative Essay On Standardized Testing

838 Words4 Pages

Does standardized testing really help our students and is it an effective way of measuring how competent teachers are? Every school year, students and teachers have to stay worried about how they are going to do on state exams and other tests at the end of a semester. Our principals and superintendents are pushing these exams on teachers and students saying that these need to be good or else they are in a bind. Teachers are in a box where they have to focus their time in class on test prep, and students are there studying for hours on end so that they can pass these exams. Focusing all this time on exams and preparation that it takes away from actual learning and activities that kids care about like arts, sports, and other typical teenager things. Kids are not able to be kids. I should research standardized testing because testing at the end of school year is not a bad idea by any means, but it is relied on too much in measuring the ability of kids and teachers alike and creates too much unnecessary havoc in our educational system. I plan on researching several things for this topic. I will first start with our current education system in the United States. Find some background information on our current standardized testing system and what they were hoping to achieve with it. Then I will look at the current situation we have, whether this …show more content…

public schools are in. I also hope I can find something that can be a better option than what we have right now. This will benefit me because it will help me understand our school systems more and if I continue to show an interest in going into education, give me an idea of what I am getting myself into. This will make me a better researcher because it will make me venture near and far in trying to find the resources I need to make this argument effective. It will make me better at finding information and give me a deeper understanding of the topic at

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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 assessments to many others can be considered an important role in the educational system and they believe that they have brilliantly positive effects on improving a student’s learning based the results of these tests. “My appreciation of having had the privilege of introducing standardized tests in my school cannot be too strongly emphasized… No school can accurately determine the progress of its pupils, either as a group or individually, without using these tests” (E.M.W. 126). It is true that these tests can review results of standardized tests, but does it hold accurate results of how effectively these children are learning educational material? It’s important to understand that these results can only tell one side of the story.

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In my earlier years, my life was filled with happiness and glee. But soon, this vessel I was constantly containing wasn’t able to hold itself. Tears and blood were spilled into hard work, yet, it felt as if there was no reward at the end. When I was young I first experienced standardized tests, and now, I am haunted by them. We humans grow up in a competitive society that challenges our beliefs and sets us in a “survival of the fittest” situation.

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FW #5 A better alternative to standardized testing would be to use student portfolios in order to assess learning and growth. “A student portfolio is a systematic collection of student work and related material that depicts a student's activities, accomplishments, and achievements in one or more school subjects”(Scherba de Valenzuela). Using this system wouldn’t require kids to miss classes to take standardized tests, it’s a better representation of a student's learning during the year, and It increases self-motivation to learn and grow. It doesn’t take them out of class to take the test.

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