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Argumentative Essay On Standardized Testing

1368 Words6 Pages

Standardized Testing
An issue in education policy that interests me is; standardized testing. Is standardized testing really measuring what we want in education? I personally feel the answer is no. I feel “teaching to the test” needs to be replaced with methods and initiatives that will impact our children’s education in a positive way for a better opportunity for future growth and achievement’s of their personal academic goals.
The current state of standardized testing with waves of criticism from teachers, parents and students have many states looking for alternative solutions. In May of this year, Ohio became the latest state to pull out of the PARCC Common Core testing consortium after months and months of many complaints. The complaints …show more content…

With the way the tests are given, there is no significant proof that these tests are a sufficient indicator of whole child development. As it stands, children in increasing numbers are choosing to “opt-out” Parents believe there’s too much testing and that its not educationally beneficial, so some parents are choosing to home school, or during test week keeping their children home. In Ohio and Colorado, which had previously said there would be consequences for refusing to take, the tests, have backed off and said they would not penalize districts where large numbers of students skip them. ( US News, 3/2015) This is only setting up our children for failure. It appears that the people who have specific interests in standardized testing are concerned more about the money and using our children for pawns. “ Fear of losing federal money if districts do not meet 95% requirement of student testing, by bullying parents- its not working.” ( Kelly Wallace, CNN, 4/2015)
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the nations report card, “proficiency” rates last year were below 50% for every racial and ethnic group, in both reading and math, in both 4th and 8th grade. The exceptions, Asians, in all subjects (51-64%) and whites in 4th grade math only (54%) (NPR Ed, 10/2014 ) NCLB is still being discussed and tweaked why? Because children are not moving forward. The only people moving forward are those who profit from promoting

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