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Arguments Against Standardized Testing

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Have you ever had to wake up and go somewhere important, or had to take an important test that will allow you to go further into your career? You've been studying for weeks, you finally go take the test and you find out you have received a score that isn’t considered passing, but you knew this stuff forward and backward. Standardized tests are poor reflections of students' abilities, they don’t measure the quality of the students' regular class work. The standardized test is just based on a single day's performance.
Standardized test has been around since the mid-1800s. In January 2002, George W. Bush signed the bill “No Child Left Behind Act”. This made standardized testing mandatory in all 50 states. What did this mean for the states? What …show more content…

Standardized test causes kids and teachers to become stressed. Kids have to worry about passing the tests so they can graduate and the teachers begin focusing on helping students ‘pass’ the test. Teachers become so focused on the test that they began to “teach the test” when they do this it doesn’t teach the student other skills that they might need. Test don’t provide the knowledge, habits, or skills that they might need for college. Fairtest.org says “Measurement experts agree that no test is good enough to serve as the sole or primary basis for any important educational decisions. National Research Council comes to the conclusion that testing had little learning progress, but caused significant …show more content…

If this test was true to improve curriculum or identify strengths and weakness with students, then why couldn’t this test be used for resource information only. Let the schools or teachers identify how to use the information instead of it becoming a measurement of a schools progress. If a teacher can not see exactly how a specific student answered individual questions, how is this useful to the teacher or student? And if the teacher's resources include textbooks from the early 1990’s, then they already start off with a disadvantage. So, how can a school compete for funding? One way would be to stop giving standardized tests that are tied to specific sets of books. And stop evaluating a teacher or students performance without providing the items they need. There should be funding equality with resources and support needed to provide

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In America, there is quite a lengthy history of standardized testing. It all began in 1838 when the American education system began to form ideas of having tests that would be transformed into formal measures of student academic achievement. They were originally created to hopefully show student improvement and academic knowledge, which is also their most common use up to today. The commonly dreaded standardized test, the ACT, was created in order to help more colleges improve their enrollment numbers, and colleges needed a new standardized test in order to do so. But lately, these forms of standardized testing seem to be causing damage to students.

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Standardized testing is a way to determine the potential of the student and the academic achievement. The American students are ranked against others around the world, and the number that America is in is not encouraging. The tests are not fair, and their use is producing a narrow curriculum and this kind of tests only limits the chances of the nation to produce qualified professionals like innovators. Standardized testing does not help the American students because the tests do not give the true potential and the ability of the student. The tests are given to the students to determine how well they have prepared, but this does not portray the true potential of the students.

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Standardized test scores do not foretell your future. People cannot believe that one assessment will be enough to tell colleges and the government that their applicants and students are going to be successful in their curriculum. For example, I am horrible taking timed, multiple choice test. I panic, get a headache and my stomach craps ups, like if I had someone tying my insides with a rope. I turn red, get hot flashes, and sometimes tear up for no reason.

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765 Words | 4 Pages

Standardized tests have played a role in schools across America since the 1800’s, only dwindling citizens of their education and self esteem. Everything a child has learned seems to be measured within a few hours of filling in bubbles. Countless hours of no sleep wondering how to prepare for a test that there is simply no way to prepare for, this is what students undergo year after year. It is time to face reality and take a stand against standardized testing, these tests do not approve students’ achievements, cost too much money, decrease the health of students, and schools spend too much time preparing for them. Do not approve students achievements

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Standardized tests have been a part of American education since the mid-1800s. Their use became mandated after 2001’s No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which mandated annual testing in all 50 states for student’s grades three through eight. This act aimed to hold all public schools to a high standard of education, measured by their student’s scores in statewide-standardized tests. High-stakes achievement tests have provoked the most controversy.

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1288 Words | 6 Pages

In USA, standardized testing has been done since the mid 1800s and is mandated in 50 states. Standardized test had been proven to be of no help, in improving student’s knowledge, through a study by Brookings Institution. The study found that 50-80% of test score improvements were temporary and "caused by fluctuations that had nothing to do with long-term changes in learning..." . This suggests that the rise in scores are only an illusion. However, standardized test is also considered important for the government to keep track on the level of education in the country.

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560 Words | 3 Pages

Standardized testing Although many people believe that standardized testing is an accurate measure of student success and college readiness, standardized testing does more harm than good. Supporters of standardized testing believe that it motivates students to excel because it is a huge determining factor in their future. They also view it as a way to measure student achievements against other students on local and national levels. However, standardized testing should be eliminated because it leads to teaching to the test, which causes a loss of learning vital information, it has many negative emotional effects, and it isn’t an accurate representation of the student’s intelligence.

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681 Words | 3 Pages

The test does not test students based upon progress but based on their skills. Parents were on board with the standardized testing until they realized the effects it has on child development, since the teachers are being evaluated and the students are no longer being taught standard or better curriculum(Johnson, 2015) When a parent sends their child to school they expect the teacher to teach the child to their full extent or potential. A public school parent in Cleveland, MS. told PDK International. “But there’s so much funding attached to testing, if we don’t do well on testing, then we’re going to lose funding, which means we’re going to lose teachers”(Walker, 2015).

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792 Words | 4 Pages

These tests put on unnecessary stress to younger students when they should just be able to run around without a care in the world. It is a popular opinion that standardized testing is a great way of measuring student achievement. One may say this on a day to

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No Child Left Behind, a bill passed in 2002 which required all states to set goals and standard that would follow the guidelines of a national plan. The primary way to assure that all students met these goals was through a standardized test which would be administered once at the end of each school year, but the problem stands that standardized tests are an inadequate method of tracking the progress of students. In its current form standardized tests are designed to only measure proficiency in math, English, social studies, and science. As stated by Gerald W. Bracey, PhD "Standardized tests cannot measure qualities like creativity, critical thinking, resilience, motivation, persistence, curiosity, endurance, reliability, enthusiasm, empathy,

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481 Words | 2 Pages

After the standardized tests were created, American students from being ranked 18th in math, in the world, in 2000. To be being in 27th in math in 2012. Also to the Pew Center on the state's, annual state spending on standardized was at 423 million and rose to 1.1

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1006 Words | 5 Pages

I was ready when I had to take a four-hour exam ACT on a Saturday morning, and yet I was already filled with anxiety. I was thoroughly filling out my test sheet on time and answering most of the question that I might guess correctly. Afterward, I was exhausted and anxious to see if I made a score that I could be proud to put on a college application. Now, why are these universities are still obsessed with putting standardized testing on their applications? Although standardized testing may be beneficial in some cases, they are not a good, trustworthy indicator of intelligence, and it should not be a factor that matters in a college application.

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1191 Words | 5 Pages

School’s are using standardized testing for the wrong reason. “A standardized test is any examination that’s administered and scored in a predetermined, standard manner. There are two major kinds of standardized tests: aptitude tests and achievement tests” (Popham, 1999). The most common examples of aptitude tests are the SAT and the

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725 Words | 3 Pages

standardized testing is a very common way of determining a student 's past academic achievement and future potential. however, high-stakes tests can cause anxiety. when teachers or schools are rewarded for better performance on tests, then those rewards encourage teachers to "teach to the test" instead of providing a rich and broad curriculum. as a result, standardized testing has become controversial in the united states.

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