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Arguments Against Standardized Testing

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Argument of Inquiry: Standardized Testing
Standardized testing has been an issue for decades and has raised many questions regarding whether or not standardized tests provide students with the appropriate assignment to check their knowledge on a national scale. The need for being able to compare results of students with one another led to the creation of different tests that are graded consistently. This means that these tests are given in the same manner for everyone and use the same grading system. They also check the capabilities of students in schools and see how good these schools are performing when compared to other school by comparing test results that are enrolled in each school. But this has increased throughout the year and the main …show more content…

They think exempting children with disabilities and those who are minorities by using alternative tests is unfair to those students since it is creating two unequal systems and one has accountability and while the other doesn’t. While others could argue that Standardized tests are unfair and discriminatory against non-English speakers and student with special needs. So these tests are prohibiting students from being able to realize their full potential. These could lead to some bias since some students greatly benefit from standardized testing because it helps them reach their potential by asking questions they like and are familiar with, while others have difficulties regarding these tests because they have different talents they probably excel in that are not tested during these tests. A research conducted by Val Klenowski looks into different collection and analysis different empirical data in state schools and argues for a greater balance in assessment types. The research has shown that standardized testing is fair and looks into some alternative possibilities that could replace these tests (Klenowski). Some assume that all students need to know is tested in these standardized tests, but research show that is not accurate for everyone. Many students go on without discovering their latent talents because they were not pushed hard enough to pursue what they were interested in instead they were told how to prepare taking tests and how to get good scores which doesn’t help them when they join the work

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804 Words | 4 Pages

All students dread one thing when it comes to school - testing. Standardized test are the main focus in our school systems instead of actually gaining knowledge at the end of the year. As a mother, Michelle Rhee, understands the lack of attention given on education as a whole instead of just waiting on the scores, but she still agrees on continuing with standardized test. Kristina Rizga opposes the opinion of Michelle Rhee as she does not believe standardized test truly measure the intelligence of a student. Kristina Rizga proves her stand against standardized test by utilizing solid use of argumentation.

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1359 Words | 6 Pages

Michael Brown. Everyone has heard this name tossed around on the news, heard the debates and the speculations of what truly happened. This unarmed African American teenager, shot and killed in a wrongful police encounter, was just one of the victims of police brutality this year. Countless other casualties have occurred as a result of similar crimes and most have one specific thing in common. The accused officers in a majority of these cases escaped with no consequences.

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1212 Words | 5 Pages

Proponents see standardized testing as a way of making testing more efficient and effective by minimizing cost and increasing people’s accountability for their performance in the system. Opponents on the other hand argue that the systems has limitations based on its very nature on what can be tested and as a result of these standards needing to be met sacrifice some very important aspects of students education experience as well as force onto students and teachers a one size fits all model that has failed to deliver on its promises. After having reviewed all the evidence in detail it becomes clear to me that standardized testing is not an effective system for educating students and does more bad than good

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274 Words | 2 Pages

1,2: For my issue, I plan on addressing the controversy of standardized testing. I believe there would be differing opinions in the audience, some supporting and disagreeing with the topic. Most, if not all students have taken some form of standardized testing, thus, establishing a wide variety of viewpoints. While some believe this form of testing accurately measures a student’s achievement, others think it is an unreliable measure of a student’s performance. 3

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769 Words | 4 Pages

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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467 Words | 2 Pages

Meghan Magruder says “ I don't think that today’s youth should be defined by a test score. We should be defined by our actions and personalities and not by what a test or machine tells us. These test also place huge amounts of stress on students not only the test itself but because it is also timed. The scholar only gets a couple of minutes to finish each section, of course the student is going to lose sight of the test and just focus on how much time they have left causing them to forget some of the things they’ve learned. Vadik Vasil states that Standardized Testing are nothing more than a long list of trick questions and irrational thoughts, he says “This insults me, and in no way is this an adequate measure of my

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1604 Words | 7 Pages

Standardized testing generalizes educational achievement and does not consider circumstances or individual student needs”. This creates a whole new topic of bias in standardized testing. As was mentioned previously, the goal of standardized testing is to administer the test to a large population to allow for comparison, however in doing so, standardized tests often do not take into account preexisting learning disabilities or other disorders, such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which can definitely have an impact on scores. By not accounting for these individual differences, children with learning disabilities and disorders are forced to believe that their not-so-great performance is due purely to a lack of innate knowledge. This false belief could then lead to the development of a self-fulfilling prophecy where the child will stop trying and receive bad grades in school because of their shattered confidence caused by standardized testing.

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1060 Words | 5 Pages

The article “Standardized Testing: Harmful to Educational Health” written by Monty D. Neil, executive director of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, and Medina J. Noe, a consultant for Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Color, explains that standardized tests “assume that all individuals perceive information and solve problems the same way” (Neil and Noe 692). Not every student processes information the same way, which limits the effectiveness of standardized testing. When the test is only created to be beneficial to one kind of student, it marginalizes everyone else. Just because a student does not perform well on a test that is not made for the way they think, it does not mean they are any less intelligent. It only means that they do not process information in the same way as another student that scored higher on the same test.

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1690 Words | 7 Pages

Standardized Tests Are Put to the Test "Believing we can improve schooling with more tests is like believing you can make yourself grow taller by measuring your height," said by Robert Schaeffer, Public Education Director of FairTest. This paints a clear picture of one of today’s most talked about education questions; are standardized tests benificial for our nation’s education? A standardized test is a test that requires all test takers to answer the same questions. As a result, the tests are scored in a consistant manner, meaning a student’s test results can be compared with another group of students. These tests are most commonly seen as a multiple choice test that are given to a large population of students.

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537 Words | 3 Pages

However, these tests are considered to be biased around all grade level students, these tests are debatable issue, because some people feel the test do not show the students’ intelligence. I am one of the people. What the test may cover may not be what the students have learned in class. However, some critics feel that ‘’standardized tests allow administrators, teachers, and parents the opportunity to view solid

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1247 Words | 5 Pages

Argument Paper 1 In our society, there is constant pressure on high schoolers to be the perfect student so that they can get into college. One of the pressures that school systems put on their students is standardized testing, such as the ACT and SAT. Standardized tests are an issue because they are quantitative measurements that ignore qualitative evaluations of students. Although there is no way to make the college application process stress-free, eliminating standardized tests will stop objectifying students and promote inclusivity.

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1076 Words | 5 Pages

These days if a school’s standardized test scores are high, people assume the school’s staff is effective and the students are smart. If the scores are low, one assumes the staff is ineffective and the students don’t work hard enough. These evaluations are incorrect. Speaking as a student who has had to take a test every year since grade school, standardized test do not measure a student’s knowledge. Tests do not allow a student to show their full potential.

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1766 Words | 8 Pages

Students are typically against standardized testing. They believe it causes too much stress and is too “high stakes”. This group also includes many teachers who are tired of “teaching to the test”. The teachers have seen important programs cut in order to spend more time preparing for the tests. There is a compromise position that a growing number of people started to support.

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995 Words | 4 Pages

Most colleges and other educational institutions rely on standardized tests to be a factor in their admissions process in order to be more selective in their student application pool. Recent debates about whether or not these tests should be used have arisen causing confusion within the students and teachers. Some individuals believe that standardized tests are beneficial and effectively measures student mastery, intellectual attributes and weaknesses of a student, as well as help prepare the students for their future career licensing exams. On the other hand, one believes that standardized tests measures only a small sample of student mastery skills, does not measure other crucial attributes a student may possess, and causes students to become superficial thinkers and cheat from the disappointing scores.

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520 Words | 3 Pages

After careful consideration of the presented evidence, a logical conclusion to come to is that the negatives of standardized testing outweigh the benefits. The conventional method of standardized testing is an outdated and ineffective way to measure students’ progress. Standardized testing is “… [A]ny form of test that (1) requires all test takes to answer the same questions, or a selection of questions from [a] common bank of questions in the same way, and that (2) is scored in a ‘standard’ or consistent manner, which makes it possible to compare the relative performance of individual students or groups of students.

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