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High Stakes Testing Persuasive Essay

526 Words3 Pages

High-stakes testing is something most people have experienced; however, the stigma around the testing has changed drastically within the last twenty years. Becoming more popular with the push to become smarter as a nation, high-stakes testing has become a kind of epidemic across the land. High stakes testing is detrimental to the future of United States education due to how it has become all-encompassing in schools, how accountable it makes a single test, and how the actual effects stray from the desired ones. Achieving the “standards” that are imposed upon the results of high-stakes tests is the single most important goal a school tends to make. Education standards are mainly focused on English and math, which is shown through how classes …show more content…

The accountability of the scores is meant to encourage teachers to adopt better and more effective methods of teaching, as well as to urge students to work harder. However the effects are more detrimental. Because of testing, students are more likely to be frustrated and discouraged at having to move so fast to cover all the ground needed. If a student is having a bad day or just is not a good test taker, all anyone can say is “tough luck.” The teachers will only focus on the select subjects tested on, and then only the select aspects they believe will be covered in the testing. Depending on how desperate a teacher is for good test scores, inappropriate preparations can be made before testing, sometimes even to the point of cheating. While having standards and a uniform teaching model, high -stakes testing is generally detrimental to the education of America. The importance of these tests has become the be-all and end-all of high school. The accountability of the testing will follow the student throughout his or her educational life. Despite being held in such high regard, the high-stakes testing effects are far from the desired and predicted

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