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Pros And Cons Of Standardized Testing

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Standardized Testing and its Correlation to College Readiness Albert Einstein once said, “Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” The ACT or the American College Test, is a standardized test that measures a student's ability in the common core classes. It is most known for being able to show correlation between a student and their college readiness. The ACT does not correlate to college readiness because students study for the test itself, rather than to retain academic knowledge, some advanced students are at a disadvantage, and students’ GPA shows more accuracy than the ACT score. The first part of this problem is that, students study for the …show more content…

It is the basis for all college's submission platforms. According to John Haltiwanger, senior politics writer for Elite Daily, “Students are now trained to take tests. Instead of developing critical-thinking skills, which the Common Core is apparently designed to promote, they're learning to become test-takers by memorizing rules and standards.” Students no longer study to retain, they develop test taking strategies that will not help them in the future. These tests are being used to grab points, not to actually learn the material. This furthers the claim, because it shows students study for the test and developing test taking skills, rather than to retain. Furthermore, in 2002, the United States passed a program called No Child Left Behind (NCLB). This requires states to test students on the common core classes, leading to more standardized tests (Elementary and Secondary Education Act). Since NCLB, the US scores have dropped in every common core class in terms of global ranking (National Research Council). This is a sign of how little standardized testing …show more content…

The ACT will test on the intelligence of the average student junior year. For example, the ACT will test a student on anything from Pre-Calculus and below in the math section. Most leading students have to go back to former education to prepare for the ACT. In a peer reviewed article published by Fairtest, and opposition viewpoints, it stated that “To improve learning and provide meaningful accountability, schools and districts cannot rely solely on standardized tests” and “Standardized exams offer few opportunities to display the attributes of higher-order thinking, including analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and creativity.” Both of these quotes show the designs of an advanced student. Progressive students usually show high order thinking, and improve their learning through tests and education. Standardized testing only creates a problem for the intellectually gifted and doesn’t test to the best of their abilities, furthering the claim of the disadvantages of exceptional students during standardized testing. Many students at Chaska High School have had problems with overcoming this challenge. Quincy Foss, a sophomore attending CHS and currently in Advanced Placement Calculus said, “being in advanced classes can affect my ability to take standardized tests, because I haven’t studied the material that I’m being tested on for a couple of years. I enjoy being in these classes, but sometimes I

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The ideal of Justice permeates all parts of the human experience. Our morals define us as people, as well as our greater society. The way we implement our beliefs into a structured system may not always be the same and often causes disagreements on what is just. Civilization continues to redefine and debate the concept of Justice since ancient Greece, and Plato’s The Apology represents one of the founding works in this debate. Within the greater work, The Trial and Death of Socrates, Plato identifies fault in the current definition and implementation of Justice when his teacher faces punishment for helping Athens.

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This can ultimately equate to priority on-campus housing, tuition reductions, dream colleges, and jobs; aspects of college that are not always guaranteed without exceptional test scores. AP (Advanced Placement) exams can ensure college credit for a certain subject if the student performs well, preferably scoring a four or five out of five. “For example, if you score well on the AP English Literature exam, you may not have to take the college’s required freshman-level English course.” (Taking Required Tests) If every college did not consider standardized tests, then universities and employers would miss out on academically inclined prospects.

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Many focus too much on gaining admission to university, but do not consider the challenges that lie ahead in the curriculum. If a student receives a lower ACT score, it may mean that they are ill prepared academically. On the contrary, a student that receives a high ACT score will likely be prepared for the course load and the difficulty of it. Although the ACT is just one of many factors' colleges take into consideration, "standardized test scores can show that they are capable of better work than what their GPA may indicate" (Source B). The ACT's popularity is a direct result of its accuracy in determining college readiness, helping

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Standardized Testing: Making College Admissions “Fair” Every year , the daunting prospect of undergoing standardized testing brings anxiety to thousands of high school students, and for good reason: a student’s performance on standardized college admission exams - most importantly, the ACT and SAT - is a major determinant in deciding where they will go to college. For decades, such standardized tests have been universally accepted as part of the admissions process: proponents argue, as Syverson (2007) explains, that such tests are the only way of standardizing college admissions when students from different schools have such widely varying profiles. However, in the past several decades a growing anti-testing movement has begun to poke holes

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SATS and ACTS have been used for numerous years as a way to gauge a student’s academic success while in college. Students have the choice which test they would prefer to take and most colleges do not prefer one test over the other. There are a few key differences between the SAT and ACT, which may make one test more suitable than the other for those taking the tests. Many studies have proven that the SAT and ACT are not the best judge of future success, and that colleges should focus their applications more on past grades and accomplishments to decide which students should be accepted to their university. SATs and ACTs are not an effective measure of college readiness and future academic success.

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The idea that one test can accumulate all of one student’s academic abilities is no longer accurate. Today, the standardized tests that are used not only discriminate against the non wealthy families, it also is not an accurate reading of all of one’s abilities in and out of school. The tests also have become such a huge focus in the classroom that it is beginning to take away the process of learning in a classroom and being replaced with memorization to get good test scores. The standardized tests do not need to disappear all together, however the tests need a lot of revising if the states continue to use them as they do

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Standardized tests are very common in today’s modern society. They are used as a tool to measure a person’s performance and indicate how their estimated performance will be in a college class. Every year hundreds of students take the ACT or SAT in order to get accepted into their college of choice and to receive scholarships, but they fail to see the problems with these standardized tests. As more and more people take these tests, the national average score falls causing doubt in the extremely important system. This is leading people to question whether or not the ACT and SATs are accomplishing what they were created to do.

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“Sometimes the most brilliant and intelligent minds do not shine in standardized tests because they do not have standardized minds.” This quotation by Diane Ravitch nearly perfectly describes the ludicrosity of modern standardized tests. Students may achieve elite grades, volunteer, and participate in a variety of extracurriculars throughout high school, but all of these elements may be for naught if their ACT or SAT score is deemed unsatisfactory. The college application process is demanding enough without the added burden of inessential and unfair standardized tests. The ACT and SAT may put unnecessary stress on high schoolers, because they are an unfair representation of intelligence and education and are a large element of the college admission process.

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Standardized Tests Should one bad day affect how an individual’s life might turn out to be in the long run? Students are waiting eagerly for the dreadful moment the mailman arrives with their test results. An academic future is contrived through years of dedication and passionate motivation towards a successful life. For years the ACT’s have been sprouting many heated debates. Many began to question whether it was equitable to use the results of one test to define one’s whole academic ability throughout their school years.

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1332 Words | 6 Pages

The American College Testing Program Assessment (known to most simply as the ACT) is a standardized test that is used by colleges to determine if one meets the required standards of that school, which then leads to the individual's acceptance or denial. The ACT not only determines your future for college choices, but it will also dictate how much money you will receive from the university in potential scholarships. The scores range from 1-36, with potentially scoring one point higher, could mean thousands of dollars toward scholarships. What most people do not realize is how biased, inaccurate and unfair the ACT actually is ("The ACT: Biased, Inaccurate, and Misused," 2007).

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Some students excel in high school. They have outstanding grades and high GPAs, but simply cannot take standardized tests. Some may suffer from test anxiety, and when a college is looking at test scores they do not consider the fact that the child may have test anxiety. The ACT test does not accurately measure how well a student can perform in a college environment, nor does it give an accurate measurement of a student’s knowledge. All throughout, school teachers

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On one hand, it is easy to see the potential ineffectiveness of the tests: some students may not take the assessments seriously, the curriculum taught by the educator can affect the level of preparedness, etc., and therefore the argument can be made that even if critical thinking skills are measured, the data gathered from the tests may not be accurate. However, the establishment of standards and a universal approach for educating allows for a tentative guideline by which one can measure the progress of the nation’s students from year to year and find common trends. Both Advanced Placement tests and the Keystone assessments, though drastically different in format, allowed me to test my knowledge in several subjects and learn where I ranked among my peers. Whether fill-in-the-bubble or multiple choice questions commonly found on standardized tests cause students to “analyze, evaluate, interpret, or synthesize information and apply creative thought to form an argument, solve a problem, or reach a conclusion,” is ultimately debatable.

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903 Words | 4 Pages

Today, these tests are used to measure students’ learning abilities and the level of success in individual schools in comparison with other students from around the nation. While GPA is still a factor in accepting students into college, colleges focus heavily on ACT and SAT scores. Colleges prefer to accept students based on their standardized test scores because the colleges believe that a standardized test is the best way to measure a student’s academic level. Schools rely so heavily

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1191 Words | 5 Pages

Standardized testing has become one of the most popular types of testing in U.S. public schools to date. Students take numerous standardized tests throughout their childhood schooling. (Studies show that a typical student takes an average of 112 mandated standardized tests between Pre-K and 12th grade.) While standardized testing is one of the main procedures that Universities use to judge incoming students, it is not proven to be the most effective way to convey a student’s actual intelligence level. The U.S. should not focus so heavily on standardized testing because it is not a complete accurate measurement of a student’s intelligence.

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Standardized tests are frequently used in education to determine a student’s level of intelligence. Many educators believe this is a useful tool, by evaluating students on an equal level, whereas I highly disagree. In fact, students have various learning styles and working habits. Consequently, this restricts certain students from having the freedom to complete the task in their most comfortable and confident way. Standardized testing directly evaluates how much material the student has retained and whether or not he or she can complete the work in a very high anxiety and intense environment.

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