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Standardized Testing Pros And Cons Essay

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Recommended: Negative effects of high stakes testing

Dear Texas Association of School Administrators,
I am writing to this board to draw your attention to some of the problems and that come with high-stakes standardized tests like the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR). I believe that standardized tests should not have such a huge role in your education for three reasons. First of all, the STAAR puts pressure on the teachers to “teach to the test” by only teaching what is necessary for one 8th grade standardized test, instead of what information will be necessary for higher levels of education Next, as standardized tests become more and more important, skills and qualities like critical thinking, creativity, and leadership are becoming less valued than test taking. Finally, …show more content…

This can lead to many problems and if it is taken on a higher scale, it can affect the way that an entire school operates. When teachers only teach what is needed for the test and not what is important to the student or helps them individually learn, it changes the environment of a school. This also places importance on short term memorization and not persistence and actually learning the material. Standardized tests with high stakes, not just the STAAR, affect many aspects of a students life and education. If we think the most important part of an entire school year in regards to a students learning is one end of the year test, we might need to revisit the purpose of education. Learning is supposed to interest the student and get them involved through activities and projects to find out what they enjoy and love. It’s not to temporarily memorize information in order to achieve higher classes, and better scholarships. There are more important things in education than a classes standardized test scores, and we need to be aware of the issues they may be

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Considering these pros into action, there are cons to it. Higher salary based on standardized tests will have negative effects. More manipulation of test results will occur within this. If school board officials are seeing that students are achieving higher test scores, they will take action and give teachers the bonuses, but what the school board does not know is that the teachers are the ones manipulating the tests for their own benefits in this case for money. “Cheating teachers are on the rise as figures show the number illicitly helping children pass GCSE and A-level exams has trebled in the past two years” (Turner).

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What is the point of going to school and memorizing lessons that we will forget after the test if they don 't stick to our brains? We need to be knowledgeable, persistent, self-driven to make sure we ourselves understand the lesson at hand. Test affect a student 's self-confidence as well, if we pass it 's a win-win but if we fail we lose a little bit of hope we had about what we knew. We doubt ourselves and that is not a pleasant

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Introduction Standardized tests may be used for a wide variety of educational purposes. For example, they may be used to determine a young child’s readiness for kindergarten, identify students who need special-education services or specialized academic support, place students in different academic programs or course levels, or award diplomas and other educational certificates. Thesis Statement Standardized tests should not be eliminated completely, but should rather be evaluated in addition to other factors such as grades, extracurricular activities, and volunteer hours. This would take pressure off of students during standardized tests, allow colleges to see how well-rounded the students are, and give students who are better in other areas

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Standardized Testing in Texas Standardized testing in Texas schools has heard the cries of reform for several years. With each new test, there are problems that have to be corrected and it seems like a never ending cycle of reform. The current test, STAAR, State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, is in need of a major revision for it to be utilized successfully for our students in the upcoming years. “With the implementation of the new STAAR testing system in Texas, there has been an outcry from some parents, educators, and commentators that the state places too much emphasis on standardized testing.

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She stated that these “high-stakes” test will not reflect his true abilities due to pressure. Some educators agree that the testing format from standardized tests are not ideal. However, there were other educators who disagree stating that these tests are needed to ensure that educators are doing their job and for student to absorb the material (Tony 8). What the standardized tests already ensure are the unbiased and reliable way in measuring a student’s ability and a teacher’s effectiveness in the classroom. Having said that, making stricter standards and increasing testings are way to better the student in preparation for college.

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Testing is around 115 years old; it started being taken seriously in academics in the early 1900s for the United States. Although it seems minor, standardized testing should not be a thing in any type of school because it causes physical and mental stress for students and teachers, causes a major financial strain in many schools, and takes time to complete and prepare for. Standardized

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Standardized Testing ; Are they so bad? Standardized testing can come with huge consequences for students and even teachers. A student who was a junior from Arlington, Texas got suspended because he took a picture of a STAAR exam.

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Standardized tests are one of the most popular ways schools attempt to evaluate academic intelligence of students, school districts, and teachers. These tests are used more specifically to evaluate student performance in the education system by testing their abilities in mathematics, english and sciences. By giving every student the same test, they are setting a standard idea for how well every student should score on the test, such as the SAT or the ACT, no matter the school or educational process they are receiving. Allowing every student to take the exact same test, gives the state a way to generalize student’s academic intelligence without having to do much work to make the testing one hundred percent fair. Standardized testing in schools should no longer be required because it discriminates against the less wealthy families, does not effectively measure achievement and becomes a distraction to the student’s learning environment.

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Students have to worry about studying and knowing everything they were taught. After studying all of the given information, they take the test and realize that a lot of what they studied was not on the test. Education researcher Gregory J. Cizek has said, “illustrating how testing...produces gripping anxiety in even the brightest students…” Standardized testing stresses teachers out because they have to make sure they teach everything they need to by a certain date. They run on a strict teaching schedule when teaching students that will be taking a standardized test.

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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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Students leave school stressed and full of anxiety and its actually making a negative effect on their everyday life. Students get so overwhelmed that harming themselves is in the picture. The state needs to realize that students aren’t giving their 100% and they will never know their actual academic skills. So why give standardized test? Teachers need to focus on the future and teaching them skills they need in their everyday life.

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This method will prevent students from gaining the knowledge they seek and will not work to their advantage later on in the future. Most high school classes are teaching students how to take tests rather than teaching them how to skilfully answer them and master them. This causes students to enter college and university unprepared as they develop little skill-making abilities. High-stake standardized testing, such as the SAT, is burdensome for students. The standardized test scores that a student receives determine which university a student can attend and this greatly impacts his or her future.

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