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Standardized Testing Argumentative Essay

1389 Words6 Pages

Shouldn’t we be teaching them life skills that they will need in the future? Shouldn’t we not put as much emphasis on standardized tests when it will not prepare our country’s adolescents for adulthood? Even our competitor, China, who was the champion of “one standardized test will change your whole life,” is moving away from that idea. According to the Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Riff newspaper CJ Westerberg, “The Chinese are aggressively trying to move away from their ‘one exam determines your whole life’ mentality to become more American-like, promoting the originality and intellectual risk-taking so linked to America's knack for innovation, needed to be a world leader beyond the ‘world's factory.’” Ironically, the Chinese want to change …show more content…

For example, schools are no longer trying to create informed and well-rounded citizens; instead, they are creating a mentality in students that the only knowledge they need to learn is the ones they’ll use to pass the “government-mandated standardized tests.” This is turn diminishes a child’s motivation, learning ability, and even the classroom curriculum our schools provide. (Solley) If you asked anyone, they will tell you that this is not okay. Our schools should be the best in the world, not slowly crumbling until there’s nothing left. Author and social critic Peter Sacks (199) describes the dangers of test-orientated classrooms: “Test-driven classrooms exacerbate boredom, fear, lethargy, promoting all manner of mechanical behaviors on the part of teachers, students, and schools, and bleed school children of their natural love of learning." (Solley) Again why would we want this for our children? For our schools? For our country? As well as this there are many studies that show test-driven classrooms and schools have the highest amounts of repeating a grade and dropout rates. For instance, in only Louisiana, “...between 10 and 15 percent of 4th- and 8th-graders were retained in 2000 because of failure to pass the state's high-stakes test.” (Solley) In Florida as well, in 2003 more than 43,000 …show more content…

A few months ago, I talked to the President of Holy Cross College in Notre Dame because they recently decided to make an SAT optional-policy. After I asked about the aftermath of the new policy, their President gushed about how it was a fantastic decision and how Holy Cross had become more geographically and ethnically diverse, and how the quality of their applications dramatically improved. (McDermott) When I asked why they decided to create this policy, the answer I got was what I was expecting all along. They wanted their students to be rewarded for their “good choices and habits throughout their high school career, and not judged on the basis of a single test.” (McDermott) An idea that is commonly used to justify abolishing standardized tests and definitely one that we could all relate too. The diversity that their President talked about was evident in the statistics. “Since 2006 the percentage of first-year students admitted from outside New England went from 46 percent to 50 percent; and the proportion of African-American, Latin American, Asian-American, and Native American students went from 17 percent to 21 percent. The three classes since 2006 are also statistically stronger, with more students taking the most-rigorous course loads available at their high schools.” (McDermott) Also, I decided to

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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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Standardized Testing While can be beneficial, standardized testing isn't improving American education. Standardized testing evaluates only the individual performance of a student instead of the overall growth of a student over the course of a year. In my opinion, Standardized testing is not enhancing education in America. Not all students who are smart and take in all the information test well. For instance, there are many people who simply do not perform well on tests.

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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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This has helped in some instances but I think that if standardized testing was eliminated altogether then it would provide a better advantage for minorities. College admissions should be based on their grades, community service, and school activities. Some students do well in the class but don’t do well on standardized tests. Also, I think that the SAT board should be comprised of many different races and cultures so that they can make up a test that will give everyone an equal chance at passing it. It is sad that institutional racism has existed throughout history whether its schools, banks, or other institutions; and unfortunately it will probably continue to exist if we don’t actively continue to work toward

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Despite its respectable attempt, it is an incredibly flawed method. Standardized tests like the SAT serve one purpose: to compare every student on the same scale on a generic series of questions in order to predict how well a student will perform in college. It disregards a student’s past academic achievements, as well as many other factors that will weigh into a student’s performance. According to Gerald Bracey, a writer from Washington Post as well as a critic of the national education policy, a student’s execution in college cannot be determined by a standardized test because these tests do not assess one’s “creativity, critical thinking, resilience, motivation… [or] self-discipline,” (Strauss,

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For many years, there has been a great deal of controversies on whether standardized tests should be used for college admissions. Standardized testing started in America over 50 years ago and are today, more pressure-packed and ubiquitous than ever before. The first standardized test was developed in 1959 by Professor Everett Franklin Lindquist. Many admissions counselors depend on a student’s ACT and SAT scores a great deal when determining if they should accept the student or not. Though many feel that these tests are a good thing and should continue to be used, others disagree due to the numerous problems that have been discovered when reviewing students SAT and ACT scores.

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One of the arguments about state testing is how state standardized tests affect the amount of money that school is given based on how many students pass. The more students who pass the test help get the school more money and the more students who fail prevent the school from getting the money it needs.  Standardized tests exist for administrative, political, and financial purposes, not for educational ones. Because the amount of kids passing or lack thereof affects the amount of money that school is funding, that becomes the sole priority for these teachers and/or administrators

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Even if the tests were unfair it would not be as much of a problem if the tests helped us at all. Despite the tests having been in place for over 50 years, their implementation has not increased America’s scores on an international level. But of course, some are going to disagree as people always do. Those who disagree say that the tests help to determine who will do well in college. An edited volume, Defending Standardized Testing, edited by Richard Phelps, was created on the basis that standardized tests have benefits for students and teachers.

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“A June 2006 Public Agenda survey of 1,342 public school students in grades 6-12 found that 71% of students think the number of tests they have to take is “about right” and 79% believe test questions are fair”. This might be right,because maybe if we only look at a student’s grades without standardized testing. A student who is nice to a teacher over a student who misbehaves in class might get a better grade even though both of the students are equally

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But I also hear from parents who, rightly, worry about too much testing, and from teachers who feel so much pressure to teach to a test that it takes the joy out of teaching and learning, both for them and for the students. I want to fix that.” (Barack Obama,

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When students could be learning meaningful information, teachers are using up that time and giving them tests and exams. Although, we want to be blaming teachers, states and schools are supposed to give out mandatory tests. Who is to blame? According to washington article post, Valerie Strauss, says “The average student in America’s big-city public schools takes some 112 mandatory standardized tests between pre-kindergarten and the end of 12th grade — an average of about eight a year, the study says. ” The state is to blame.

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When teachers spend all of their time teaching students the things that are on “the next big test,” they do not really get an opportunity to teach at the pace and the way that they want to. This can really,” negatively impact teachers’ ability to actually do their jobs“(12). The author points out that,”A standardized test at the end of the school year can disrupt a teacher’s curricular plan and force him or her to cover material that might be less relevant to his or her students”(12). Teachers are usually not paid enough, meaning that they teach because they really enjoy it, but they cannot do what they want when testing comes around as the author describes as,”disruptive and unproductive to student learning”(12). Teachers are probably disappointed when they get the job that they have always wanted, but they become extremely underpaid, and they do not get to teach what they want

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