Standardized Testing Benefit Analysis

Welcome to the age of testing, where standardized tests reign supreme in the classroom. Today, schools religiously use standardized tests as a tool to measure success. Every year a new set of standards are released because the test scores the year before were not adequate. Leaving teachers and students under pressure to perform better. The pressure to do so well has led to cheating scandals and school districts scores being eliminated. Due to the standardized testing obsession, both students and teachers suffer. The modern classroom has been transformed from core classes and electives to a test preparation factory. Never has a test been so important, students are taught that their score is their worth. If a student does not meet benchmark

All students includes “students with special needs, students whose native language is not English, students who are homeless and lacking in any societal advantage, and students who have every societal advantage but are not interested in school work.” (Stop the Madness) The act also states that whoever is not preficient by 2014 will face the consequences. But, if a student does not know where they will be sleeping tonight they certainly will not care about a test. The goal of 100 percent proficiency “placed thousands of public schools at risk of being privatized, turned into charters, or closed.” (Stop the Madness) However, closing schools will lead to overcrowding when the students from the closed schools are relocated therefore it will be harder for teachers to give attention to all of their students and the ones who were relocated will be more likely to fall behind. The act also put thousands of teachers out of a job. Standardized testing has become the number one enemy of the classroom, costing teachers their jobs and closing schools is only the tip of the

There are visual learners, auditory learners, and tactile learners and test prep is not a hands-on activity. Auditory and visual learners can work to understand the high stakes tests content, but tactile learners are out of luck. Standardized tests, like the ACT, traditionally only measure core classes content, not welding or auto and mechanics classes. Since the ACT is what colleges look at for admissions it would make sense to test students who want to go to vocational school in those content areas. A vocational test is where the tactile learners would thrive. So many students are under the impression that because they did not make a certain score on the ACT or the SAT they will not get into college, or if they do they will fail. The importance placed on high stakes test is damaging students confidence in their academic abilities and therefore reducing the amount of student’s that make it through college or even go to