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Standardized Testing Pros And Cons

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Today’s education system is not fulfilling its’ full potential. American parents who enroll their children in the United States’ schools have the right to be concerned. Teachers are not getting taught how to cope with different personalities in a classroom, and they join organizations that give them benefits such as, shortening their school day, and making them more money. Also, according to different laws schools must do standardized testing, but standardized testing has many disadvantages. Due to these factors schools are not providing the best education system they should be. Behaviors in a single classroom can vary from the shy quiet child who does not like to talk to anyone, to the outgoing loud child who raises their voice to receive …show more content…

One day. One student. That is a standardized test and they are not the measure of the students’ knowledge. Many factors can affect a student’s test score, such as; how much sleep they got, if they are hungry, family issues, personal issues, concentration ability, fear of failing, and stress. A standardized test is simply not a measure of knowledge at all. The government sets predetermined norm groups to discriminate against students who do not make the cut (Solley 48.) The schools and government assume that if they set standards high enough the students will want to study to do better. Taiwan is the leading country in mathematics, but forty to sixty percent of Taiwanese students to do not reach the NAEP proficiency level (Rothstien 210.) Students are not extrinsically motivated to do well on tests, and if they do not reach the obscene standards they are more likely to drop out of school. The NAEP raises the standards so that students who are not good enough will fail the tests and drop out, making the school average higher and making them look better to the government and world (Jehlen.) Many countries test solely on math and reading, the two main subjects you must have mastered in order to succeed in life. By only testing on these subjects, schools have given less focus to the creative arts and sciences. This means that the children are not learning critical thinking, discussion skills, and problem solving skills as well as they should be. Two former secretaries of education state, “We should have seen this coming… more emphasis on some things would inevitably mean less attention to others…. We were wrong.” (Rothstien 208.) Chester Finn and Diane Ravitch admit that testing on only certain subjects is disastrous towards a well rounded education. If they are going to continue to test, they need to test in every area. Teachers are forced to teach the children how to test, or they stress reappearing content. Most schools require that the teachers go

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One of the biggest concerning the need for an increase in rigor in instruction in American schools. She discusses that in Poland students must stay in academic classes for an extra year and teachers are paid bonuses to engage in professional development work. She also notes that in Finland they “rebooted their teacher-training colleges, forcing them to become much more selective and rigorous.” In an article written by Sarah Tantillio on Only Good Books, she recognizes the validity of these statements, but comments that in America “the Common Core States Standards, which most states have adopted, they are definitely rigorous, But how they are implemented (and assessed) from state to state and school to school is still a Very Big Question.” Further in her article she points out the large population differences between Finland, Poland, and the United States, and how this affects our education system.

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This is because “if we measure narrowly, you see results just as narrowly. In other words, the more standardized our assessment, the more kids fail” (61). The limitation that those standards create prevent students who have skills that are not measured to be exploring and building up those skills. These standards limit creativity and exploration of new ideas and ways of learning that can benefit students who were failed by the system. Despite all

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Standardized testing creates an environment where children come to despise learning and with that, begin to despise the pursuit of knowledge in general. This focus on “rote learning” stays with children their entire lives, hindering their ability to think at a deeper level and even to create independent and original thoughts and

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[INSERT ILLUSTRATION 9a & 9b – place side-by-side] Figure 9a. A copy of Chares Darwin’s original sketch of a hypothetical section of a phylogenetic tree. Figure 9b. A copy of Chares Darwin’s original sketch of a hypothetical section of a phylogenetic tree with modifications made to show transitional species. Evolutionary theory states that only species which are end points on a branch (i.e. the “end-point species” on Figure 9b) can theoretically exist today.

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784 Words | 4 Pages

Last week President Obama announced that he believes the school in america should have less standardized tests. President Obama says “students are spending too much time in the classroom taking tests, many of them unnecessary, and urged officials in the country’s schools to take steps to administer fewer and more meaningful exams.” The white house agrees by saying “a problem the administration acknowledged it has played a role in — has taken away too much valuable time that could be better spent on learning, teaching and fostering creativity in schools. To curb excessive testing, Obama recommended limiting standardized exams to no more than 2% of a student's instructional time in the classroom.” This would allow the student to spend more

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804 Words | 4 Pages

Ever since the first American schools were established in the 17th century, millions of students have been enrolled in the public schooling system since then. However, since the years have passed, the main focus on schooling has been shifted. What once was a place to learn and build upon already acquired knowledge has turned into a setting of extravagant tests. The American public schooling system’s prioritization of standardized testing wastes classroom time, does not teach students the required life skills they need to succeed in life, causes unhealthy stress and is not an accurate measurement of student progress.

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1017 Words | 5 Pages

However, many of the teachers disagree with the government’s form of standardized testing. Many believe that these test are pointless and should not be what measures a student’s intelligence. One teacher such as Jesse Hagopian stated that standardized tests don’t “…cultivate the type of thinking we need, and it doesn’t bring in the resources that we need to make students successful.” (Rich 1). It was later found that there was a connection between teacher pay and student standardized test results.

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As “Education week 's” Ron Wolk’s has said, “The system failed to educate them adequately, and now it punishes them for not being educated. " Ron Wolk is stating that with a school district failing to educate its students, these students have to pay the price by failing the test. High Stakes testing may also affect the district. Low scores could result in the reorganization of schools or a shift of resources to charter schools or private-school vouchers. Who knew that one test could severely damage a community and school

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Discussion Post- Chapter 7- High stakes testing Claim: High stakes testing is an extremely problematic political issue within the education system because it holds all students to the same standards regardless of disabilities or disadvantages , it encourages educators to teach strictly on information that relates to the tests, and it can have major consequences for schools across the country that are unable to make Adequete Yearly Progress (AYP). Evidence: The Learning to Teach Edition Nine textbook outlines key disadvantages to high stakes testing. Although the textbook does consider some of the advantages, which include a focus of attention on the achievement of students and providing information on areas where students may need to improve,

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In Diana Ravitch’s ‘(2010) article Why I Changed My Mind, she discussed how abiding by an educational system using accountability and choice has failed tremendously in America. In addition, Ravitch explained how the federally ordained policies are continuously contributing to the system’s decline as well. She believes the legislators are so focused on testing and teacher evaluation that they are ignoring the root of educational problems faced in the United States. With such strong emphasis on testing and test results, educators have changed their teaching strategies in an attempt to satisfy this broken structure. There is strong attention to preparing students to pass standardized tests while simultaneously denying teachers the time to focus

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The Way Our School System Needs to be Reformed In America the school system is currently failing the students who need to be taught. This is mostly due to common core. The common core system needs to be modified because there is a lack of diversity in a gifted education, it fails to make use feel passionate, and the grading system needs to be modified. Currently the education for America is 17th out of all the countries in the world (Bielberg 3).

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Standardized tests are a part of most curriculums in America. These tests are meant to assess students’ knowledge on either one or more subjects. Standardized tests are also sometimes used as \ a performance evaluation on students, teachers, and schools. these tests are based on a common curriculum taught to all students. In John Oliver’s television segment about standardized test he talks about all the types of problems with standardized test.

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There are many variables with standardized testing. Therefore, there is no way to know for certain if a student’s performance on a test was their

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Schools in America take a test each year called the standardized test, which is a tool used to measure the effectiveness of the school, the teacher, and the performance of the student. However, “standardized tests have been a part of American education since the mid- 1800s. Their use sky rocketed after 2002’s No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) mandated annual testing in all 50 states” (Standardized Tests - ProCon.org.).

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Recently, the Common Core State Standards were developed and kids were going to be tested more than ever. However, all of this education reform has been a failure because our testing scores have not improved, the testing makes children suffer, and it doesn’t improve how teachers teach. Education reforms has had little effect on our testing scores. The average score for a 17 year old student doing a reading test in the beginning of school is 285 and over 40

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