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The Pros And Cons Of Standardized Testing

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How do you determine the amount of intelligence someone possesses? You give them an intelligence quotient or IQ test. Almost every possible means to determine someone’s intelligence is derived from a standardized test that will give an answer as to how intelligent or not someone who takes these tests might be. But where do you judge the creativity and ingenuity in standardized tests? In 1965, under President Johnson, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was initiated. The ESEA was an attempt to better educate low income area schools by providing more federal funds to schools that averaged lower test scores. Throughout the decades the ESEA has been revised and given new names, such as, the Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994 …show more content…

When there are higher education levels there are often bigger economic growths. But, standardized testing and curriculums are merely a tool to gauge how students are doing, rather than how much a countries economy will grow, because there are many other factors that can and will predict economic growth (Hanushek and Woessmann 1). Therefore, although some researchers and government officials have argued for the need for standardized testing to determine the levels of education students in kindergarten through 12th grade have so that the government may take action to better prepare students for the workforce, I will argue that standardized testing diminishes critical and creative thinking that is critical to the advancement of business and …show more content…

Teaching to the test is where teachers will teach students methods to use while taking these tests so that they might get higher scores. Unfortunately, many teachers are expressing that, “Their teaching morale has been lowered and that they felt guilty and embarrassed due to the accountability of high-stakes testing. Some teachers have reached a level of stress which has led to them moving out of the field of education due to negative experiences with high-stakes testing” (Dankiw, Johanson, Loder, and Watson). In the 2014 study Effects of High-Stakes Testing on Third through Fifth Grade Students: Student Voices and Concerns for Educational Leaders done by Carol E. Watson, Matthew Johanson, Megan Loder, and Julianne Dankiw in the Journal of Organizational Learning and Leadership, Watson, Johanson, Loder, and Dankiw examined the journals of a couple hundred third through fifth grade students at an Eastern Pennsylvania elementary school to understand what the students think about these tests and how does it make them feel. The results of the journal entries found that almost all of the students had grown fearful, anxious, and stressed about the tests, and some even began to become physically ill due to the high

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Schools servicing low income students are being shortchanged districts disproportionately distribute funds. According to a report from the U.S. Department of Education, “The analysis of new data on 2008-09 school level expenditures show that many high-poverty schools receive less than their fair share of state and local funding, leaving students in high-poverty schools with fewer resources than schools attended by their wealthier peers.” Providing more resources and a better education for students in wealthier areas not only increases the achievement gap, but it increases the social status gap in America. While the nation acknowledges that inequality is an issue, proper action is not being taken. Until this issue is seriously addressed and action is taken, and poorer schools are provided the necessary tools to succeed, the public school system in America will not have the opportunity to produced skilled

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Since 2006, overall SAT scores have dropped by 21 points. It is safe to say that the increase in standardized testing has done more bad than good. When standardized testing became more prominent, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) saw a plateau in reading and math scores. Additionally, the NAEP saw no further closure in the test score gap. The test score gap affects all minorities.

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Austin Bullington, a student who is severely dyslexic and mildly dysgraphic, tells the story of how a single standardized test had the ability to derail his dreams. In an interview, Austin stated that his aspiration has always been to teach music, but before he could take the classes he needed to earn his degree, he had to pass a standardized test for teaching; a test that was supposed to indicate his ability to perform in college. Austin graduated high school with a 3.72 GPA and was in the top twenty-five percent of his class. He was even doing very well in college, too, but this single score did not allow him to pursue the career he had always wanted (Bullington). The standardized test was supposed to measure Austin’s aptitude to perform

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Testing and schools go hand in hand, and they generally have a positive impact. High stakes testing has become vital for public schools; consequently, high-stakes testing has risen and spread like a bad case of the flu.[PP3] High stakes testing is detrimental to American education due to the accountability, course favoritism, and negative attitude it brings to school systems. A major creditor to the evolution of high stakes testing is the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which was enacted in 1965 to help fund school districts and assist minority groups in achieving a proper education.

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Due to the amount of Standardized Tests available today for accessing a child’s language abilities, it may be difficult for Speech Language Pathologists (SLPS) to decide upon which standardize test is appropriate for the diagnosis of Specific Language Impairment (SLI) in elementary school aged children. All over the country, Speech Language Pathologists are faced with the same question that is: of these numerous tests, which should they incorporate into their clinical practice? The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not the quality of standardized tests that were measured by the test’s psychometric properties is in fact related to how frequently the tests are used in clinical practice. A survey using 364 speech language pathologists

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686 Words | 3 Pages

On January 8, 2002, President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act, NCLB, which was an education law that used high stakes testing as their bases on children's education. Although recently replaced in 2015, by President Barack Obama, with the Every Student Succeeds Act, ESSA. This new act is fairly different from the old NCLB act, but it is incorporating some of the ideas into the new act, like with testing. Schools should be teaching children according to their learning pace and abilities because not all students work or learn the same way. Educators are typically not able to go over all of the topics that should be discussed in the course, or they cannot go in depth with the subject because it is not something that would be seen on the test.

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Although funds are being cut from Texas public schools, it has not kept the state of Texas from increasing the demands of standardized testing. Over the last several years, Texas public schools have chosen to sacrificed valuable classroom time, once designated for meaningful teaching and learning, in order to fulfill state-wide testing requirements. Due to increased pressures set by the state for each school to meet established score demands, students are spending a tremendous amount of classroom time preparing for high-stakes tests, instead of allowing students the opportunity to gain and improve upon critical thinking skills necessary to meet the challenges of everyday life. In order to redirect educational focus on preparing the youth for

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students success. Students worry about not being able to memorize terms and formulas. Teachers worry about their teaching ability and being evaluated based on their student's performance. Many parents believe that standardized testing is overshadowing other teaching methods, and styles of learning. “ A recent poll by teachers college at Columbia University who opts-out and why shows 33.8% activists in the opt-out community believe standardized tests force teachers to teach the test” (Howell, 2016).

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Those who wrote the tests are clear on this; it's their desire. They want to replace the mind of the teacher with the mind of the test-writers. The tests are meant to rupture the key relationship in educationa particular teacher meeting a unique student in a singular community. The tests set up a false employer-employees relationship between teachers and students which damages honest exchanges in the classroom Instead, the tests pretend that one standard fits all, when one standard does not fit all.

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High-stakes testing is something most people have experienced; however, the stigma around the testing has changed drastically within the last twenty years. Becoming more popular with the push to become smarter as a nation, high-stakes testing has become a kind of epidemic across the land. High stakes testing is detrimental to the future of United States education due to how it has become all-encompassing in schools, how accountable it makes a single test, and how the actual effects stray from the desired ones. Achieving the “standards” that are imposed upon the results of high-stakes tests is the single most important goal a school tends to make.

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According to the 2015 PISA scores, the United States ranks 41st in math, 24th in reading, and 25th in science. The PISA is a worldwide assessment that tests 15-year-olds from around the world on key concepts of each core class (reading, math, and science). Despite all the standardized tests we have implemented to “improve and record students achievement,” the U.S. continues to slip. In reality, standardized tests have not improved student achievement and in consequence, students are having increasing levels of anxiety, which is not good for the health of all kids. To begin with, there has been no improvement in student achievement since the “No Child Left Behind” Act passed back in 2002.

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When this act was issued from George W Bush to insure that all fifty states in America were required to take annual tests grade three through eighth. To ensure that teachers and schools are being accountable to the taxpayer’s dollars. The main reason for this policy was many? First stated by the Political Fact Virginia that in 2000 for the United States we were ranked number 18th in math/reading but in just nine years we so called “slipped” to number thirty one in the world by 2009. (Madsen)

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Educators are pressured into teaching to the test leading teachers to focus more on ensuring their students memorize facts that will most likely be on the end of the year test. For example, the High-Quality Teaching study examined elementary students and what the teachers do to help their students succeed in reading and mathematics. The study found that certain factors including curriculum coverage, pacing the curriculum, and practicing for test began to be what teachers focused on more when several policy directives progressively commanded practice, particularly in schools vulnerable of not meeting adequate yearly progress (Valli). A policy environment frequently results in teachers feeling overwhelmed. Therefore, it is no surprise that teachers began to concentrate on teaching to the test.

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They now must teach “the test.” These high stakes tests carry a lot of weight for students and teachers as promotion/retention and performance based salaries are often tied to them. Teaching the actual items on a test is counterproductive for the practical reason that it makes valid inferences about student achievement almost impossible (Bonds, 2008). Technology is ever changing. The technological needs, schools are sometimes struggling to keep up.

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Standardized tests have been administered to American students for many years. However, the tests’ roles in the education process have evolved and changed throughout the years. Most recently, in New York state, the tests have been used to evaluate teachers however education policy suggests this will change. The tests will no longer factor in to the teachers’ evaluations.

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