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The Pros And Cons Of Standardized Testing

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Are standardized tests really a good way to judge learning in schools? When trying to get the most accurate testament on how much a student learns, testing seems to be the best option, but only on the surface. Recent studies have shown that when basing judgement of a school on standardized testing, many things that don't show up in the numbers are missed. Testing doesn't show overall morale, the learning/school environment, or academic growth of the school district. Standardized testing is important but without the other factors included, it cannot accurately represent a student's learning.

When looking at test scores and numbers it is hard to think about what the students are feeling, but that doesn't make it any less important. If schools are too focused on the outcome they might miss when a student has become too stressed or depressed either from school or outside factors. When a student has conflicting feelings it can affect their learning. This can be easily fixed, but if schools have no …show more content…

Student safety is just as important, if not more, than standardized testing. If a student does not feel safe in their school they might find it hard to focus on learning, causing a drop in test scores. In addition, teacher/student relationships must be good in order to ensure that a large amount of learning takes place. Such as, if a student doesn't like his/her teacher then he/she might not wish to pay attention in their class. This is proven by “Two decades ago, Missouri rewarded school districts with good marks if they … had safe schools. Districts were applauded if they had … a competent staff and a school board that got along well...” (Missouri aims for more equitable way to grade public schools). Schools used to be rewarded for good teacher relations and safe schools, but with the focus of standardized testing how can one expect those areas to continue to

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Writers often have mistakenly written essay or article in a bias point of view, which leads to the loss in credibility of their work. A common mistake that writers make is the use of first person. Once the first person point of view is brought into a piece of written work, the credibility of the work drop dramatically, and writers also often get drift off to sharing their personal experience and opinion on the topic. However, it is acceptable when professional writers use first person point of view if necessary when it comes to giving a professional statement or advice, because readers expect professional writers to be an expert on the topic they are discussing on without introducing personal bias. Stephanie Coontz did not fail to give a fair

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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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730 Words | 3 Pages

Standardized tests are said to be the easiest and most efficient way to determine if teachers have taught standards and whether or not students have met standards, but the tests are not a fair measurement. According to Popham, “Employing standardized achievement tests to ascertain educational quality is like measuring temperature with a tablespoon. Tablespoons have a different measurement mission than indicating how hot or cold something is. Standardized achievement tests have a different measurement mission than indicating how good or bad a school/teacher is.” There is too much room for error to determine if a teacher is considered “good” or “bad.”

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Most educators do not really understand why a standardized test provides a misleading estimate of a school staff effectiveness.” Not to mention, these test can hurt teachers to! For an example, if a teacher has ten kids and seven of those ten fail, the teacher can have consequences and as harsh as being fired! Is that really necessary?

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209 Words | 1 Pages

Are standardized test’s good for U.S’S Students? If you are wondering if standardized tests are doing any good for U.S’S Student Then read this article! Some people support standardized Test’s But some people don’t, I don’t support standardized test’s Because we don’t know if the test’s are accurately measured.

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999 Words | 4 Pages

Even so, such tests have their uses.” (Starr, J.P.,2017) As a superintendent of a school district, Starr realizes that while standardized testing is “meaningless in the real world” (Leadership, 2017) it is helpful to evaluate classes, schools, and school districts. Standardized test scores do not determine the worth of a student, but the quality of education the students are receiving in their school, school district, or state. (Starr,J.P.,2017)

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1251 Words | 6 Pages

“They know standardized tests measure only a portion of student achievement” (Thorson). If standardized tests only measure a portion of student achievement then what is the benefit, to see if students can remember a concept for a test that they will never need to know again? These tests can’t measure the other attributes of students like creativity, leadership skills, or more necessary skills. “So by ignoring attributes that they can’t properly assess, standardized tests inadvertently create incentives for students to become superficial thinkers- to see the quick, easy, and obvious answer” (Harris et al. 36). What this means is standardized tests do not give students the chance to think outside of the box.

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627 Words | 3 Pages

Some might argue that while standardized testing has its flaws, it must still be in place because it is good for using a common measure to help see what changes are needed d to help improve the school. For example, in the paper “What is the case for Standardized testing,” author Lauren Crawford evaluates how standardized testing is useful for many schools, and talks about how schools have used standardized testing to help turn things around saying, “ In older grades standardized testing measures where students rate in comparison with their peers and thus how the student and his teachers are doing (Bagin, 1994). While these tests do rate students according to how well they do on these tests, some schools have used these scores to reform their systems and, in turn, drastically improve their methods (Wolf et al., 2000). Schools in economically devastated areas like the ones in eastern Kentucky under the strong leadership of their principals and the dedication of

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935 Words | 4 Pages

Certainly, some people say that standardized testing is the only way to determine growth and achievement within students. But, these tests don’t usually provide an entire measure of educational attainment. They don’t give attributes such as a sense of wonder, leadership, compassion, curiosity, and critical thinking. Daniel Koretz, a psychometrician stated, “…tests can measure only a portion of the goals of education, which are necessarily broader and more inclusive than the test could possibly be”(humbleisd.net). Standardized tests can at best only measure if a student is good at their core classes.

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940 Words | 4 Pages

Every student dreads hearing about upcoming standardized testing in school. The big question is, is it necessary? The United States has had some sort of standardized testing for over one hundred years and it reached its peak in the past decade. The purpose of them is to decide if individual students are academically prepared and if schools are teaching properly as a whole. Although, many beg to question, are they doing their job properly?

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677 Words | 3 Pages

Standardized test scores determine the effectiveness of the teachers as well as the school. School are to maintain, or improve their overall testing grade or prepare to face penalties. The penalties for a failing school include cutting back on extracurricular activities, and any classes that are not considered “core classes” like math, reading, science, etc. Teachers deemed ineffective by the test scores of their students, are disengaged. This is unfair for the will of succeeding in students can only be affected so much by a teacher.

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517 Words | 3 Pages

Even after the bell rings, there is constant work happening to keep the school district running. The Council of Learning definitely hit this point home for me. In their twenty page document on student progress, they not only explained the importance of academic progress but the importance of pushing for a safer school climate for their students. Outside of the report they addressed the difficulty of excessive testing requirements and how it is putting down students. Only having had the perspective of a student, it was reassuring to see educators seeing a problem and actively seeking a way to fix the problem.

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838 Words | 4 Pages

Does standardized testing really help our students and is it an effective way of measuring how competent teachers are? Every school year, students and teachers have to stay worried about how they are going to do on state exams and other tests at the end of a semester. Our principals and superintendents are pushing these exams on teachers and students saying that these need to be good or else they are in a bind. Teachers are in a box where they have to focus their time in class on test prep, and students are there studying for hours on end so that they can pass these exams. Focusing all this time on exams and preparation that it takes away from actual learning and activities that kids care about like arts, sports, and other typical teenager things.

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919 Words | 4 Pages

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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1159 Words | 5 Pages

Standardized test are not the same as student achievement, the scores don 't provide very much useful information for evaluating a student 's achievement, a teacher 's work ethic, or the success of a particular school or program. To make such judgements, you need to look beyond the scores themselves and make some inferences about what the real problem might be. The word "achievement" means more than a score on a test. Achievement includes class participation, students ' course-taking patterns, and teachers ' professional development patterns. Then, to assume that the test scores can take the place of all the other information we need to have a clear understanding of students ' development.

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