Throughout the years, standardized testing has become something no student looks forward to. But, there might be deeper reasons as to why they despise it. Standardized tests have been around since the mid-1800s and have been used to measure a students' knowledge and ability to achieve their goals. However, as the year's progress, this form of testing has proven to cause problems. Students, teachers, and schools are all affected by standardized testing and its components in various ways. Standardized tests should not be present in schools because of the obstructive effects on students individually, the lack of helpful information and testing curriculum to further improve test scores, and the disruption of knowledge taught in the classroom.
Standardized tests affect students in many ways. They can be influenced by many factors like hunger, stress, tiredness, pressure, and even stereotypical threats. Distractions and influential factors such as the ones listed can harm a student individually, causing the testing environment to be unfair and responsible for missed questions. As lots would say, “Standardized tests don’t necessarily measure a student’s knowledge and skills.
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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. Teachers might not be able to teach all of these characteristics, but they can demonstrate them in a classroom setting. Though, standardized tests have halted
In fact, the increasing use of standardized testing will do more damage than good, because of its failure to capture the entirety of a student’s body of work. Furthermore, the overwhelming stress that the United States government, and school systems have placed on the usage of standardized tests has become detrimental to American education, and is not the most effective way to gauge the intelligence of American students. The American educational system should be fixated on providing each child enough attention and information so they can succeed in that class and in the future. However, the increasing focus on having to pass a standardized test has blinded schools of the real goal, because they are required to get their students to pass the standardized tests.
Students want to have a childhood, they don’t want to sit in a school building taking tests. “‘Kids spend too much class time taking standardized tests,’ President Barack Obama said on October 24. According to a new report, “students spend 20 to 25 hours each school year, taking these tests”(A Call). Students are spending a whole day staring at a computer or paper bubbling in answers that they won’t even remember the next day. Kids aren’t learning anything from
The average American student takes about 112 standardized tests between pre-kindergarten and 12th grade (Strauss). A standardized test is any form of test that requires the student to answer the same selection of common questions in a consistent matter, which makes it possible to compare relative student performance. Standardized tests restrict creativity, waste time, and waste money. We should get rid of standardized tests in our school system. Standardized tests limit a student’s ability to express creativity.
However, standardized testing does not accuratley track the progress of students, and does not take into account other individual factors that can take a toll on the students test performance. An article by James Popham states that “students' scores on standardized tests have increasingly been regarded as the most meaningful evidence for evaluating U.S. schools, and Most Americans, indeed, believe that students' standardized test performances are the only legitimate indicator of a school's instructional effectiveness”(1). Although Popham makes a good point, his argument is not correct. An article by Gale states that “it is difficult to separate out in test form, the difference between aptitude, innate ability, achievement due to ability, and achievement resulting from learned knowledge or skills(1) Since there are so many different factors that go into a students performance during standardized testing, the test scores itself are not an accurate measure of the ability and progress of students. If there is no way to separate the skills that go into succeeding in a standardized test, than how is it measuring the progress of the students?
The education system in the United States of America is frequently questioned, as well as the systems that have been put in place to try and repair it. The schools in the U.S. have learned to depend on standardized testing too much to the point that it is harmful to the students. Today teachers encourage students to be themselves and become their best self and make them conform to national standards all in one breath. Some of the main problems with standardized testing are: the reforms don’t work for the people that need it most, and the nation relies too much on test scores.
School’s are using standardized testing for the wrong reason. “A standardized test is any examination that’s administered and scored in a predetermined, standard manner. There are two major kinds of standardized tests: aptitude tests and achievement tests” (Popham, 1999). The most common examples of aptitude tests are the SAT and the
Tests Cannot measure high levels of complex learning with questions in reality tests only cover a portion of the knowledge learned in class and life and can't represent everyone. Standardized tests are made to be just that standard a one
One reason standardized testing should continue in schools is because they help teachers improve their teaching. Many educators have noticed that “the clear information gleaned from these universal
Taking hours to complete a test, and even more hours to wait until all other students are done testing, is an experience American students know all too well. Every year students across the United States take standardized tests. Contrary to what the Board of Education may have students and parents believe, standardized tests are not as beneficial as they initially seem. When researching the topic, standardized tests not only divide students, but they also break students mentally while also preventing them from learning material and skills they will need later in life; standardized testing is not beneficial for students.
“There is too little information to produce accurate, comprehensive or detailed results” (Henningfeld 2). A teacher or college needs more than a test score to ensure a student's intelligence. Many other categories go into knowing how a student will perform in their academics. categories that standardized tests cannot measure, such as creativity, critical thinking, and motivation. All of these factors help define achievement.
(Jimenez et al 5). This implies that two districts in the same state could take the same standardized test but have completely different scores because of when students learn topics. One district could score better than the other because the state can not know when students are learning certain topics. With this information, it is evident that standardized tests do not fully measure what students know because they might not have learned what is on the test yet. Meaning the tests are not accurate and will not show students complete knowledge.
Standardized tests compare students' knowledge without featuring students skills, creativity, and innovativeness. First off, standardized tests capture the same information and are all graded the same for every student. This information indicates that standardized testing denies students the ability to explain their
Standardized Testing Standardized tests are deeply flawed ,and cause many issues in the school system. Like mental abuse to children and making their only goal about their test scores. This also causes stress for teachers who have children who struggle with Testing. Standardized tests should not be allowed in the schooling system. It doesn't show how smart a student is and it causes too many problems with both teachers and students.
Standardized testing can cause a lot of stress on both educators and students. Very good teachers quit teaching every day because of how much stress is on them to prepare students to perform on standardized tests. They feel a considerable amount of pressure to improve testing scores. According to NEAToday say that "Despite the elevated level of overall satisfaction, nearly half (45 percent) of surveyed member teachers have considered quitting because of standardized testing". Students especially feel the stress when there is something meaningful tied to them meaning that some parents threaten to take away something that they value
But, many believe that standardized tests do not provide a helpful effect as they solely determine which students are good at taking tests, are not accurate predictors of future success, and only increase the pressure