Argumentative Essay On Standardized Testing

Standardized testing has been practiced in schools across America since the mid-1800’s. Today, they are used to assess where a student is placed in their educational career. Standardized tests commonly test students in the subjects of math, reading, writing, and science. Colleges also partially base their admissions on standardized tests such as the SAT or ACT. According to the Pew Center on the States, annual state spending on standardized tests rose from $423 million to almost $1.1 billion in 2008. (standardizedtests.procon.org) With states spending this much money on these tests, many question how well they actually work. Students are essentially being judged on what they know on the spot, and to many that determines

Albert Einstein once said, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it’s stupid.” Recently, there has been discussion about whether the method of standardized testing is best for our education system. There are a lot of flaws that come with the system of testing. Opposers argue that with all of the flaws, the testing significantly holds American citizens back from greater potential to success. Standardized testing weakens America’s education system, because it can cause teachers to “teach to the test”, does not truly measure intelligence or abilities, and cannot always reflect what a student has learned.

Standardized tests are one of major steps that helps students get admitted to college. For more than 50 years in the United States, standardized testing has been a “scourge to student life” and pressured students to do their best. Questions that are designed for standardized tests are based on finding an individual’s aptitude to determine how they can solve problems in the real world. With lurking opinions of whether standardized testing should continue to be enforced or abolished, standardized testing has made an impact to students around the country by setting an educational background.

Every student knows what it feels like to walk into school on standardized testing days and having to sit in a desk for several hours and filling out multiple choice bubble sheets. Standardized testing has been around for years and standardized testing begins as soon as kindergarten. For a while now there has been a big debate on what standardized testing measures about a student and the effects on the student. To majority of people, standardized testing is a measure of their intelligence and has positive effects on the student. However standardized testing does not accurately measure your intelligence and only measures your ability to memorize and work under pressure. A large portion of the questions on these tests are things students have

Ask a student to take a standardized test and they will probably groan. For any student who has gone through the American school system, they will have taken over 100 tests by the time they graduate (Strauss). Not only have they spent hours actually doing the tests, but have spent hundreds of more hours studying for these tests. Students begin taking standardized tests as early as third grade and usually take one or more a year. Standardized tests, such as the ACT, SAT, or even PACT, have gained more and more popularity throughout many schools, but how useful are they? Why should we care about standardized tests? This is a question posed by many students, parents, teachers, and the rest of the community. Why should we care? In today’s school

After viewing “15 Reasons Why Standardized Tests Are Worthless”, readers can conclude a number of things. Some students are natural test takers, but unfortunately, a number of students are not. Most standardized tests are multiple-choice, meaning any good guesser can past a test; even tests with short answer or constructed response are easy to get by if the student can master a strategy or template to answer those question. Standardized tests do not value the diversity and creativity of students. These tests expect all students to make the same cookie-cutter answer, but students will think of their own answer and their own reasoning. Their answer may not have been wrong; it was just different from the very basic answer key. Perhaps the biggest and most negative impact is that because of these tests, kids spend less time actually learning. Tests, do not only weigh a lot in the grade book, it weighs a lot on a student’s confidence and their promotion. Instead doing the real work and trying their best, some kids end up cheating (teachers do it too because their job is at stake) because as long as they get away it, they have made themselves a hundred. Standardized testing has taken over schooling. Instead of school being about discovering new things and helping shape the youth into functioning adults, it is completely based around a test developed by, not

Consequently, my third research was titled A Defense of Standardized Tests. In this reading the author discusses the various setbacks

A pencil and a paper is more powerful than it appears. It can determine our admission into college and our entire future. It is what creates standardized testing; it is what creates our deepest fears. The sole purpose of standardized testing is to measure intelligence in an “objective” way. However, the problem is WE ARE NOT ALL THE SAME; therefore, we should not be judged the same. I am for the abolishment of standardized testing because it leads to stress and is only used for ranking. The only thing standardized testing does is measure one’s ability to take a test and nothing else.

Standardized testing, what is considered to be a fair and balanced way of evaluating a student’s academic progress, is an incredibly controversial topic. The most well known standardized tests are the PSAT, ACT, SAT, and SAT II. Each of these standardized tests share a similar protocol: all students are to have the same set of questions and are to be scored in a “standard” manner (the usage of a computerized system). The makers and educators of the standardized tests believe that these tests are an effective method in minimizing the amount of biased grading by teachers, and avoid the possibility of human error in the grading of the tests. Although standardized testing may have their advantages, the

Many institutions believe that standardized test put a huge a whole in admissions. The SAT is a standardized test which test on three sections criticial reading, writing, math and one essay. The test is a 3 hour test which decides the fate of every high school student. The test is an altitude test that scores from 100 to a 2400 as being the max score. The purpose of the SAT to give colleges a report on how high or low a persons I.Q. is. Based on the I.Q. colleges have a choice to either accept or deny them into their institution.

In a recent Simpsons episode the principal takes. Bart and other low achieving students on a made up field trip during the school’s standardized testing so that the school’s standardized testing so that the schools test scores will be higher. If government funding countinuestobe tied so heavily to standardized tests scores that satire may become reality. In fact, it already has. Recently, several teachers in Atlanta were convicted of falsifying standardized test scores. Schools every year have be raising how high they want students to score on a test to compete with other schools and how much funding the school will receive. Many people think that standardized testing is a good tool for measuring how intelligent students

The use of a standardized test in the education system seems to be extremely popular amongst schools in the United States. Their purpose is to grade a students’ academic performance through out the entire school year. Their involvement in the system has triggered much debated between instructors, scholars, and parents. Alongside much controversy surrounding these exams, teachers continue their use and it appears to be increasing instead of decreasing. With that being said, others consider the practice of a standardized test to be a fair form of comparison. Acknowledging its origin and its purpose for individual growth. Members who apprehend these sides of the argument reach out towards the opposed explaining their sympathy for it and recognize the concept of a standardized test as a tool for the improvement in the education system as a whole.

Testing, without a doubt, has been the most commonly used method to determine a student’s knowledge. More specifically, standardized tests gauge students’ learning, and have been designed “to provide fair, valid and reliable assessments that produce meaningful results” (ETS, Purpose of Standardized Testing). These tests are used for a variety of reasons, ranging from comparing global standings in education to applying for colleges. It is quite clear standardized tests have been a foundation of education. The actual debate is the level of strength and effectiveness of this as a backbone for today’s academic system. With its ability to objectively determine a child’s progress in learning, its uniform structure allowing straightforward comparisons, and its traditional importance towards students’ futures, standardized testing is currently being used appropriately.

Standardized test allow school districts to monitor the growth of an overall body of students, but these tests diminish the learning ability of a specific individual (“Is the Use of Standardized Tests”). The battle between the usage of standardized tests may never be ceased; however, political leaders, school administrators, teachers, parents and students must realize that the answer to the ultimate value of a person does not depend upon multiple choice targeted

First, standardized tests only measure a very small amount of what actually makes education meaningful. According to Gerald W. Bracey, a late education researcher, these tests cannot accurately measure other important qualities of what make humans, humans. These qualities include individuality, creativity, passion, curiosity, and resourcefulness, to name a few. These qualities play no role in determining our future when it comes to education. Sure, you have a choice of what field of work you would like to go into, but in reality standardized tests ultimately limit your choices. The creator of standardized tests, the maker of the multiple choice tests you know today, Frederick J. Kelly, even said “These tests are too crude to be used, and should be abandoned.” This shows that even the man in charge of these tests, believes that they are too hard on the kids and should be gotten rid of.