Argumentative Essay On Standardized Testing

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 was put into place to provide extra money for children who do not have money while trading their knowledge using their test scores. The NCLB Act says that students are to be given yearly tests along with yearly report cards to track how well they are doing in school, in doing so, school is not about fun and socializing but now it is all business. These tests not only do not help the students learn but puts a load of stress on their shoulders, alongside that the tests have no purpose other than grading how well a students is able to retain information.

Most standardized test do not measure emotional or mechanical intelligence, actually a lot of educators argue that standardized test do not measure comprehension or actual intelligence but rather memorization. While others may believe that standardized testing just needs a few improvements, others believe that it is impossible to have a test that measures accurately the capability of a diverse student population. Today’s schooling depends heavily on the test scores from standardized test. Standardized testing should not have so much weight put on them because they have a negative impact on effective education, students’ self-concept, and learning styles.

Take out a number two pencil, fill in the bubbles, and pray for a good score. The outcome of standardized tests are life changing, especially in America, so it is imperative to do well on them no matter what. Students, teachers, and schools are all affected by these unfair tests. Not only do studies show the tests do not measure a student’s achievement, they are often biased against certain races and low income students, Americans are so accustomed to these tests that most people never bother to question them. Standardized tests are not in any way an accurate measurement of a student’s progress or achievement, therefore the tests should either be abolished completely or drastically changed to reflect a student’s actual

The author has used the concept of rhetoric questions, which intrigues the mind of the reader

College is right around the corner and senior year will soon be coming to a close. Over the years, I have been exposed to all sorts of standardized tests. Some of these I can prepare for, like the ACT, while others seem to throw some curveballs, like the MAP Assessment. Either way, both tests help measure and determine my ability as a student. No student looks forward to taking exams, but I understand why they are essential for evaluating students. Standardized tests allow colleges and teachers to measure student’s ability as well as push students to study and take things seriously. For this reason, I think the number of them should be maintained.

Knowing what an author of an article or any journal entry means is one of the most important part of understanding the authors point. There are numerous ways how this can be achieved. One of the most commonly used methods in the field of communication is through the use of rhetorical analysis. Rhetorical analysis, or what is also sometimes called as rhetorical criticism refers to a process where an individual identifies, analyzes, and then interprets the presence of symbolic artifacts in a particular text or reading, which may include words, images, phrases, ideas, and even discourses, to get the overall meaning of that text or reading. The objective of this paper is to use rhetorical analysis, and the three underlying appeals or concepts namely

8. What is your evaluation of the rhetorical effectiveness? Does the writer accomplish his or her purposes? What constraints, if any, qualify the writing’s effectiveness?

Although standardized test has thrived for decades and being told that is the most objective way to test how much knowledge that students have dominated, it is also being placed under extreme criticism in recent years. A group of people, who reject the idea of placing children under measurement determined largely by striking numbers, initiated many organizations to prohibit standardized exam, for instance "Just say no to test!" (http://www.fairtest.org/). This nationwide hot debated also inspired Katrina Vanden Heuvel(2013), an American editor and publisher since 1995, also a frequent commentator on numerous political television programs, to write a published article "Stakes on standardized testing are too high" about Opting out of standardized tests, supporting the present changes of fundamental education.

The rhetorical analysis played a role in this, because I was required to use the various rhetorical appeals to compose a strong argument. Using the appeals definitely helped in trying to persuade the reader to acknowledge the opposing view.

When performing a rhetorical analysis of a writing, the reader is identifying: the situation, the writer’s purpose, the writer’s claims, and the writer’s audience. These are questions that reader must ask if he or she wants to understand and converse with the author’s statements. To identify each specific step of a rhetorical analysis the reader will have to ask him or herself a series of questions. For identifying: the situation ask “what is the writer's motivation?”; the writer’s purpose, “what is the writer wanting to reader to think about?”; the writer’s claim, “What is the writer’s main and minor claim?”; and the writer’s audience, “who is the author’s intended reader?”.

Since 1805 public schools have been the backbone of many Americans and their strive for an education. On top of this, public schools, according to the Huffington Post, equate to 91% or 50.7 million of those attending pre-Kindergarten through the 12th grade. But, with other school types such as year-round attending over 2 million students, the question begs, “Which school type provides their students with the best education”?

Standardized tests do not give us a complete and direct measure of student achievement because they often only measure the goals of education(Harris). And while teachers and administration are forced to increase preparation for these tests, important -arguably more important - skills are being overlooked. Here are some attributes that standardized tests do not even try to cover: creativity, motivation, persistence, curiosity, reliability, critical thinking, self-awareness, leadership, civic-mindedness, empathy, courage, compassion, sense of beauty and wonder, honesty and integrity. Surely these are all “achievements” that students should be experiencing, so why don’t schools these as well as academic goals? Rochelle Gutiérrez, a member of The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics says "Achievement—all the outcomes that students and teachers attain. Achievement is more than test scores but also includes class participation, students' course-taking patterns, and teachers' professional development patterns"(Harris). These are all qualities that standardized tests cannot measure.

Standardized tests are assessments put in place to be a reliable measure of success and to have a positive academic effect on students, but recent studies have shown that these tests might not be as accurate as we perceive them to be. A standardized test is one that is the same for all test takers, it is scored and administered in the same exact way for each student. Common forms of these tests would include: achievement tests, intelligence tests, and aptitude tests. The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and The American College Test (ACT) are common standardized tests in the United States along with any other test that a state administers. Research released by organizations such as The Brookings Institution, claim 50-80% of standardized testing results are unreliable and inaccurately reflect student performance. Due to those findings, standardized testing must be eliminated. Students need to put all their energy into learning, instead of worrying about passing statewide tests that do not accurately define their current or future abilities as a student.

Tomorrow was the big day. The day that every student despised, but came every year. The problem that transcends national borders: standardized testing. Before I knew it, it was the final week, and time was running out. In my case, the Connecticut state test, the CMT, was in just two days. More than nervousness, there was a cloud of confusion surrounding this test for us students. Some said that preparation and study are necessary for this test, while most thought just the opposite. Some people were even saying that the scores for these tests somehow will affect our progress in school. Looking back, I don’t remember the test being all that hard, but it didn’t make sense to me. How could this one test, filled with questions that require shallow thinking and zero creativity, show the state the performance of my hard-working teachers, or the individuality and strengths of each student? Or on a larger scale, every student in the entire state?

What’s your ACT score? Students are branded with their ACT and SAT scores in society. Today’s education is heavily leaning on standardized tests. An average students takes over one hundred standardized tests in his or her school years. Standardized tests are used to measure and test the knowledge of students in a particular subject in a quick and easy way. These tests are also used to see the extend and skill of students for qualifications of certain colleges and scholarships. Some of these standardized tests include the ACT and the SAT. But do these test fully measure the strength of knowledge these students have practiced for their whole lives? Standardized testing does not allow students to fully and completely show their strength in education and instead results in breaking down students mentally and physically.