Against Standardized Testing

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Any public school student in the state of Florida is familiar with the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, also more commonly known as the ‘FCAT’. The FCAT is what we would call a standardized test. An even more common standardized test taken at a National level is the SAT. Both of these tests determine your standings against other students in your grade and age group. They help schools determine whether or not you pass or fail, and help colleges to determine whether or not to accept you in to their schools if you have not had two previous years at a state community college. Standardized tests have been around for years, and have changed with the curriculum, but they should not be able to determine whether a student passes or fails. SAT scores should not help a college determine whether or not they will accept an applicant. Standardized testing at a state or national level is not beneficial to American students because these tests put everyone at the same level, and some people simply do not test well, while others do well in the testing setting. Standardized testing should not determine what level of intellect a person is on. Schools use standardized tests to determine if children are ready for school, track them into instructional groups; diagnose for learning disability, retardation and other handicaps; and decide whether to promote, retain in grade, or graduate many students. Schools also use tests to guide and control curriculum content and teaching methods. This is not a valid use of a test score. No one test should be used as the sole or primary basis for important educational decisions. Tests like the FCAT should not determine whether or not a student passes. The FCAT is a review of ‘everything’ a student has learned for the year. In some cases during the school year, certain parts of the curricula may not have been
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