Testing in School

999 Words4 Pages
The Consequences of Testing in Schools Testing in schools has been around for decades to measure the intelligence of students. The only difference in today’s society is the prominent role that testing plays in school systems. Standardized tests are deciding factors when it comes to being promoted to the next grade and the intelligence a student has gained. Teachers and administrators are often pressured to produce the best test scores which lead to putting higher demands on their students. Should standardized tests have such a vital role in the schooling systems today? Testing should not hold such importance because it causes stress, low self esteem, causes students to give up, and does not truly show the intelligence of students. Self esteem is already a problem that most students face especially during teenage years and above. Self esteem can be causes by trying to live up to unrealistic standards and creating an immense amount of pressure on oneself to do well (Self Esteem 1). When students feel the pressure to be perfect from parents, teachers, or peers it causes them to somewhat shut down and not perform well. Getting what the student feels as a bad score can lead to immediate devastation and even more problems later in life. End of semester tests or even SAT scores can cause a person’s self esteem to plummet if they feel it is unacceptable. The high standards that schools now hold can make the self esteem even lower depending on the person. Which such high expectations it is nearly impossible for most students to feel like they have succeeded. This can cause problems with a person’s social life and how they handle situations outside of school. Testing in schools is a useful tool for administrators when it comes to promoting students to the next grade, college admissions, and performance of teachers. That is a lot riding on just a single
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