Teaching the test seems to be conducive to improving test taking skills but real academic progression is not always represented. Additionally, Standardized testing is not an effective way to test the skills and abilities of today’s students. Standardized tests do not reveal what a student actually understands and learns, but instead only prove how well a student can do on a generic test. Schools have an obligation in a way to prepare students for life and with the power standardized tests have today, students are being cheated out of a proper valuable education and forced to prepare and improve their test skills. Too much time, energy, and pressure to succeed are being devoted to standardized tests.
All tests are the same for every grade level in different schools. One advantage of standardized achievenment testing is that teachers and students are held responsible for teaching students what they are required to know for the tests. These tests become public record and any teachers or schools who don’t perform well could be criticized by the community. Schools who do not perform well could be closed down which could lead to jobs being lost. Another advantage is that students from various schools and districts across the state can all be compared.
One pitfall is teaching to the test, parents and teachers feels that the NCLB encourages, and rewards, teaching children to score well on the test, rather than teaching with a primary goal of learning. As a result, teachers are pressured to teach a narrow set of test-taking skills and a test-limited range of knowledge. A few more pitfalls are: problems with the standardized tests, teachers’ qualification standards, and failure to address the reason for lack of achievement just to name a few. This often resulted in teacher discouragement, role ambiguity, and superficial responses to administrative goals. A few strengths are: standards are set for teacher qualifications, NCLB emphasizes reading, writing, and math, and NCLB requires schools to focus on providing quality education to students who are often underserved, including children with disabilities, from low-income families, non-English speakers, as well as African-Americans and Latinos.
Standardized test does not improve education. Punitive consequences achieve temporary compliance at the cost of demoralizing teachers and students. (citation) Standardized testing whether you agree with it or out it will continue to be used. There will always be argument when it comes to whether standardized test are assessment-driven reform, standards-based assessment, assessment-centered accountability; and high-stakes consequences. Standardized testing has both positive and negative aspects and when used effectively can play a significant role in bettering the education of our student.
16 Aug. 2011. Web. 27 Mar. 2012. <http://www.ninds.nih.gov/>.
National guidelines must be followed for all students, thus states use standardized testing to evaluate all students within the school system. Often problems arise when students move here from other countries. Each state must measure the educational level of English Language Learners (ELLs) as they enter the school system. Once a student has been tested the school is able to place the child into a classroom that is appropriate for his/her level of comprehension. The state of Virginia uses W-APT, which is a test system set up for specific grade level clusters.
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.
Teachers frequently feel that they should have been trained more than they have been. to administer subject information teaching because educators cannot tell if the pupil is struggling in reading comprehension knowledge understanding, deficiency of guidance and instruction on the educators, or probably if it was due to some degree of English language skills. Sorry to say, the reason for this suffering is due to improper interpretations and ELL students not being taught the proper education
Each state has federal laws in place to regulate tests, curriculum, how much funding each school receives, to scholarship, and grants. What is wrong with this is that there is a conflict between federal, state , and school boards about what agendas are important; a student can be a C average in one state or school and move to another where they are on the honor role, I know of this first hand. Another problem is that federal and state government prevents poorer schools from receiving the funding they need to help their students improve academically. Because of the lack of funding for much needed improvements and resources, the poorer schools also have the worst performance ratings. Creating this bigger gap in funding only hinders a school from achieving academic excellence and eventually causes teachers to lose jobs and schools to shut down.
For example, If a Spanish speaking student is in a class room with all English speaking students, the teacher will then have to take their personal time out to spend with that student in order for them to be able to learn the curriculum and pass the test to move them on to the next grade. I think that it should not be the teachers responsibility to teach a non English speaking student how to speak and read English. The school system needs to put more and more bilingual teachers in schools where the population of non English speaking students is highest. If the state and local governments would get more involved in the schools they would know how hard it is for teachers who only speak English to teach a student how to read and write in English when they do not know how. These tests are given to students in second, third, and forth grades.