Standardized tests have haunted students across the country for the past decade. Students tremble as they walk into the test rooms to somehow prove that they have what it takes to make it in the world by filling in circles. Teachers reflect on how their schools prepared for the test, “The faculty shepherded the entire student body into the gym to cheer for the students to ‘Do your best’ and sing, to the tune of ‘Ghostbusters,’ that they were ‘test crushers,’” (William). Is this what schools have come to for getting students “excited” for taking standardized tests? These tests have been used worldwide by schools to represent their students’ success. Standardized tests have sometimes even led to schools receiving less funding because they don’t
…show more content…
Even though standardized tests are the most commonly used tests, many people do not agree with them. However, no one knows what to replace standardized tests with. Well, a replacement that could fill in the shoes of test taking would be performance-based tests. Valerie Strauss writes in her column in the Washington Post, “One top-notch alternative is conducted by the New York Performance Standards Consortium, an alliance of 28 public high schools. Schools in the Consortium use performance-based assessments in place of standardized exams, except the English Language Arts test. The performance assessments are used for graduation and accountability, including NCLB.” These performance-based tests have been proven to work, including the minorities. Strauss continues with, “In 2011, 86% of African American and 90% of Latino male graduates of Consortium schools were accepted to college. National averages are only 37% and 43%, respectively.” Performance-based tests work exactly the way they say they work. “Consortium schools focus on project-based learning. All consortium programs require students to successfully complete four performance-based assessment tasks (PBATs). These include an analytic essay, a social studies research paper, a science experiment, and an applied mathematics problem. They incorporate both written and oral components,” (Strauss). PBAT’s could be an effective and simple solution to all standardized
Even though standardized tests are the most commonly used tests, many people do not agree with them. However, no one knows what to replace standardized tests with. Well, a replacement that could fill in the shoes of test taking would be performance-based tests. Valerie Strauss writes in her column in the Washington Post, “One top-notch alternative is conducted by the New York Performance Standards Consortium, an alliance of 28 public high schools. Schools in the Consortium use performance-based assessments in place of standardized exams, except the English Language Arts test. The performance assessments are used for graduation and accountability, including NCLB.” These performance-based tests have been proven to work, including the minorities. Strauss continues with, “In 2011, 86% of African American and 90% of Latino male graduates of Consortium schools were accepted to college. National averages are only 37% and 43%, respectively.” Performance-based tests work exactly the way they say they work. “Consortium schools focus on project-based learning. All consortium programs require students to successfully complete four performance-based assessment tasks (PBATs). These include an analytic essay, a social studies research paper, a science experiment, and an applied mathematics problem. They incorporate both written and oral components,” (Strauss). PBAT’s could be an effective and simple solution to all standardized