What would education be like without testing? Standardized testing, such as the ACT and SAT, has become the sole way to examine the knowledge and growth potential of a highschool student. There are two different views on standardized testing: it is an accurate representation of knowledge or it is not an effective test of knowledge. The success of students, schools, and teachers are all measured by these tests in some way. Teachers’ success as an educator can be determined from the students’ scores. For a student, his or her access to funding and scholarships as well as his or her career in college are based upon the success or failure of standardized tests. Standardized testing in its entirety is not a completely accurate measure of all of
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It is based on convergent thinking, “the tendency to narrow all options to one,” (Wieder) and superficial thinking, “copying down answers, guessing a lot, and skipping the hard parts,” (Kohn). When taking a standardized test, the goal is to knock out the options that do not make sense in the answer choices to be able to get the one correct answer; this is convergent thinking. Also, anyone who has been tutored for standardized test taking strategies has been exposed to the ideas of doing the easy questions first and guessing and moving on if it is not known to him/her. This is superficial thinking. Neither of these ways of thinking are beneficial to aspects of life except testing. Another flaw in standardized testing is that it is unfair. Some students have an advantage on these tests. For example, research has been done that shows the higher degree a parent has, the higher the SAT score of their child (Camara). Having a well-educated parent exposes children to more scholarly things in their life. Standardized tests are one way of testing, but there are other ways that are not used as often as they should …show more content…
For example, there are laws on annual testing, and the outcomes of these tests hold a lot of weight. In 2002, the “No Child Left Behind Act” was passed. Basically, a school has to test their students to “proficiency” level, and the school has to have “adequate yearly progress.” If the schools do not pass these tests, they could risk being shut down (Background of the Issue). For this reason, students and teachers feel the pressure to perform well or get their students prepared. “Educators are experiencing almost relentless pressure to show their effectiveness,” moreover, “... if a school’s standardized test scores are high, people think the school’s staff is effective;” (Popham) this puts pressure on both the student and teacher because the outcome holds a lot of weight. Time and money use has decreased in areas such as the art and music programs as well as learning not specifically geared toward standardized testing. This time and money has been given toward testing (Kohn). Testing has become a big part of education, and according to Kohn, “standardized testing has swelled and mutated, like a creature...to the point that it now threatens to swallow our schools whole.” This metaphor is exaggerated, but it is true to a degree. It is not physically “taking over,” but there are many problems with
It is based on convergent thinking, “the tendency to narrow all options to one,” (Wieder) and superficial thinking, “copying down answers, guessing a lot, and skipping the hard parts,” (Kohn). When taking a standardized test, the goal is to knock out the options that do not make sense in the answer choices to be able to get the one correct answer; this is convergent thinking. Also, anyone who has been tutored for standardized test taking strategies has been exposed to the ideas of doing the easy questions first and guessing and moving on if it is not known to him/her. This is superficial thinking. Neither of these ways of thinking are beneficial to aspects of life except testing. Another flaw in standardized testing is that it is unfair. Some students have an advantage on these tests. For example, research has been done that shows the higher degree a parent has, the higher the SAT score of their child (Camara). Having a well-educated parent exposes children to more scholarly things in their life. Standardized tests are one way of testing, but there are other ways that are not used as often as they should …show more content…
For example, there are laws on annual testing, and the outcomes of these tests hold a lot of weight. In 2002, the “No Child Left Behind Act” was passed. Basically, a school has to test their students to “proficiency” level, and the school has to have “adequate yearly progress.” If the schools do not pass these tests, they could risk being shut down (Background of the Issue). For this reason, students and teachers feel the pressure to perform well or get their students prepared. “Educators are experiencing almost relentless pressure to show their effectiveness,” moreover, “... if a school’s standardized test scores are high, people think the school’s staff is effective;” (Popham) this puts pressure on both the student and teacher because the outcome holds a lot of weight. Time and money use has decreased in areas such as the art and music programs as well as learning not specifically geared toward standardized testing. This time and money has been given toward testing (Kohn). Testing has become a big part of education, and according to Kohn, “standardized testing has swelled and mutated, like a creature...to the point that it now threatens to swallow our schools whole.” This metaphor is exaggerated, but it is true to a degree. It is not physically “taking over,” but there are many problems with