Standardized testing and final exams have been around for over fifty years and they are not a good way of evaluating student success. The tests focus on math and literature drawing away from arts and sciences. The tests put an unimaginable and unnecessary amount of stress on a growing teen balancing work, family, and relationships, and they discriminate against the poor and various racial groups by making their overall score worth less to the system. Standardized tests and final exams are harmful to the students and the education system as a whole. Final exams and some standardized tests are often a massive percentage of the student’s final grade. Typically between 20 and 50 percent. This is a make or break grade. The student may achieve
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Students are both losing actual course time to work on test preparation but also due to this according to The Washington Post students “cannot demonstrate subject mastery when tested in a different format” (Strauss). The curriculum is also reduced to focus on math and literacy pulling away from the arts. “Schools that perform poorly on high-stakes-tests are labeled “failures” and sometimes have resources taken away from them.” (Strauss). Schools are losing funding that would go towards improving the student’s education and making them better just because they may score poorly on a test. The pressure caused by the stress of knowing that what you score directly effects the income of your school and teachers can severely impact how the students react to the tests themselves “Teachers are reporting children throwing up, losing control of their bowels, and increased commitments for psychiatric and anxiety issues.” (Strauss). According to Global Post however, “Students who score well on the standardized tests feel a sense of pride and accomplishment.” (Anthony). This is not an acceptable counterweight for the stress caused prior to the test, nor is this acceptable for the students who do not score well, who may feel alienated or worthless because of it. While teachers in schools that are seeing an increase in test scores say that they use more innovative and high level skills in teaching. …show more content…
For example in the state of Virginia 45% of African Americans must pass, this would not seem that bad if it was not for the fact that 68% of whites and 82% of Asians have to do the exact same thing. According to Time “Officials say that these plans are not discriminatory because students who are the farthest behind must progress the most, but critics reason that if one expects less from some students, those lower educational expectations will become a self-fulfilling prophecy for school districts and those students will fall even farther behind.” Students who know that what they score is worth less are much more likely to care less versus wanting to improve just to raise a figure that does not noticeably affect them directly. Standardized tests and final exams are harmful to the students and the education system as a whole. They should be removed completely from the school system. They could easily be replaced by something more engaging and knowledge testing like a portfolio or other kind of project. Their removal would also take a stressful load off both the shoulders of our teachers and our
Students are both losing actual course time to work on test preparation but also due to this according to The Washington Post students “cannot demonstrate subject mastery when tested in a different format” (Strauss). The curriculum is also reduced to focus on math and literacy pulling away from the arts. “Schools that perform poorly on high-stakes-tests are labeled “failures” and sometimes have resources taken away from them.” (Strauss). Schools are losing funding that would go towards improving the student’s education and making them better just because they may score poorly on a test. The pressure caused by the stress of knowing that what you score directly effects the income of your school and teachers can severely impact how the students react to the tests themselves “Teachers are reporting children throwing up, losing control of their bowels, and increased commitments for psychiatric and anxiety issues.” (Strauss). According to Global Post however, “Students who score well on the standardized tests feel a sense of pride and accomplishment.” (Anthony). This is not an acceptable counterweight for the stress caused prior to the test, nor is this acceptable for the students who do not score well, who may feel alienated or worthless because of it. While teachers in schools that are seeing an increase in test scores say that they use more innovative and high level skills in teaching. …show more content…
For example in the state of Virginia 45% of African Americans must pass, this would not seem that bad if it was not for the fact that 68% of whites and 82% of Asians have to do the exact same thing. According to Time “Officials say that these plans are not discriminatory because students who are the farthest behind must progress the most, but critics reason that if one expects less from some students, those lower educational expectations will become a self-fulfilling prophecy for school districts and those students will fall even farther behind.” Students who know that what they score is worth less are much more likely to care less versus wanting to improve just to raise a figure that does not noticeably affect them directly. Standardized tests and final exams are harmful to the students and the education system as a whole. They should be removed completely from the school system. They could easily be replaced by something more engaging and knowledge testing like a portfolio or other kind of project. Their removal would also take a stressful load off both the shoulders of our teachers and our