Psychometrics

As important as standardized testing is for education, it is still fundamentally flawed. Programs once promoting education reform have now created all-or-nothing gambles for schools. Teachers, schools, and school funding are all at risk because of flawed and sometimes inaccurate tests. This has also brought larger issues to the public’s attention. I am opposed to schools using standardized tests because of government interference and the tests being rigid and inflexible. The most obvious issues…

A developing controversy surrounding standardized test may have you question what education is really coming to. Topics concerning standardized tests have been a growing controversy since 2004, and even in 2016, the issues surrounding them refuse to cease. The way standardized test are used now; are to measure, predict, and compare a student’s intelligence and academic performance, and a schools ability to provide students with a strong academic performance. Even some school districts are…

Pop-quizzes, weekly tests, final exams, and semester exams are just a few things that a high school student has to worry about. A standardized test is a mandatory test that students take, usually through the state in formats such as Parcc and Air. They are supposed to be based on common knowledge and material learned in the classroom. This controversial topic is debated year after year when the students are required to take them again. Standardized tests should not be mandatory for graduation…

Should Students Have to Take Standardized Tests? “Sometimes the most brilliant and intelligent students do not shine in standardized tests because they do not have standardized minds,” Diane Ravitch once declared. Students should take less standardized tests. Testing takes up precious learning time, there are too many tests on the same subject, and students are always obsessing over tests. To begin with, standardized tests take up too much valuable learning time. Did you know almost twenty to…

Ravitch talks about testing used to determine the progress of students and decide if the school met certain standards. These tests, usually given at the end of the year, consist of multiple choice questions and supervised by a proctor with a certain allotment of time to complete. The results of these tests become basically a score to determine if the faculty and staff properly taught the students all the information they should know. If the score did not meet the standards the school could face…

Think about a time when you were taking a high school class. Was it easier to work on papers and take multiple tests throughout the year, or, to take a major test that applies for more than all of your average grades combined? A test that covers everything over a 36 week period is obviously going to be harder and more stressful than a test that covers curriculum that a student has just retained. Should we really be putting this kind of pressure on high school students? Myself, having…

Some schools that use Standardized tests have been closed or fired their teachers. They are doing that because they are having either too many failing students or the teachers aren't teaching their students. Schools do not need to close down, but the teachers do need to get fired and replaced with a teacher that does their job. Low scores on the tests can also lead to a student not progressing to the next grade level if they fail. If the student fails, the teacher fails at her job. The teacher…

Education systems are continuing to place more emphasis on standardized testing and in fact, these tests are becoming so popular that school systems are starting to implement them earlier on in education. Even though these tests are supposedly designed to be a fair way to measure an individual’s performance and skills in certain content areas, standardized testing continues to spark major controversy (Addison & McGee, 2015). According to the Columbia University Office of Work/Life, the formal…

The monotonous sound of the teacher’s voice is all that is filling the room, the room in which you and other numerous students are told to stay in. The “instructor” is reading to you and the other students the directions. You have heard these directions all throughout your life. You are told to read along, even though you can recite them word for word, as they are being told to you. All that races through your mind is that you must do well on this test. You need this in order to have the life…

What are the advantages to testing? Originally designed in 1900 to allow interested students who had not gone to a prestigious high school participate in a standardized test that showed they were ready to attend college, the SAT aimed to expand access to higher education. In this way, standardized testing has been successful, more students, from more diverse backgrounds, than ever are attending. Also, since high schools vary in achievement levels of their students, standardized tests offer a…