Monday, November 2, 2015

The Dreaded Standardized Test

The standardized test is when a student has anxiety and stress for six years of their life trying to receive a good score to get into a good college. The worst part about the test is that the teachers did not receive the test results until the summer time. So the teacher could not help you to improve, you just had to continue your education every year.  Yvonne Kao, who is an education researcher says, “Standardized tests are summative assessments — tests to determine if students have reached a particular level of academic achievement at a particular point in time. … Standardized tests do not give teachers and administrators much information they can use to improve teaching and learning at the school.”  If the teachers had found out the results before the school year ends to help the students learn from their mistakes then the test will be helpful, but to just take the test and move on does not help the teacher or the students.

Standardized testing also does not benefit children because children are from different socio-economic status. If you are from a higher class you receive a better education than someone of a lower class. Two types of children are receiving two different kinds of education. Schools are now being judge on the test scores as a deciding factor if the school is a good school or not. All the test cares about is the outcome of it. Which school scored better and which student received the highest score. Colleges look at the scores when they are deciding to accept the student or not. The downfall of all of this is it does not benefit the individual child. Not all children receive the same education but yet they are all scored the same way. The test does not benefit children, so why it is such an important part of our education. It should not be placed into the curriculum unless more preparation is done to help benefit each individual child. 

4 comments:

  1. I'm unclear as to what standardized test you're talking about. Is it the one mandated by the "No Child Left Behind" law? I thought that covered more than six years.

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  2. I totally agree that Standardized Test do not really benefit the youth that are in the education system now. I agree that if these tests were to stay in the curriculum there should be better preparation for the teachers and students to benefit the individual. However the education departments nationally are trying to make what one student is learning in Kansas to match what another student in California is learning. This allows for children to be tested on the same playing field. I think there can be more done to help benefit the educational system as a whole rather then just trying to find out the best way to categorize students.

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  3. "If you are from a higher class you receive a better education than someone of a lower class." What makes this true? Lower income schools tend to receive more government aid, and Boston Public Schools (many of which have lower income students) pay more competitively than most other districts in Massachusetts. What defines a "better" education? Is this a debate of private vs. public education?

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    1. The primary funding mechanism for schools are local property taxes. This is deeply embedded in the real estate market, and thus will be hard to change.

      Government aid in MA is primarily in the form of "Cherry sheet" reimbursments, and are typically the first thing cut when there is a state budget shortfall

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