The Effects of Standardized Tests on Education

standardise assays hold up been debated and argued for as many an(prenominal) course of instructions as they get existed. It is worthwhile to look at close to of the arguments for both sides and find out if in that location pot be some shop nogg centre ground. Two primary(prenominal) factors of alike(p) campaigns atomic number 18 the focal point the tests be administered and how the results atomic number 18 handled. These devil issues whitethorn be oftentimes important than the tests themselves. There must be shipway to kick in accountability in around areas of society. In inculcates, we collect to know if teachers are learn and if scholars are learning.There has to be some way to judge whether the transcription is working. like tests shadower show pupils strengths and weaknesses. Ide whollyy, teachers therefore develop strategies to address the needs of the student that the test has outlined. These tests backside encourage berth survival at col lege, justification for scholarships, and selection for employment. They can document achievement, both for the student and the teacher. The fundamental ideas behind the construction and drop of tests are non beyond our reason.Says Andrew J. Strenio Jr.These tests certify that the examinee does have the requisite skills and competencies needed to graduate from heights discipline programs, practice in an business or craft, or suck up lordly status within a profession. (Defending Standardized Testing Phelps, Richard. We could not ply in society without some prefatory standards and these standards need to be uniform throughout our society. Chauncey and Dobbin write in their set aside Testing Its Place in Education TodayEvery drill and almost all teacher uses a test at some point in the military operation of planning nurture that will fit the student and his capacities.Standardized examination is just a larger scale for comparison. It offers feedback to the student and the school organization about where achievement is in received areas. But it should not be the yet when criteria for what we consider success. There is a vast deal of criticism of govern tests. make test scores public is a way to see them as indicators of school quality. This has increased their value 100% moreover not in a in purposeicular good way. Officials use an assortment of bribes and threats to wedge every matchless into concentrating on test results.If the scores are uplifted, the bribes whitethorn include bonuses for teachers and schools. Students may receive food, tickets to theme parks or degenerate events, exemptions from in-class final exams, and even scholarships. The threats include spill of funding or accreditation for schools, while students may be held back a year or denied a high school diploma if they wear downt test well, regardless of their over-all academic record. All together, these tactic are known as high stakes testing.There may not be da ta on this, merely Alfie Kohn provinces the people who work most about with kids are the most in all likelihood to derive the limits of interchangeable tests. He says that support for testing seems to grow as you move past from the students, going from teacher to principal to telephone exchange office administrator to school advance member to state board member, state legislator, and governor. 3 Standardized Minds by beam of light Sacks talks about the unquestioned face of standardized testing which he damage an unhealthy and enduring obsession.He also writes about the cost of all this testing. The amount Americans spend taking tests, preparing for tests, scoring tests, and campaign magnificently elaborate testing programs in schools, colleges and the work site is stunning, probably running in the billions of dollars each year. It is possible that Americans may be taking as many as 600 million standardized tests annually, or more than two tests per year for every man, woman, and child in the United States. unten able demands of higher(prenominal) scores from schools has many electronegative results. Alfie Kohn says Teachers are beginning to tire of the pressure, the skew priorities, and the disrespectful treatment as they are forced to implement a curriculum largely determined by test manufacturers or state legislators. A hostile environment develops as teachers feel the need to prove that low scores were not their fault. An unhealthy competition is set up between teachers.High-stakes testing has led to general slicker. Recently, capital of Georgia schools victimize scandal has been face up page news. An article in centerfield News by George N. Schmidt on Dec. 26, 2010 detail the depth and breadth of the CRCT scandal. The article is part of series that has examined the statistically improbable gains in test scores in Atlanta schools and how school district officials responded to them. The money worn out(p) on this investigation could probably build a new school.The expectation of higher scores means teachers are more likely to teach to the test and blend drill sergeants. Other things like beauteous arts fall to the wayside as math and science are emphasized. From the bulk Standardized Minds Researchers have found systematically that one of the most damaging personal effects of large-scale, big-stakes standardized testing in schools has been to (1) overdo whats taught in school and (2) to badly constrict what is taught to only those items most likely to appear on an upcoming standardized test. There is blame and consequence to cheating, whether it is unlimited erasures on tests or days of teaching the test. But it should help us to reconsideration the pressures on high-stakes testing. Maybe the Atlanta cheating scandal can show us that our response to the test score is way out of line. School districts, schools, teachers, and students should not have to be tested under such(prenominal) extreme pressure. This threatening atmosphere makes cheating a likelihood. Grades and test scores dont tell us what we really want to know about somebody.The baptistery Against Standardized Testing includes a incline offered by educator Bill Ayers Standardized tests cant measure initiative, creativity, imagination, conceptual thinking, curiosity, effort, irony, judgment, commitment, nuance, good will, ethical reflection, or a host of other valuable dispositions and attri plainlyes. What they can measure and count are free skills, specific facts and functions, the least interesting and least significant aspects of learning. Maybe it is not a bad test precisely how the results are handled.Daniel Koretz in Measuring Up talks about the limits of test scores. He says What education leaders want is a fair, straight-forward measure of school performance, to be able to monitor schools and hold them accountable. The problem is that we move to overestimate what tests can do. Tests are not designed to sum marize all that students and schools can do. By the same nominal Andrew Strenio states that Standardized tests convey an illusion of much greater precision than they are truly capable of achieving.Learning is a unconscious process and process is defined as movement, a series of actions or changes. That is what makes it hard to scarce measure. So maybe we should not pin so much on standardized tests. Instead, make them a component of the over-all metre of quality achievement. Valerie Janesick states in The Assessment arguing that Learning does not take place by sheer dumb prognosis or luck . It takes place by design. She makes reference to Grant Wiggins verbalize the goal is not instant straighten or instant knowing but rather a continuous process that results in understanding.Priscilla Vail states Above all, parents, students, and educators must remember that a test only shows what one person did on one exercise on one day. A standardized test score is not a license to live or a measure of deserving oxygen and space on our planet. The opportunity to discuss what you know can also be done with portfolio assessment, group or one-on-one projects, and take-home exams. We should strive to create schools that help students flourish. We should also strive to hire administrators who can develop and implement new criteria for touchstone achievement that could go along with the standardized tests.