Standardized Testing
By: Ravenclaws Unite
Mini Lesson of the Day: What are Ethos, Pathos, and Logos?
Ethos
Pathos
Logos
Logical Fallacies
Logical Fallacy #1
Logical Fallacy #2
Logical Fallacy #3
Memes and Political Cartoons (not necessarily what we believe)
Expert Opinion
It does a disservice to students because it puts them all in the same category.
What would you change if you could?
!. Take away consequences for failing
2. make test shorter
3. make the skills assessed more developmentally appropriate
Would it be easier on you, as a teacher and a mom, if standardized testing was reduced?
Yes.
What are some valuable benefits from standardized testing?
Sets high expectations for teachers and students
What are some major disadvantages from standardized testing?
The focus of my English class has become centered around the test. I've lost 2/3rd's
out of my school year to standardized testing.
How often do you think standardized tests should be given to students?
In 3rd and 5th grade
In 8th grade
and in their Junior year of high school
We have a board on Pinterest dedicated to this cause
Essay #1
Standardized tests allow students to see what subjects they need to improve in through a test which can easily be given in one class period. But when standardized tests are given so often that there is barely any time for the student to actually learn the material, the student’s academic experience can be crippled. Most of a student’s time in school is spent preparing for the standardized test over the material, and there is hardly any time to learn extra material that should be learned with the required topics. In addition, the sheer amount of tests causes students and teachers to stress out as they frantically try to prepare for tests that can affect their future. Standardized tests may help strengthen academic weaknesses, but when used in large amounts they can decrease children’s love for school, overall knowledge, and confidence level.
Of course, what every teacher wants is for their students to love to learn, and standardized tests often ruin this hope by making kids dread having to learn the boring material for the test. In some advanced classes, the students are tested every two weeks! This causes the students to have to miss out on what often amounts to a full class period, instead of getting to move on and learn more quickly. This can cause students to worry more about upcoming tests, and spend less time trying to go in depth as they just try to learn all of the very plain material that is evaluated through the tests. Many people believe that students are motivated to learn when they know that they will be tested over the material. Although the students do work hard to learn the material, they do it because they don’t want a bad grade. Instead of learning through curiosity, students often learn just so that they can pass the multiple tests. This pressure from the frequent tests causes many students to lose the love of learning that they had at younger ages.
In addition to decreasing students’ loves of learning, standardized tests also decrease the amount of time students have to learn the rest of the material for the year by taking up an entire class just to take the test. This time could be used to continue advancing, and ends up restricting the amount of material that students get to learn overall. In addition, the small amount of time to learn new material between each test can cause students’ grades to decrease because they aren’t given enough time to study the material. This can then lead to students losing their confidence, because they begin to feel that they aren’t good at school purely because they do not have enough time to learn everything. Many people believe that the short time limit would push students to work harder, but it just ends up making them stress out about a test that they do not have enough time to prepare for. When students do not have enough time to learn everything with all of the frequent tests, it greatly affects the total amount of information they get to learn and their confidence in their own abilities.
Although standardized tests can help students realize their weaknesses, they negatively affect students’ love for school, overall knowledge, and confidence level. In order to eliminate this threat, less standardized tests should be given to students. This would allow the students to enjoy their educational experience because they would be able to do more fun projects and activities. In addition, if students had more time to learn the material they needed to know, they would have more knowledge than if they had to speed through each unit. This would also affect their confidence level because more time to study would ultimately result in higher test scores. This being said, in order to increase students’ love for learning, overall knowledge, and confidence level, less standardized tests should be administered to them.Essay #2
Students and teachers must be held liable to their duties and responsibilities, however; the bulk of standardized testing is an overbearing, tyrannical way to measure it. Some tests can be good and can measure skills appropriately, but on whole, most tests cause unnecessary stress to students and teachers alike. The mass of standardized testing will lower the student’s love and willingness to bear through school and will begin to cause emotional stress behaviors in younger students such as crying, throwing tantrums, and mental breakdowns. It will also lower the child’s confidence that will affect their future job and social life.
To be sure, tests add unwarranted stress to students. Their need to succeed is what drives them. However, if you put an impossible goal in front of them, they will eventually (after trying so hard) stop caring. This will decrease their levels of joy and happiness in school, lowering their grade averages. Some students’ grades however, will not be affected by the tests. This is because their drive is not to learn; but to make good grades. This will become a problem in the future because the students (especially in high school) will not have the necessary skills to function in society. If a student wants to be an accountant, him/her will need to learn the math skills needed (rather than cheating off a friend). The love of learning is needed to succeed in life, not test-taking skills.
Emotional stress and confidence level can also be heavily affected by standardized testing. The amount of work needed to take on can cause mass amounts of stress in both younger and older students. For example; the older the students get; the more they hide their emotions. Younger students aren’t as afraid of being upset as teens are. Younger students are prone to tantrums, crying, and visible irritability. Older students tend to have more passive-aggressive issues that tend to come out in sudden bursts. To be sure, confidence levels have also plunged due to the aggregation of standardized tests. If a student cannot reach their goal, or believe they cannot reach their aspirations; than their confidence levels will plummet as a result of this. If the amount of standardized testing was dropped, we would see significant changes in emotional behaviors and confidence levels of students.
To be concluded, the agglomeration of standardized testing is the true problem. If we narrowed down to the tests that accurately measure abilities, then all of the side effects of these tests could be avoided. The stress and anxiety of tests could be predominately avoided. As could emotional, erratic behavior and confidence levels dropping. Life for these students, both young and old, would greatly benefit from the reduction of standardized testing.