standardized testing pros and cons
After examining both sides argument, the idea of having standardized testing seems to be more beneficial, and outweighs the pros of not having testing. You could miss out on test-taking tips and tricks that come from coaches. They argue standardized tests are useful metrics for teacher evaluations. Standardized tests are carefully constructed tests that have uniformity of … These two … Continue Reading "The Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing" ], ProCon.org. Because teacher evaluations are based on the results of standardized tests, it has caused many teachers to change their classroom approach. If a teacher is underperforming, then this can be identified and adjustment quickly as well. when a student performs in the standardized test, or if by any chance, the test scores are not up to mark, it can leave a negative impact in the minds of the students. All rights reserved. In the US, standardized testing today often doesn’t account for any special needs that a student may have, so the results for each student may not be entirely accurate. As Dan Goldhaber, PhD, Director of the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research, and Umut Özek, PhD, senior researcher at the American Institutes for Research, summarize, “students who score one standard deviation higher on math tests at the end of high school have been shown to earn 12% more annually, or $3,600 for each year of work life in 2001… Similarly… test scores are significantly correlated not only with educational attainment and labor market outcomes (employment, work experience, choice of occupation), but also with risky behavior (teenage pregnancy, smoking, participation in illegal activities).” [67], Standardized test scores are easily influenced by outside factors: stress, hunger, tiredness, and prior teacher or parent comments about the difficulty of the test, among other factors. The Kansas Silent Reading Test (1914-1915) is the earliest known published multiple-choice test, developed by Frederick J. Kelly, a Kansas school director. Educational systems are not meant to be static structures. Instead of teaching specific skills that are subject-related, they teach students how to take the test well instead. They are a familiar component of the US educational system. This means teachers at every grade level are teaching curricula that is similar, no matter where they happen to be. And abolishing the tests or sabotaging the validity of their results only makes it harder to identify and fix the deep-seated problems in our schools.” [62], While grades and other measures are useful for teacher evaluations, standardized tests provide a consistent measure across classrooms and schools. This further limits the learning potential of students, especially the gifted and talented students who would benefit from skill-based learning. In fact, students, parents and even teachers are opting out of the Common Core exams. Teacher evaluations have been tied to standardized test results. If anything, it encourages a lack of learning by knowing just enough to get by. These will further tend to … Ultimately, students’ futures and school funding rely on these standardized test scores. Cons. Standardized testing has been implemented for over a decade, but according to studies, the achievement gap still hasn’t narrowed. In fact, students, parents and even teachers are opting out of the Common Core exams. For example, how effective are schools at identifying and educating students with high entrepreneurial talent? On pros and cons: “Pros: Standardized assessments provide a snapshot of how well a student is learning state standards. The current use of No. Most states measure student growth with standardized test. An A in one class may be a C in another. How to cite this page. 1. Standardized testing has been around for a long time with a storied history of evaluating university prospects, job candidates, and other forms of aptitude and intelligence. Standardized Testing – PROS […] Standardized testing is an essential tool to developing an advantageous school curriculum. Black and Brown excellence is real, but just because a kid lives in Dorchester [Massachusetts] does not make his or her life is less valuable than a child that lives in Wellesley [Massachusetts]. COMMENTS. People … A necessity. Opponents argue that standardized tests only determine which students are good at taking tests, offer no meaningful measure of progress, and have not improved student performance, and that the tests are racist, classist, and sexist, with scores that are not predictors of future success. Veteran Florida educator, Marion Brady, outlines 34 problems with standardized tests. Jan 26, 2015. Failures in the education system have been blamed on rising poverty levels, teacher quality, tenure policies, and, increasingly, on the pervasive use of standardized tests. Even within individual school districts, the amount of funding a specific school receives is often dependent on the test scores that are achieved. This means there is a lot of unnecessary competition between classrooms and schools about test results just so that the school can receive the funding that they want or need. Standardized tests have been a part of American education since the mid-1800s. According to the late Gerald W. Bracey, PhD and education researcher, there are certain qualities that standardized tests cannot measure, such as critical thinking, creativity, motivation, resilience, curiosity, persistence, reliability, endurance, empathy, enthusiasm, self-discipline, self-awareness, civic-mindedness, leadership, compassion, courage, sense of beauty, resourcefulness, honesty, sense of wonder and integrity. He recommended that I have the teacher whose class had scored much lower work directly with the teacher who seemed to know how to get higher scores from her students. It causes teachers to abandon their profession for good. Select two pros and two cons of standardized testing. It allows overseers to determine the effectiveness of an educational system. Should Tablets Replace Textbooks in K-12 Schools? Then, determine your stance (for, against, undecided, indifferent, etc.) It can provide information that schools need to form sub-group learning opportunities. If a student moves to a different school district, their knowledge and learning processes aren’t going to dramatically change because of standardized testing. However, many tips and tricks for how to approach standardized tests can be found online. 3. Testing also is a helpful tool to inform parents and teachers on a student 's progress in class. The pros and cons have been weighted heavily by parents and educators alike—with many left wondering whether or not implementing testing standards have hurt or helped students. Standardized testing is an essential tool to developing an advantageous school curriculum. Standardized testing took a higher priority in U.S. … They can destroy a student’s self-esteem. Schools are also judged through this process, which has led to some being closed or brought under new management because of a lack of quality. It’s not just that the designers have unconscious racial bias; the standardized testing industry depends on these kinds of biased questions in order to create a wide range of scores.” Choi offers an example from his own 10th grade class, “a student called me over with a question. List of the Pros of Intelligence Testing 1. Social Media – Are Social Networking Sites Good for Our Society? Standardized tests can only, at best, evaluate rote knowledge of math, science, and English. Top 10 Wealthiest Americans with and without College Degrees. 17 Important Keystone Pipeline Pros and Cons, 18 Major Advantages and Disadvantages of the Payback Period, 20 Advantages and Disadvantages of Leasing a Car, 19 Advantages and Disadvantages of Debt Financing, 24 Key Advantages and Disadvantages of a C Corporation, 16 Biggest Advantages and Disadvantages of Mediation, 18 Advantages and Disadvantages of a Gated Community, 17 Big Advantages and Disadvantages of Focus Groups, 17 Key Advantages and Disadvantages of Corporate Bonds, 19 Major Advantages and Disadvantages of Annuities, 17 Biggest Advantages and Disadvantages of Advertising. But here was the problem: The “underperforming” kindergarten teacher and the “high-performing” teacher were one and the same person.” [82]. Cons of standardized testing. The pros and cons of standardized testing show us that evaluating how students and teachers perform is an important part of the educational process. Proponents argue that standardized tests offer an objective measurement of education and a good metric to gauge areas for improvement, as well as offer meaningful data to help students in marginalized groups, and that the scores are good indicators of college and job success. Pros And Cons Of Standardized Testing 1464 Words | 6 Pages "Contrary to popular assumptions about standardized testing, the tests do a poor job of measuring student achievement" (Harris 1). Within the past decade most states have adopted standardized statewide testing programs to measure student achievement—and there's more at stake than just grades. Should Students Have to Wear School Uniforms? The teacher prepares and carries out the tasks associated with certain learning skills and uniformly applied across the students. [79] [80] As W. James Popham, PhD, noted, “standardized achievement tests should not be used to determine the effectiveness of a state, a district, a school, or a teacher. [69] Instead, as Steve Martinez, EdD, Superintendent of Twin Rivers Unified in California, and Rick Miller, Executive Director of CORE Districts, note, each “state currently reports yearly change, by comparing the scores of this year’s students against the scores of last year’s students who were in the same grade. Instrumental in Developing Education Policies. The educational system in the United States has been using standardized tests to evaluate the performance of students. First, let’s start with some background. The act states that if state-run schools are to receive federal funding, students should be given (and must pass) certain assessments. It encourages kids to work together. As Bryan Nixon, former Head of School at private school Whitby, noted, “When we receive standardized test data at Whitby, we use it to evaluate the effectiveness of our education program. 8. In 1934, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) hired a teacher and inventor named Reynold B. Johnson (best known for creating the world’s first commercial computer disk drive) to create a production model of his prototype test scoring machine. The Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing. Standardized testing has been implemented for over a decade, but according to studies, the achievement gap still hasn’t narrowed. This lesson will highlight some of the pros and cons of standardized testing. This can also indicate how your local area is doing compared against the national landscape.3) Allows students’ progress to be tracked over the years. Pros of Standardized Testing: 1. After examining both sides argument, the idea of having standardized testing seems to be more beneficial, and outweighs the pros of not having testing. The pros and cons of standardized testing show that the amount of information that these tests can generate is invaluable. Below are the proper citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order): the Modern Language Association Style Manual (MLA), the Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago), the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), and Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Turabian). Pros: The benefits and advantages of standardized testing 1. Standardized tests, such as the ACT or GRT, are also useful in determining placement in advanced educational programs. ], [Editor’s Note: The MLA citation style requires double spacing within entries. The tests do not evaluate creativity, problem solving, critical thinking, artistic ability, or other knowledge areas that cannot be judged by scoring a sheet of bubbles filled in with a pencil. based on the information you’ve reviewed. Standardized Testing – CONS Creates major stress for students and teachers. Cons: You must be self-motivated. Differential item functioning will flag that question as problematic.” [57], Moulon continued, explaining, “What’s cool about psychometrics is that it will flag stuff that a human would never be able to notice. 2. The pros and cons of standardized testing — in one highly unusual list. A low score might even result in summer tutoring, which ruins the idea of a summer vacation from school. Standardized tests offer an objective measurement of education and a good metric to gauge areas for improvement. If a student had a difficult morning and it affects their performance on the day they take a standardized test, then their scores may not accurately reflect their true knowledge or potential. When you try to analyze the New England kids with the California kids, you would get a differential item functioning flag because the California kids were all over the subject of earthquakes, and the kids in Vermont had no idea about earthquakes.” [57], With problematic questions removed, or adapted for different populations of students, standardized tests offer the best objective measure of what students have learned. '” [70], Students are tested on grade-appropriate material, but they are not re-tested to determine if they have learned information they tested poorly on the year before. Standardized testing causes severe stress in younger students. That allows students, even if they have a disability, to have a chance at experiencing the equality that comes from everyone taking the same test. Our focus on standardized testing hasn’t helped us improve our results!” [73], Busteed asks, “What if our overreliance on standardized testing has actually inhibited our ability to help students succeed and achieve in a multitude of other dimensions? It consumes more of instru… The scores that they are able to achieve become a sense of pride. You can learn in a one-on-one setting. They can change how teachers actually teach in the classroom. I don’t give any multiple choice tests in our homeschool. [ 56] S Teachers also have conscious and unconscious biases for a favorite student or against a rowdy student, for example. You could miss out on test-taking tips and tricks that come from coaches. Fair and Objective 0. Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing . Here are the advantages and disadvantages of this type of exam, according to proponents and opponents. Standardized testing does offer an alternate version of a test to accommodate some students. Even though educators, parents and policymakers might think change signals impact, it says much more about the change in who the students are because it is not measuring the growth of the same student from one year to the next.” [71], Further, because each state develops its own tests, standardized tests are not necessarily comparable across state lines, leaving nationwide statistics shaky at best. [68] [69] External stereotypes also play a part in scores: “research indicates that being targeted by well-known stereotypes (‘blacks are unintelligent,’ ‘Latinos perform poorly on tests,’ ‘girls can’t do math’ and so on) can be threatening to students in profound ways, a predicament they call ‘stereotype threat. 1. 1. Are standardized test truly a fair assessment of student’s abilities or not? Many people claim that standardized testing allows an accurate measurement of student progress and teacher effectiveness. While studies find a negative relationship between test preparation and instructional quality, some experts believe that concerns about teaching to the test may be exaggerated. However, there has been an ongoing debate among scholars, parents, and teachers on the effectiveness of these tests. US students slipped from being ranked 18th in the world in math in 2000 to 40th in 2015, and from 14th to 25th in science and from 15th to 24th in reading. With a puzzled look, she pointed to the prompt asking students to write about the qualities of someone who would deserve a “key to the city.” Many of my students, nearly all of whom qualified for free and reduced lunch, were not familiar with the idea of a ‘key to the city.’” [76], Wealthy kids, who would be more familiar with a “key to the city,” tend to have higher standardized test scores due to differences in brain development caused by factors such as “access to enriching educational resources, and… exposure to spoken language and vocabulary early in life.” [77] Plus, as Eloy Ortiz Oakley, MBA, Chancellor of California Community Colleges, points out, “Many well-resourced students have far greater access to test preparation, tutoring and taking the test multiple times, opportunities not afforded the less affluent… [T]hese admissions tests are a better measure of students’ family background and economic status than of their ability to succeed” [78], Journalist and teacher Carly Berwick explains, “All students do not do equally well on multiple choice tests, however. Many teachers are being evaluated on the work that their students do on a standardized test. Standardized assessment is a learning metric While students are evaluated by standardized tests, we get a reliable metric that we can use to analyze the progress of our education system. "Teaching to the test" is replacing good teaching practices with "drill n' kill" rote learning. This can occur when the characteristics of a new device do not meet the explicit or tacit assumptions that were made in creating the test. Teachers can see what they need to … Here are some of the pros and cons to consider with tests that have such high stakes. 15 years after the inception of EQAO testing in Ontario, is it providing us with valuable information and accountability, or is doing more harm than good? This may create an unintended bias within the grading results, even without grading subjectivity, because the questions could be geared toward a certain ethnic or socioeconomic class to their benefit. You should research the pros and cons of standardized testing in the United States and then make up your own mind about whether or … Funding is often dependent on student scoring.
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