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Standardized Testing

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atomstryker

Senior member
What do you think of them? Are you for or against them? Why? Any experience with them? I'm talking primarily k-12 standardized tests, but any are fine......

I have to do a paper on people's opinions of it, and felt that the collective knowledge of ATOT would be a good place to ask. As many responses as possible would be great!
 
Until you can standardize people, how can you standardize tests? Or, is the purpose of standardized tests to create standardized people? Everybody thinks alike. Sounds like a boring world to me, although the corporate powers would probably welcome such a labor pool.
 
I don't think that standardized tests happened when I was in school. At least not SOL's or what ever they are called. The tests that we had to do were pretty cool because my grades sucked, but I did good on those tests.
I really wonder what kind of questions are on those SOL tests? I guess it doesn't leave much room for teachers to do stuff that they want, rather they have to study for a standardized tests all year.
 
I don't have any direct experience with it, but on the surface it does sound reasonable to have some kind of battery of tests at some point by which you can measure everyone's level of basic knowledge. Then again, I can definitely see far too much time and energy wasted on that when grades are probably the best measure of a student's progress. Tough call..
 
Originally posted by: Astaroth33
I don't have any direct experience with it, but on the surface it does sound reasonable to have some kind of battery of tests at some point by which you can measure everyone's level of basic knowledge. Then again, I can definitely see far too much time and energy wasted on that when grades are probably the best measure of a student's progress. Tough call..
Click to expand...

True. Standardized testing is just an easy way to compare performance across the board without having to take things like instructing style and other factors into consideration. I think that you can use standardized tests to evaluate a school's performance, but the tests need to be designed in such a way that they test the curricullum appropriately and that schools are prevented, somehow, from teaching kids to simply perform well on the tests. In my elementary school, we used to devote a month to TAAS preparation. I don't think standardized testing should be the only bar for performance though, especially when you are talking about college admissions.
 
I think standardized testing is good as long as its not the sole means of judging a schools performance and such. Some possible revisions and adjustments should of course be made constantly to try and adjust accordingly and fairly.

We had standardized tests in my high school. (California). For christs sake the requirements aren't all that high. Simple stuff for the most part. I never had a teacher who "worried" about them or gave it much concern. They might give a bit of extra credit if you scored high but thast about it... it's not like anyone studied for them or the teacher went out of thier teaching plans just for it.
 
Whenever they had those test recently (can't remember when) there was a lot of local news coverage in my area. They broke the whole thing down and tried to give explanations for the performance of the students. They had school supervisors on from different systems in the local region. It ws all they talked about for a couple days. I don't know if it was a slow news week or what, but they made a big deal out of it. Some of the administrators at schools that did poorly were fired and I think that there was some kind of propation for the schools or something. It has been a while since I saw it on tv.
 
Standardized tests are an easy way to measure student and school performance. They provide a common denominator between schools across district lines all over a state. States and districts are trying to set minimum performance criteria to ensure that the schools are doing their jobs to teach the students. They are also trying to ensure that students do not graduate without the basics. They need to know how to read and comprehend the english language. They need to know how to write and express themselves coherently. They need to know how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. These tests make sure that the students are meeting the minimum competency levels. They also make sure that schools and teachers across the state are performing adequately.

The argument that having standardized tests produces standardized people is a COP OUT!!! The fact remains that people need to know how to read, write, and do basic math to function in our society. Our high schools are graduating students that cannot read. Once, at the grocery store, the cashier completed the transaction before she saw how much change I was owed. I told her my total was XX.XX and I gave her a $20, and asked for change. She said she didn't know how much change to give me because she cleared the transaction already, and she didn't know how to redo the transaction and void it. She asked me how much change I needed. I made her do the math with me using a pen and the back of my receipt. I've seen people that can't count out change. Some people would argue that these individules are simply "non-standard" and have strengths that lie elsewhere. This may be true, but everyone needs to know how to read, write, and do basic math. Standardized tests make sure these people are capible of performing basic tasks. They also make sure that schools and teachers are doing their job. Schools, teachers, and students must be held accountable.

Ryan
 
you have to take ACT or SAT for college and GRE for grad school. standardized test is the only way to tell your strength. can you think of a better way than standardized tests?
 
I agree that syudents need to do the basics. Around where I live students do pass without knowing how to do these things. I just wish there was another way, but now that I think about it a lot of the teachers in my area need to be weeded out of the system. I hope that these teachers will be held accountable because when I was in school they totally sucked. The school system is in a county that is very poor. The mentality was of something from the 60's or something.
 
Last standardized test I took I got a 99 score 😛

I just didn't like them because they were long and tedious. Definitely better than typical schoolwork though, a nice break.
 
standardized testing, while not a very good way, is prolly the best way to get a sample of level of education across the bd.
 
I think they are needed, as a basic testing of students strengths, simply because it can show us if a school system is not doing their job properly. If one schools tests fall way below average, then obviously the problem does not lie with the students abilities.
 
OK I saw this morning and I couldn't give it my full attention as I had to go to work.

Standardized test serves it's purpose very well and shows the weaknesses in our school system. I for one want to know if a school doesn't perform well so those in charge can be held accountable. The Main problem that people against it say is two key points.

1) It creates standardized students. Well actually it does not do that. It ensures that each student is able to comprehend BASIC ENGLISH and BASIC MATH at certain levels. The sad reality is those levels are really low. It shows us where that student is lagging behind and in many cases which schools have dropped the ball. Regardless of the emotional make-up of the student when given basic math questions they should all come to the same answer. I don't believe that teaching should be set in stone each teacher should be allowed to adjust a curriculum to fit their student?s needs. If they are unable to do that they should find a new teacher. Standardized test give us valuable information to see where the education system needs help and in which areas we are failing our kids.

2) You cause a decline in self esteem. People claim that these tests can make children feel bad when they do poorly. They actually believe that esteem comes BEFORE accomplishment. That simply isn't the case. Any logical person can look at the situation and see that granting esteem before accomplishment will give the student very little incentive to work hard. If you knew going in to a class that all you had to do to get an A+ was show up would you do your homework? Why? There is no reason to do anything if the outcome is predetermined. If I know I am going to get a big raise EVEN if I show up late and don't work at my job what exactly is my motivation to be a good employee. This parallels the school system more than most are willing to acknowledge. IF a student knows that he will receive a high mark for doing nothing he will do nothing. He wants the high mark and if he can achieve it with little/no work why put forth the effort. I do believe that children need to build esteem but that the best way they can do it is through actually learning something and not through someone telling them how great they are.


EDIT-> Nice to see that 17 people are aginst them yet give NO REASON
rolleye.gif
 
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