Standardized testing has become more widely used in education within the last decade. Standardized testing is suppose to be a fair, non discriminatory way to measure how much a student has learned. The test is set by state standards to determine what students should know. Educators from the state create the test questions, test them out in a field group of students, and then are put into the test. The field test responses are judged based on how gender, and race of students effected the response. The questions that pass the field test are then put into the test. Once the test is taken students are graded based on the state standards. This way of testing is unfair for students. Students should not be measured based on standards that people set. Students have different mentalities, teachers, and ways of learning that could be variables in what could cause students to do poorly on these tests.
As a student my Massachusetts state test is the MCAS. We usually take this test between the months of March and May. Ever since 3rd grade we have had it drilled into our heads that we will take this test once a year for grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 8, and 10. We have also been told that colleges look at these tests, and if we fail the test in 10th grade then we will not get into college. Yes, teachers do tell their 3rd grade students that if they fail the test in 10th grade we won't be accepted to a college. That is a huge amount of pressure building up on students through out the years. Sure enough this year is my 10th grade year, and the very last year of MCAS. As I am in my last year with MCAS my brothers are starting their first year of standardized testing with the PARCC test. The PARCC test is the new version of MCAS except taken online. PARCC stands for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. Why should 3rd grade students take a test on getting ready for college? The companies that distribute the tests claim that these tests are "stress free" for students. This is in fact the opposite. Students get easily stressed out because we know that we are not ready for the test. In elementary school I spent the majority of the year doing MCAS prep, taking old MCAS tests in math, and English, and doing open response essay questions from the previous years. I can distinctly remember my teachers going onto the smartboard, pulling up the rubric for the open responses, and reading past open responses grade 0-6 , and the class would always laugh at the 0 or 1 responses. Spending most of our year reading old test questions is not preparing us for the new test questions.
Standardized testing should no longer be in the schools. Students should not have to be pressured into taking a test that in the long run will not affect their careers. Adults such as educators or politicians spend their adult lives working to make the future better for the kids of the next generations. The problem is that educators try to make our education system better by using old ideas. Our education system was set up in in the enlightenment era. This is the 21st century, and we need a new system of education which eliminates standardized testing.
As a student my Massachusetts state test is the MCAS. We usually take this test between the months of March and May. Ever since 3rd grade we have had it drilled into our heads that we will take this test once a year for grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 8, and 10. We have also been told that colleges look at these tests, and if we fail the test in 10th grade then we will not get into college. Yes, teachers do tell their 3rd grade students that if they fail the test in 10th grade we won't be accepted to a college. That is a huge amount of pressure building up on students through out the years. Sure enough this year is my 10th grade year, and the very last year of MCAS. As I am in my last year with MCAS my brothers are starting their first year of standardized testing with the PARCC test. The PARCC test is the new version of MCAS except taken online. PARCC stands for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. Why should 3rd grade students take a test on getting ready for college? The companies that distribute the tests claim that these tests are "stress free" for students. This is in fact the opposite. Students get easily stressed out because we know that we are not ready for the test. In elementary school I spent the majority of the year doing MCAS prep, taking old MCAS tests in math, and English, and doing open response essay questions from the previous years. I can distinctly remember my teachers going onto the smartboard, pulling up the rubric for the open responses, and reading past open responses grade 0-6 , and the class would always laugh at the 0 or 1 responses. Spending most of our year reading old test questions is not preparing us for the new test questions.
Standardized testing should no longer be in the schools. Students should not have to be pressured into taking a test that in the long run will not affect their careers. Adults such as educators or politicians spend their adult lives working to make the future better for the kids of the next generations. The problem is that educators try to make our education system better by using old ideas. Our education system was set up in in the enlightenment era. This is the 21st century, and we need a new system of education which eliminates standardized testing.
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