Landon Macy
2-24-12
English 101 Sec 6
Assignment 4
Argument Essay: Standardized Testing
Since 1965, students in the United States have been taking standardized test due to the passing of the U.S. Elementary and Secondary Education Act (Edutopia). Standardized testing may have been instituted under good intentions, however these tests show no benefit to the students and in turn hinder their education. Teachers are forced to bend their curriculum to encompass what the students are to be tested on. Furthermore, the current system of standardized test does not allow for different student display different learning styles. These test expect students ask students to fit into a set curriculum with no room for academic individuality or to exceed expectations, simply meet standards. This system has many flaws and although it may have served a beneficial purpose at one point, the time has come to do away with the standardized testing system.
To begin with, standardized test hinder the test takers ability to be creative and use multiple strategies to solve problems presented to them. Students must alter their ability to learn and regurgitate information so that they may fit into the system that the test officials are looking for. These test ignore and;
“Can’t measure initiative, creativity, imagination, conceptual thinking, curriosity, effort, irony, judgment, commitment, nuance, good will, ethical reflection, or a host of other valuable dispositions and attributes. What they can measure and count are isolated skills, specific facts and functions, the least interesting and least significant aspects of learning” (Kohn).
What Kohn is conveying is that not all students can be assesed by filling in a bubble and be told what their future holds for them. A students smarts may come in other forms that are unable to be displayed on the test.
Teachers spend months prior to the tests not teaching for the students to learn the material so that they may use it to further their education, but so that the students can score higher on the tests and make the teachers and administrators of the schools look better and not be reprimanded for low test scores. These testing scenarios ask the students to simply meet the minimum. With this expectation and policies, they “tend to move everybody in the system toward the minimum.” In order to achieve greatness, which is what these tests are trying to accomplish, more is to be done than expect students to take a test and meet minimum standards. In order to be great, “The traits which we aspire must be the discipline we practice from the start. There is no path to excellent schools, the path is excellence” (Nehring). So that schools can be improved and become better as a whole, every factor involved including teachers, administrators and parents must improve to achieve this common goal.
This is a dangerous situation being that although these teachers must teach the students the necessary material for their age group, they must also meet the test material requirement. This in turn places a large amount of stress on the teacher to push the students and not help them exceed in their ability, but simply ensure that the student will meet standards. This pressure is then felt by the students
Questions:
1) Is my thesis clear?
2) Where can I expand my topic now? How can I continue my argument on the focus points I have presented?
3) Do I have run on sentences? (I have had a problem with these lately)
2-24-12
English 101 Sec 6
Assignment 4
Argument Essay: Standardized Testing
Since 1965, students in the United States have been taking standardized test due to the passing of the U.S. Elementary and Secondary Education Act (Edutopia). Standardized testing may have been instituted under good intentions, however these tests show no benefit to the students and in turn hinder their education. Teachers are forced to bend their curriculum to encompass what the students are to be tested on. Furthermore, the current system of standardized test does not allow for different student display different learning styles. These test expect students ask students to fit into a set curriculum with no room for academic individuality or to exceed expectations, simply meet standards. This system has many flaws and although it may have served a beneficial purpose at one point, the time has come to do away with the standardized testing system.
To begin with, standardized test hinder the test takers ability to be creative and use multiple strategies to solve problems presented to them. Students must alter their ability to learn and regurgitate information so that they may fit into the system that the test officials are looking for. These test ignore and;
“Can’t measure initiative, creativity, imagination, conceptual thinking, curriosity, effort, irony, judgment, commitment, nuance, good will, ethical reflection, or a host of other valuable dispositions and attributes. What they can measure and count are isolated skills, specific facts and functions, the least interesting and least significant aspects of learning” (Kohn).
What Kohn is conveying is that not all students can be assesed by filling in a bubble and be told what their future holds for them. A students smarts may come in other forms that are unable to be displayed on the test.
Teachers spend months prior to the tests not teaching for the students to learn the material so that they may use it to further their education, but so that the students can score higher on the tests and make the teachers and administrators of the schools look better and not be reprimanded for low test scores. These testing scenarios ask the students to simply meet the minimum. With this expectation and policies, they “tend to move everybody in the system toward the minimum.” In order to achieve greatness, which is what these tests are trying to accomplish, more is to be done than expect students to take a test and meet minimum standards. In order to be great, “The traits which we aspire must be the discipline we practice from the start. There is no path to excellent schools, the path is excellence” (Nehring). So that schools can be improved and become better as a whole, every factor involved including teachers, administrators and parents must improve to achieve this common goal.
This is a dangerous situation being that although these teachers must teach the students the necessary material for their age group, they must also meet the test material requirement. This in turn places a large amount of stress on the teacher to push the students and not help them exceed in their ability, but simply ensure that the student will meet standards. This pressure is then felt by the students
Questions:
1) Is my thesis clear?
2) Where can I expand my topic now? How can I continue my argument on the focus points I have presented?
3) Do I have run on sentences? (I have had a problem with these lately)