Standardized Testing is a Distraction and Affecting the American Public Education in a Negative Way - Free Essay Example

Standardized testing is harming students learning and has taken over public education. Mary Elizabeth Williams argues that standardized testing has taken over public education. She contends that the current testing requirements are resulting in frightening culture change at schools; where a vast amount of energy is spent getting students and teachers ready for testing. Since testing has taken up a teacher ability to teach effectively, this has made a students education come out poorly. There has been a strategy for improving education through standardized testing and has failed to work out. According to Williams My classes are directly affected. My curriculum is affected. My classes are canceled for test prep and they are not made up. An elementary school teacher named Paula agrees that tests take up a lot of time as what can be used as learning time in class. This can change the way students view their education, when they are taking tests, they have to pick the right choice between several options to be successful. Another quote, Absolutely, there are broken schools and faculty teachers who are failing our children every day. But building a better system of public education, to which every child in this country is entitled- takes creative an innovative approach tailored individual communities. Schools shouldnt have their own futures writing on ho w well children fill in the bubbles in the test scored by score machines. We are making test taking a priority rather than learning in our public education. Test taking is a poor strategy for improving education and destroying American public education. Others may agree that standardized testing is a good way to measure student learning. According to Walberg Over the past four decades, more than 200 public opinion polls complied by Richard Phelps, have consistently shown that the public strongly supports standardized tests. There are high percentage of schools who use standardized testing to measure educational goals, and make sure that high school graduates have acquired knowledge and skills they need for further education in adult life. This offers strong evidence that public schools are in favor of raising standards in American Schools in using standardized tests to measure student and teacher progress. According to Walberg The benefits for outweigh any disadvantages. Being able to give students detailed tests, results help them spot their weakness, increase their learning, and reduced the potential for over confidence. Having to use tests verify that students have accomplished or nearly mastered specific content before introduci ng new material; improves better results. According to, Walberg Well-designed standardized tests can measure knowledge understanding, application of ideas, and other high-level skills. Tests over emphasize factual knowledge and low-level skills throughout a students education. As a student progress in their education, they practice to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in standardized testing. Having standardized tests throughout a students career makes them become better prepared to meet future educational, occupational and professional goals. However, standardized test discriminates against minority and low-income students in college. According to, Soares Soares researched, has found that tests like the ACTs and SATs put low-income and minority students at significant disadvantages and has resulted in a lack of diversity at the nation of 4 year colleges Schools are missing out in a lot of talent that would benefit our states human capital and economic welfare and we could get more youths from our bottom of our families into public universities. Admissions that rely on test scores more than highs school grades are biased towards students from higher oncome and against those form lower income. According to, McDermott The commission advices colleges to scrutinize how they use test scores and urges them to place more emphasis on students high-schools curriculum and achievements. Colleges do not need any standardized tests like the ACT and SAT to be selective in admission. There are more-accurate measures of ability and succes s; that a test score could never portray what a student has experienced, learned and accomplished. According to, McDermott Minimizing the emphasis we place on the SAT can only mean maximizing our students potential for success and happiness. High school students need to have control over their academic future, that the courses they choice and take in high school really matter. Test can distract students and rather than stressing on a test, a student should focus more on their intellectual exploration in school. If university admissions were based in highs schools records there could be hope for our youth focused on learning academic materials and would be a win-win situation for public education.