Standardized Testing Controversy

While a few standardized tests over a student’s school career can be helpful to make sure students are on track and teachers are educating their students, the United States education system has far too many standardized tests. The U.S should reduce the number of tests given to students each year. The current amount of testing stresses students and forces teachers to “teach to the test”. Standardized testing has not and will not improve the American school

and SD are _______________________ statistics. The mean is the measure of Central tendency of a distribution while SD is a measure of dispersion of its scores. Both X and SD is descriptive statistics.

Mean is the better estimate for the parameter of interest. The mean is more centered with least variability.

3. In one elementary school, 200 students are tested on the subject of Math and English. The table below shows the mean and standard deviation for each subject.

Schools all over the nation have introduced standardized testing as a way to evaluate what the students have learned over the course of the school year. Exams can be administered online or on paper, depending on the subject. Test can be taken at different points of the school year; results can be used as a way to determine what areas are weaker than others. Most results are viewed by the school board, administrators, and teachers. In some schools students take one end of the year test with different subjects, other just takes one test. These tests can be graded by groups of people are computers. Standardized testing has become a part of America’s educational system and many don’t see the benefit of the test at all.

The use of standardized testing is on the rise, with the intent of comparing the knowledge levels of large amounts of students. But is it a true and fair indicator of students overall knowledge?some may argue that it is the least expensive and most convenient way to compare mass amounts of students b having everyone test on the same data at the same time and under the same circumstances. Many believe that students learn and even test take at varying levels and performance is not consistent on any given day. Meaning ,students may have the exact same knowledge base, but some students simply are better at test taking, whereas others do not perform well under pressure and this may potentially affect the test results.

[pic] is the mean of a sample whereas [pic] is the mean for the entire population

Did you know that kids take 20-25 hours on standardized tests. Sides of this argument are how they should change the test, while the other is keep the same tests. I think that we should change because there’s too much time spent on it, because government money can be spent to limit tests, and we don't need to many tests.

Standardized testing creates a lot of stress on students and educators alike. Because of how much stress is put on them to prepare students for these tests, many excellent teachers quit their jobs everyday. In fact, in April, new federal data stated that 17 percent of new public school teachers leave their profession after four years due to stress and other reasons. Some teachers fail to teach students skills that go beyond the tests because they’re so pressured to get their students ready for these exams. This amount of stress can lead to feelings of negativity towards school and learning in general as well as cause negative health issues. Standardized tests places a large amount of stress on both teachers and students.

Students often feel the stress that comes from standardized testing. Often times, parents feel the stress of standardized testing as well. A study conducted by Osburn, Stegman, Stuitt, and Ritter of the University of Arkansas, found that some parents feel pressure to help their child score well on the standardized tests. (p. 85, 2004) Although this study showed that the majority of parent felt little pressure to help their children pass standardized tests, it is noted that this study was conducted within a high-performing district and that parents from a low performing district may feel differently. (Osburn et al, p. 88, 2004) Students are feeling more pressure to pass the standardized tests as a result of the increased emphasis that is placed on them to ensure academic success. One of the ways the standardized testing is effecting students is by having an excessive amount of time spent in test preparation. As stated before, teachers were spending a large percentage of their day teaching to test. During this time, students are becoming increasingly bored and feeling burnout. (Blazer, p. 3, 2011) According to Blazer (2011), “Major research has stated that high-stakes decisions should not be made on the basis of a single test score because a test only provides a “snapshot” of student achievement and ay not accurately reflect an entire year’s worth of student progress and achievement.” (p. 5) Many educators feel that standardized tests to not accurately measure students’

Try to imagine if there were no standardized testing. So you have to teach the same stuff year after year again without any changes. What if those kids already know that lesson and need taught harder things? When there's standardized testing you can see if all the students are above the grade level or under their grade level.So that tells you need to teach them higher level school work or if their not that smal then a lower grade of school work or be in a class with more teachers for more help.

As I was thinking what to do for my research paper, I knew it had to be something dear to my heart. So I decided to do the research on Standardize Testing in our schools. First a little back ground from me, I have three children that I have been homeschooling since they could walk. Once every two or three years I would give my children their test so that I would see what they did know and what they were not grasping yet. These test gave me detailed data, on what parts of math they didn’t grasp, and what they excelled in and the same when for the other subjects. Great tool to assess my children with. I never used a timer, nor said anything negative about testing to them. I would tell them this is so I can see what I haven’t taught them yet and what I still needed to teach

Standardized testing is a common practice in American schools; therefore, it is important for educators, parents, and guardians to have a good understanding of what standardized testing is, why it is done, and the impact these tests can have on educators and students alike. As with any issue, there are both those that support standardized testing and those that oppose the tests. On the one hand, some people believe that standardized testing provides an objective way of grading each student as well as the opportunity to assess the teacher’s abilities and student achievement. However, there are also those who do not believe the tests accurately assess either the teacher’s abilities or student achievement (McNeil, 2000). As you read this, you may be surprised to find that standardized tests are not all they are cracked up to be. Shortly, both the supporting and opposing sides of standardized testing will be covered. First, a short description of standardized testing will be provided.

Standardized testing is a form of testing used by our educational system to measure the success of a school’s students and faculty. A typical student takes 112 mandated standardized tests between PreKindergarten and twelfth grade. The use of these tests became mandatory in 2002 as part of the No Child Left Behind Act. Although there are some individuals who support these tests, many parents, students, and teachers experience the negative effects year after year. Standardized tests impact students emotionally and do not provide accurate results of a child’s education level or teacher’s performance. They take away from students learning new things for months prior to the test date as teacher’s focus primarily on this one test to satisfy our government.

The mean for group one (Juniors) was 7.61and the standard deviation was 1.08. 7.61(1.08) group two (Seniors) the mean was 8.00 and the standard deviation was 1.30. 8.00(1.30) with a level of significance of .05.