Persuasive Speech On Standardized Testing

Words: 1055
Pages: 5

General Purpose: To Persuade
II. Specific Purpose: By the end of the speech, the audience will be convinced of the detrimental effects of standardized testing and will feel compelled to sign a petition.
III. Thesis/Central Idea: The ample amount of flaws of our education system are caused by the excessive emphasis on standardized testing which can be solved if they are abolished.
I. Introduction
A. Attention Material: Einstein once said, “If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
B. Tie to Audience: You should be concerned about standardized testing because it is wrongly judging a student’s intelligence from a mediocre multiple-choice test. As
Walt Disney said, “Our greatest natural resource is the minds of
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Finland topped the international education (PISA) rankings from 2001-2008, yet has "no external standardized tests used to rank students or schools (Hancock 94-
102). There are no rankings, no comparisons or competition between students, schools or regions. Yet Finland spends about 30 percent less per student than the
United States (Hancock 94-102).
3. Without standardized testing many will say that there will be no accountability of how students are progressing and if teachers are effectively communicating lessons. However, there are many other methods besides standardized testing that could be used for accountability. According to npr.org, stealth assessment, multiple measures, game based or performance-based assessment are various other measures that could be used (Kamenetz). Stealth assessment uses questions from major textbook publisher’s software that students already use to practice math and English. These programs register every single answer a student gives.
Stealth assessment doesn't just show which skills a student has mastered at a given moment. The pattern of answers found from these programs could potentially offer insight into how quickly students learn, how diligent they