Standardized Testing In Schools

Standardized testing
Students have been put under the pressure and instruction of standardized testing. However can testing hurt our students, and is it the best way to see what our students have been able to retain during the school year?
Because students know that test scores may affect their future lives, they do whatever they can to pass them, including cheating and taking performance drugs, the student now has made him/herself believe they must have this drug to do well. Because teachers know that test scores may affect their salaries and job security, they also cheat just like the students. What an example right? Teachers will go through an average change of 5 test in 2 years with the promise after the test they will receive results …show more content…
Test companies not only manufacture the tests, they also manufacture the courses and programs that can be taken to “prepare for the test.” If you have the money, you can even get special tutors that will help you do well on a test. If you don’t have the money, and your school is in a low economic area that gets less funding than rich schools, then you’re not getting the same preparation for the test as those at the higher economic levels do. Here is food for thought, could educational companies create such hard test to keep getting the profit off of there program? If students fail the test the school in turn buys more of the program to better teach their students. Because so much emphasis is placed on standardized test results these days, teachers are spending more and more time “teaching to the test.” If there is something that is interesting, compelling, useful, or otherwise related to the development of a student’s understanding of the world, but it is not going to be on the standardized test, then there really isn’t any reason to cover this material in some eyes. Instead, most of classroom time consists of either taking the tests or preparing for the tests, and this shuts out the possibility of learning anything new or important. Like the No Child Left Behind Law (NCLB) only tests reading, math, and science that means that art, social studies, physical education, history, and other subjects are given far less attention than used to be the case. For some students tests create stress. Some kids do well with a certain level of stress. Other students fold. So, again, like I said there isn’t a level playing field. Brain research suggests that too much stress is psychologically and physically harmful. Ya thanks Waldron High School. And when stress becomes overwhelming, the brain shifts into a “fight or flight” response, where it is impossible to engage in the higher-order thinking processes that

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