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Denisse Amy

Jennifer Courtney
Position Paper
March 26, 2016
Standardized Testing
A typical day in Elementary used
to include art, music, science, history
and social studies. Students explored to
their hearts content. The yearly science
fair was something students were
excited for and parents dreaded. Field
trips to the zoo or park or museum were
long awaited. Music and art time
couldnt get here fast enough during the
day, a much needed escape from all the
learning little growing brains had taken
in that day. This average day, or,
average school year, is quickly
changing. Quickly changing because of
standardized testing. A broad and
general of measuring how students all
together learned and retained
information. When measuring everyone
as a whole and not considering different
styles of learning and application, you
will get opposition. Parents are
concerned with their childs progress
and learning path. Federal law now
requires an annual assessment.

Assessments are a
part of life
The education department
argues that there needs to be a sort of
measurement on a childs progress.
While Mayor Marc Morial, a mayor and
civil rights leader, addresses
standardized testing, he says,
Assessments are part of life, and, while
they are not comfortable, they are
necessary. He goes on to say, We
wouldnt ask a parent not to take their
child to the doctor for an annual

checkup. Similarly, we should not


encourage parents to skip their childs
annual academic checkup. While there
is much reasoning to this, not all see
standardized testing as a good thing.
According to the 47th Annual
PDK/Gallup poll, 64 percent of parents
voted there was too much emphasis on
testing. Only 19 percent of parents
thought there was just enough emphasis
on it.

the basis for


flunking students or
denying them a
diploma
Alfie Kohn, a professor in
parenting, education, and human
behavior, explains these yearly tests
started off measuring where a student
needed help and where to be placed.
He continues to say, Recently have
scores been published in the newspaper
and used as the primary criteria for
judging children, teachers, and schools
indeed, as the basis for flunking
students or denying them a diploma,
deciding where money should be spent,
and so on. This brings up the teachers
role in this. Should a teacher be graded
sole form of how well they did
throughout a whole year be measured
on how well their students take a test?
According to Kohn, many educators are
leaving the education field because of
this. Those who choose to stay in their
profession are pushed out when test
scores dont come back high enough.
Each student learns and reflects what
they learn differently. Here we are
testing each student as a group
expecting them to regurgitate everything
they learned in a year in one one hour
sitting.

Figure 11 Bob Simpson-Protesting standardized testing abuse in


the Chicago Public Schools

Too much emphasis on testing can take


away from actual learning and all the fun
parts of school. I went to school in
Miami, Florida were the huge
standardized test was the Florida
Comprehensive Assessment Test, or as
they shortened it, the FCAT. We spent
all year learning about the FCAT. Fun
activities like science projects,
assemblies, and field trips were left for
the last two weeks of school. The rest of
the year was spent on was spent on the
FCAT. Everything we learned was on the
FCAT. Right before the big awaited test
week, we learned the best way to guess
on the FCAT; when in doubt choose C.
Mayor Morial believes, A rigorous
analysis of data will allow education

stakeholders and advocates to


understand how to support students as
they make good progress or to improve
systems and institutions when they shirk
their responsibility to students and
families. We all agree some sort of test
is necessary to place children where
they would succeed and learn. But is
this standardized testing the answer?
America has come so far, with
technology and education. Can we
come as for as coming up with a way of
testing in a non- standard way.
Despite the negative response
from parents, teachers and results,
standardized testing is still the only way
of measuring information retained. It will
not change until someone figures out a
way to test an individual and according
to learning styles.

Works cited
Kohn, Alfie. The case against standardized testing: Raising the scores, ruining the
schools. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2000.
Kohn, Alfie. "Standardized testing and its victims." Education Week 20.4 (2000): 46-47.
Morial, Marc H. "Testing Provides Crucial Information." Phi Delta Kappan 97.1 (2015):
34. MasterFILE Complete. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.
"Testing DoesnT Measure Up For Americans." Phi Delta Kappan 97.1 (2015): NP1NP32. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 27 Mar. 2016.

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