Standardized Testing In America

What Effect Has It Had On Education?

ByJames Mable

BRIEF HISTORY OF STANDARDIZED TESTS

• Originated in China

• Potential employees had to fill out exams detailing their knowledge of the state religion.

• Out of the Industrial Revolution of the early 1800s there was a desire to test large numbers of students since more were leaving the farm and factories and going to school.

Standardized Testing for College Admissions

• ACT= National College Placement Exam. • First administered in 1959• Average score out of 36: 21• Subject areas: Math, Science, Reading,

English, and writing• 1.6 million high school students took it in

2010• 24% of all high school graduates met the

four College Readiness Benchmarks on the ACT.

Standardized Testing For College Admissions

• SAT= Most widely used college entrance exam in the United States.

• First used as an Army IQ Test during the first World War.

• In 1942, it was used as the main test for all college applicants.

• Administered seven times a year.• Average score out of 2400: 1520

Standardized Testing for Public School

• TAKS= Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.

• First implemented in 2003. • Grades 3-10 are required to take the

exam. • It is complimented by the TEKS (Texas

Essential Knowledge and Skills) standards.

• Covers Math, Reading, English, Science, and Writing.

Standardized testing has undermined America’s

education system.

National Association for College Admission Counseling

• Despite their prevalence in American high school culture, college admission exams—such as the SAT and ACT—may not be critical to making good admission decisions at many of the colleges and universities that use them.

• While the exams, used by a large majority of four-year colleges and universities to make admission decisions, provide useful information, colleges and universities may be better served by admission exams more closely linked to high school curriculum.

NY Times on SAT v. ACT

• Ivy League Schools reject nine out of ten qualified candidates.

• Boys do better on standardized tests.

• Women and minorities are affected by stereotypes and therefore may perform bad on the test.

• ACT is curriculum based.

• SAT is more problem solving and reasoning

• Students are easily stressed not knowing whether to take both exams to get a better advantage at admissions.

Standardized Testing

• Pros:• Can compare

students to other students nationally and parents can know how their student is doing

• Gives teachers guidance

• Tracks student progress

• Cons:• Teachers unjustly

accused of teaching to the test

• Schools reduce recess in order to raise student’s scores

• Very stressful for students and teachers

WHY STANDARDIZED TESTS NEED TO BE ABOLISHED

• Causes teachers to hide student’s poor performance on exam

• There is no set standard for standardized tests. They vary in quality.

• There is no agreed assessment rubric for them.

• NCLB failed to require tests to measure higher thinking skills such as reasoning.

• NCLB has instituted too many tests.

WHY STANDARDIZED TESTS NEED TO BE ABOLISHED

• Standardized testing has streamlined the curriculum so much that other subjects are covered less.

• Standardized testing has put undue pressure on teachers to have all their students pass their exams.

• Teachers are teaching to the test.• This means no enrichment for the

student.

TAKS Results 2009/2010

Seniors Juniors Sophomores Freshmen0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

20092010

Misleading Information

• Students are doing better this year than last year on the TAKS.

• Most students are still not ready for college.• Students are deficient in Math , Reading, and

Writing when they enter college.

Purpose for the Study

• Students are increasingly unprepared for college life.

• The purpose is to find the reason why standardized show students are proficient in the core subjects, but students go on to developmental courses in their first year in college.

• School districts and the state can find other ways to assess students.

Conclusion

• Standardized testing is causing curriculums in non core classes to be curtailed.

• This mandatory testing has caused teachers to teach to the test. Quality of teachers has gone down.

• The SAT and ACT are being lessened as a tool for admissions.

• High school students are doing well on the TAKS, yet are still taking developmental courses at the college level.

President Obama on RACE to the Top

Bibliography• ACT News. (2010). Facts about the ACT.

Retrieved from http://www.act.org/news/aapfacts.html

• American-Statesman Staff. (2010). Statewide early TAKS results released. The Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved from http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared- gen/blogs/austin/education/entries/2010/06/03/statewide_early_taks_results_r.html

• Fletcher, Dan. (2009, December 11). A Brief History of Standardized Testing. Time Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1947019,00.html

Bibliography• Smith, Joyce, Alveraz, R., Boshoven, J.,

Hooker, S., Len tino, A., Miller, J., Peterson, C., Sohmer, L., White, E., Knaus, T. (2008, September). Report of the Commission on the use of Standardized Testing in Undergraduate Admission. Retrieved from

• http://www.nacacnet.org/PublicationsResources/Research/Documents/TestingComission_FinalReport.pdf

Slatalla, Michelle. (2007, November 4). ACT vs.SAT. The New York Times. Retrieved from

• http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/education/edlife/guidance.html

Bibliography

• Thevenot, Brian. (2010, February 2). Most Community College Students Never Graduate. The Texas Tribune. Retrieved from

http://www.texastribune.org/texas-education/higher-education/most-community-college-students-never-graduate/