Standardized Testing Dbq

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“In education, tests provide an objective measurement of how students are progressing- information that’s critical to improving public schools” (Source 2). The use of standardize testing has given school boards across the globe extremely useful information regarding the academic stand point of students, how certain educators are benefiting students’ academic success, and components that can be improved at public schools. Even though all of these findings are beneficial to the academic and overall success of the students, too much standardize testing can be very harmful, wasteful, and useless. After analyzing all of the sources, it is evident that students should be allowed to “opt out” of standardized testing because it takes an excessive amount …show more content…
An example of this is “the PARCC, which is debuting this year in New Jersey and 11 other states, is among the new generation of tests aligned to the Common Core- standards adopted by 43 states that outline the math and language skills students should master in each grade. Students’ achievement is expected to drop because of the new rigor” (Source 3). This test doesn’t correctly gauge how students are learning, but is merely another test that students memorize and cram for deeming the test unbeneficial to the purpose of education. Furthermore, “Officials say that high-stakes assessments are crucial to evaluating student progress and competitiveness,” but there are other ways (Source 3). Some schools are preferring “an exam that samples random students to offer a snapshot without high stakes attached” (Source 3). By limiting standardized testing to only the mandatory exams and using this method for calculating the effectiveness of certain teaching methods, improving public schools, ranking school districts, and etcetera, the funding of fruitless test can cease. Another method to replace unnecessary exams is “an accreditation process… used by colleges and universities” (Source 3). This approach to examining schools is proven to be more beneficial because instead of just using the test scores of students from an area or school to base a judgment or theory off of, “accreditation includes site visits, in-depth analysis and a detailed action plan” (Source 3). With this being said, it is irrefutable that standardized testing doesn’t accurately measure how students are learning, and many other indicators are more beneficial such as exams of samples of random students to offer a snapshot without high stakes attached and accreditation. Therefore, students should