Is Our Standardized Testing Hurting or Helping Us? Everyone knows that education is a fundamental way of life. I mean, we learn something new every day. But the real question is, do we retain this information or are we just retaining it for just the time being and then throwing it away for it not to be used again within the year, just for testing and that’s it? Is our school year all just based off of the state test we take at the end of the year? I know, some of us as students would actually like to come to class and reminisce on the subject at hand that we’re learning and would actually like to enjoy the class for once instead of just bouncing from subject to subject. So are these standardized tests helping or hurting the kids of today? Standardized tests are given starting at the first entry level of grade school. From there on, we go through the school year worrying about getting such and such information cramped inside before the test to make sure it’s just enough to at least pass the test. We never have time to just sit back and learned in class and I mean actually learn in class. And to sit there and discuss things in class. Have time to at least show that we have interest in what we’re learning for once instead of being forced to learn such and such. Education is defined as, “ the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.” (dictionary.com) With my personal experience with my school system, it seems like they’re worried more about our appearance more than what’s feeding into our minds and going on paper. But when they see how low the scores are starting to get then they’re quick to jump on the bandwagon into kicking our students into the right direction. Not necessarily saying that these test are what make us but they can break us.
Honestly thinking over it, we’ve had so many parent-student meetings about state tests as each one seems to approach year. And each year we hear how we need such and such to pass the school year and move up to the next but we never hear about how these state standardized tests will help us with college. With these tests, we are all held to do tasks at a minimum. English TAKS and STAAR, using as an example, our essays are supposed to be twenty-six lines long, written, and cannot go past the space provided. What if we have much more to express within this one page essay? Some of us go for looking for a shortcut to get done with these tests because we need to, instead of actually using the essentials that we have necessary into completing the task at hand with our school work. “Standardized tests have been a part of American education since the mid-1800s. Their use skyrocketed after 2002's No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) mandated annual testing in all 50 states. US students slipped from 18th in the world in math in 2000 to 31st place in 2009, with a similar decline in science and no change in reading. Failures in the education system have been blamed on rising poverty levels, teacher quality, tenure policies, and increasingly on the pervasive use of standardized tests.” (http://standardizedtests.procon.org/)
Mella Baxter wrote an article titled, “The Standardized Testing Debate: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly,” and in this article she expressed different points of view about standardized test. In this article, what stood out to me was that standardized test help teachers with evaluations that are given about them each year and the scores are mainly based off of their students test scores and how well or poorly they’ve performed. And we know that some students are highly brilliant with class work and things alike but can be poor test takers and all of their fate depends on these test and they’re judged off of these test. Which in her article she clearly explains and states the same
