Thursday, May 12, 2016
Why Standardized Testing in Schools Should be Abolished
Standardized testing has been a staple in American schools for quite some time now. School districts say that this is so we can get a better understanding of the overall knowledge each grade should possess to pass, but I think that it is causing our school systems to adopt a "pass this test and you're done" mentality. Even when I was in high school, only about six years ago, all the teachers cared about was making sure you could pass the "TAKS" test. Nowadays, in Texas, schools are doing the same thing to students with the "STAAR" tests. I also feel like this really takes away from more creative projects student could be doing that would actually help them learn. Instead, teachers prepare their students for end-of-year testing by TAKING MORE TESTS. How can we expect our youth to actually want to learn things when all they are taught is "memorize, repeat"? This type of testing doesn't help out the teachers either. A few years ago, President Obama started a "Race to the Top" initiative, which pretty much meant that states would evaluate the scores students were receiving on these tests and use them to evaluate teachers as well. How can this possibly be correct? I know from experience, as I myself am one, that there are many students in America that can learn material effectively and complete assignments and projects, but don't test very well. Schools will take the results of these standardized tests and reprimand specific teachers for not "fulfilling their duties" just because a few students couldn't pass. I believe that this is absolutely outrageous and we should be grading our students on things like critical thinking ability, as these skills will actually help them later in life as adults. I wholeheartedly believe that standardized testing is ruining our schools, students, and teachers, and should be put to an end. What do you think?
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As my second classmate critique I chose my classmate Alyssa Villalobos, “Why Standardized Testing in Schools Should be Abolished” Alyssa states that with all of the standardized testing that our students aren’t actually learning anything and instead are just memorizing information to take one test then doing the same thing a year later. I completely agree with her, I feel now that there isn’t any actually learning going on and it’s more so a regurgitation of the information they’ve memorized. I also know firsthand that standardized testing doesn’t really prove anything or prove if someone is intelligent or not, I like to think of it as a Dr. looking at a mechanic as though some of the work may be dumb, and vice versa a mechanic looking at a Dr. and just saying well I have no idea what you’re talking about. Nothing can be proven from regurgitating information that isn’t actually learned, I agree with Alyssa that the school systems are more of a rinse and repeat method of “learning” we cannot say this student is smarter than that one by the amount of information they can memorize in subjects they really don’t care about. The only real critique I have about Alyssa’s blog is that it should be broken up into two paragraphs just to make it easier on the eyes to read. But overall I agree completely with what she’s saying and standardized testing proves absolutely nothing about a person’s intelligence.
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