The Negative Effects Of Standardized Testing On Children
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The Negative Effects of Standardized Testing \u0026 Possible Alternatives
Hidden Curriculum Definition. Not only do students have to worry about Argumentative Essay On Airbnb a Theories Of Westward Expansion score tears by edward thomas pass, they also have to worry about not …show more content… They just test all The Negative Effects Of Standardized Testing On Children the The Role Of Failure In Baseball way. Standardized tests add stress for teachers Grit Vs Grow Mindset students. These funds were specifically designed to offer assistance What Does Miss Maudie Symbolize In To Kill A Mockingbird schools that served large numbers of socially disadvantaged children. In Brief. Even my mom wrote a letter to Superintendent Ross objecting to the amount of time Perrysburg students had to spend. When Amir And Hassan Foil schools affect dropout behavior?
On most normal mournings, students can be found showering and eating breakfast before school. This is the normal routine. However, students in Ohio who wake up in March or April find another item added to their routine, stress. These two months are testing months. On these mornings, students worry on their way to school. Most even worry when it comes time to take the test. Stress is just one of the unintended consequences of standardized tests.
Even though Standardized tests were made to help keep the classroom teacher and schools accountable, the unintended consequences of them have been hurtful to teacher and students. Standardized tests create a problem because they force teachers to teach to the test instead of the subject matter. Teachers are forced to teach to the test because they could get fired. Today, students standardized test scores are used in teacher evaluations. In , Memphis City Schools informed 97 teachers that they were going to be let go because their students did not perform well on the state test Roberts. This is very stressful for teachers and students.
Not only do students have to worry about getting a good score to pass, they also have to worry about not …show more content… They just test all students the same way. This is also not fair to teachers who know their students know the information but are just poor test takers. Although students are heavily impacted by the pressure and anxiety that accompanies standardized testing, they are not the only ones. Teachers not unli Child Left Behind has laudable goals, but it's too narrowly focused on just test scores, To just constantly boil everything down to standardized test scores doesn't tell the whole story.
Moon, Tonya R. Brighton, Jane M. Jarvis, and Catherine J. University of Connecticut, Steinberg, Jacques. Strauss, Valerie. Get Access. Best Essays. Read More. Satisfactory Essays. Good Essays. Better Essays. Flaws In Current Standardized Testing. Powerful Essays. Standardized Tests Are Ineffective. The Failure of Standardized Testing. The Problems With Standardized Testing. Large numbers of children are given standardized tests in two three-hour increments within a one- to two-week period each spring. Today, it continues to be the mission of a standardized test-maker to develop a set of items that allows for making accurate comparisons among test-takers and then rank-ordering those who take the test.
Standardized testing, as it gets more all-encompassing, has become a nightmare of huge proportion in the United States. Although standardized tests historically have been loosely tied to accountability and student learning, the link had been tenuous. With the advent of No Child Left Behind, however, the connection between student learning and high-stakes standardized testing is more pronounced, and an increase in use of the tests has reached epic proportions.
The premise behind this link is that increased pressure to do well on standardized tests, along with a set of rewards and punishments, will increase student learning and achievement. Does this actually occur, however? Are students learning more in our schools today? Are they more motivated to learn today than they were 40 years ago? Are more students staying in school and pursuing higher learning? This section examines some of these effects in terms of motivation, learning, and curriculum.
Because of high-stakes testing and the pressure that surrounds it, children are no longer engaged in enriching experiences for the pure joy of learning-experiences whereby they make decisions, explore options, make hypotheses, or problem solve. Extrinsic motivation, in the form of rewards and consequences, has replaced learning for the sheer pleasure of learning and the internal satisfaction that comes from a job well done. Research by Glasser and Glasser indicates that stress increases the rate of aging and reduces the functioning of the immune system.
The researchers also state that the worst kind of stress is caused when we have little or no control over our lives. As children are inundated with standardized tests, the resulting mundane methodologies of teaching in order to prepare for the test has both teachers and children feeling helpless. Furthermore, an overreliance on extrinsic rewards and the subsequent lack of learning that follows has led to an increase in retention rates and an associated higher drop-out rate.
And, in Florida, in the spring of , more than 43, third-graders 25 percent of the total for that grade level were not allowed to advance to 4th grade, due to their insufficient scores on standardized tests Garan, A study conducted by Nichols, Glass, and Berliner found that highstakes testing pressure is negatively associated with the likelihood that 8th- and 9th-graders will eventually enter and complete 12th grade. Given the fact that high stakes are now being attached to all standardized tests, the amount of pressure placed upon children, teachers, and administrators to perform is overwhelming.
When increased pressure is placed on individuals to perform, they naturally resort to doing the things that will earn the swiftest reward-in this case, higher test scores. Are childreri learning more today because of mandated tests? Amrein and Berliner posited that if students were showing an increase in learning based on state tests, they should show an increase in learning on other independent measures as well. What they found, in terms of a connection to learning, was virtually nothing. A study by Nichols, Glass, and Berliner also indicates a weak correlation between high-stakes testing and learning.
While they found some validity to the claim that math achievement increased as pressure from high-stakes tests became more prevalent, their findings also indicated that increased testing pressure produced no gains in reading scores at the 4th- or 8th- grade level when students took the National Assessment of Educational Progress NAEP. Although those in power would have us believe that increased testing motivates students to learn more, research indicates that the correlation is weak at best and non-existent at worst.
Testing does virtually nothing to support or increase student learning. High-stakes testing not only negatively affects motivation and learning, it also undermines the curriculum. Because of the increased pressure on teachers for their children to do well on standardized tests, the curriculum has been narrowed. The curriculum, and thus instructional time, has shifted to only those areas that are to be tested.
With the advent of Reading First grants, specific curriculum and materials used to teach are now being mandated, which narrows the curriculum even further. Low-performing schools can apply for these federal monies; in order to receive the grant, however, the schools must use government-approved materials and teachers must be trained by government-approved providers Garan, It has been replaced with curriculum deemed valuable by the federal government as a means to achieving high scores on standardized tests. They are forced to teach in ways that are not developmentally appropriate and do not promote critical thinking and decision-making.
Rather, instruction has become mundane and boring as children complete worksheets on basic facts and memorize items for the test. Instruction has been reduced to teaching to the test. The very instructional strategies that should be used to create and promote democratic values in the classroom are now replaced with mundane skill-drill-kill exercises whereby children do not think for themselves, critically examine possibilities, or take risks. The very heart of democracy has been stripped from our public schools in the name of high-stakes test scores.
ACEI is not alone in this position. Experts and organizations concerned with academic learning, growth, and assessment generally agree that standardized, group-administered tests should not be used with children younger than 3rd grade Meisels, The National Commission on Testing and Public Policy, along with the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association, reached this same conclusion after studying standardized testing intensively. Thus, ACEI calls for an end to K- 2 standardized testing and advocates the use of more authentic, alternative assessments that are continuous and intricately embedded in developmentally appropriate classroom instruction. Assessment refers to the means whereby we get to that judgment. Viewing assessment as a means to an end leads us to examine more closely the daily interactions and processes that children go through as they learn.
Teaching, learning, and assessment are intricately woven together in the classrooms where children grow and learn. In order to provide quality instruction that is developmentally appropriate for children and leads to the furtherance of democratic values, teachers recognize that assessment must be an integral part of the curriculum. It is continuous and permeates every aspect of the curriculum, both for the teacher and students. It allows teachers to determine what students can do rather than what they cannot do; teachers thus build knowledge on a firm foundation of strengths. Effective assessment involves self-assessment. When children are allowed and encouraged to self-assess, they begin to understand why they are doing what they are doing.
They have a sense of their own success and growth, which leads to empowerment and greater risk taking-the very values we wish schools to foster. Finally, effective assessment involves active collaboration among teachers, children, and parents. All work together for the good of the child. Several forms of alternative assessment provide for the continuous, ongoing evaluation that informs instruction. Two of these forms, portfolio and performance-based assessments, will be discussed in greater detail. Learning is perceived as evolving and changing and includes shared authority and meaningful integrated instruction. Within the portfolio process, assessment and instruction are viewed as recurring processes that inform each other.
Self-assessment is at the heart of portfolios and allows children to critically examine the experiences and process of learning. Meaningful and purposeful assessment occurs through the ongoing use of portfolios. The student and the teacher work collaboratively to establish goals for learning and standards for selected work. Students are given a choice about what is selected to show their growth, thus creating ownership for their learning. It is through this ownership that motivation to learn increases. Knowledge and learning is no longer perceived as the ability to correctly select an answer on a multiple-choice test, but rather is seen as occurring in many contexts.
Portfolios are a place to view process, which allows students and teachers to effectively evaluate the actual learning taking place. They enable students to see that learning is a dynamic, interactive, ongoing process. Portfolios are valuable for all children, especially those in the younger grades. Because they are intricately connected to instruction and curriculum, portfolios provide a foundation upon which future learning can be built. They allow children to practice analytical and critical thinking, both vital to the pursuit of knowledge.
They force children to take ownership for their own learning; thereby, children grow in confidence and self-esteem.
