Premium Essay

Standardized Testing Vs Education Essay

Submitted By
Words 661
Pages 3
Schools are temples of education. They provide a vital purpose to society by teaching students invaluable lessons that they will use for the rest of their lives. Education maximizes someone’s potential and let’s them live up to their full capabilities. For every additional year of education an individual receives, their salary increases by up to 10 percent. Education as a whole is the wisest, most profitable investment a society can make. Recently however, a plague has infected schools and spread throughout our educational system like a cancer: standardized testing. Standardized tests have become a staple of the American education system but is it truly the best way to measure our students?
As a child I loved learning. I loved learning how gravity dictates how the Earth revolves around the Sun or how you could use the Pythagorean theorem to determine the hypotenuse of a triangle. Often times when we were introduced to a new concept I would spend my free time researching it. What are the odds; somebody in academic decathlon being a nerd? But I truly do love learning. It’s an important part of who I am today and I wouldn’t be where I’m at now if it weren't for my passion of learning. …show more content…
All that matters now is scores and numbers as if we could quantify a person into a couple of statistics. When scores matter more than learning students are a set of data points. They are their GPA and SAT scores. Teaching to an almighty test doesn’t measure how well a student has learned. It measures how well they utilize tricks in order to attain a passing grade. Teachers have even recognized this and provide advice such as answer every question and guess on the ones you don’t know. I miss the days where I could see learning as something I genuinely enjoyed and not just a means of fulfilling a

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Informal and Formal Assessments

...needs methods to unders tand whether the students are grasping the concepts they are being taught. To determine this the teacher uses several types of assessments. In some cases, formal assessments are most beneficial in determining understanding and in other cases the teacher can use informal methods in understandi ng the students’ learning. Formal assessments are, according to the website education-portal.com, “are systematic, preplanned methods of testing students that are used to determine how well studen ts have learned the material that is being taught i n the classroom.” (Flanagan, D., Mascolo, J., Hardy-B raz, S., 12/2009, NP), They are standardized tests, essay exams, and final exams. While formal assessm ents show overall achievement in a subject or subjects, informal assessments are used to inform i nstruction, they help the teacher understand where changes in a lesson plan or instructional method mi ght need to occur to help student learning. (Weaver , Brenda, ND, NP) One form of Formal assessment are the standardized achievement tests given to students during the year. These assessments shows the stude nts’ developed skills or knowledge in particular subjects. They can be compared on a national level to determine the efficacy of a particular curricul um or teaching method. There are several advantages t o these assessments. One advantage is they are scored objectively and can test a large number of s ...

Words: 1233 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Qwert

...calculator when responding to an item. A test may be administered formally or informally. An example of an informal test would be a reading test administered by a parent to a child. An example of a formal test would be a final examination administered by a teacher in a classroom or an I.Q. test administered by a psychologist in a clinic. Formal testing often results in a grade or a test score.[1] A test score may be interpreted with regards to a norm or criterion, or occasionally both. The norm may be established independently, or by statisticalanalysis of a large number of participants. A standardized test is any test that is administered and scored in a consistent manner to ensure legal defensibility.[2]Standardized tests are often used in education, professional certification, psychology (e.g., MMPI), the military, and many other fields. A non-standardized test is usually flexible in scope and format, variable in difficulty and significance. Since these tests are usually developed by individual instructors, the format and difficulty of these tests may not be widely adopted or used by other instructors or institutions. A non-standardized test may be used to determine the proficiency level of students, to motivate students to study, and to provide feedback to students. In some...

Words: 11960 - Pages: 48

Premium Essay

Homw School vs Public School

...your (assigned) stance. And, unfortunately (for the sake of your assignment, at least), the only *statistics* and *facts* out there put homeschooling in a decidedly favorable light. What you *will* find are mere opinion pieces arguing against homeschooling. However, keep in mind these articles provide no substantiating evidence to support their “anti-homeschooling” stance. Such articles, unfortunately (for your assignment, at least), are based on mere myths--some of which have been expressed right HERE by some of your responders. To wit: A) quote:“Home schooled people [will] be passed over for someone that has been through a school that has testing standards as well as requirments (sic) and guidlines (sic) for the teachers them selves.” Wrong. Homeschooled students consistently outperform public school students on standardized tests. [http://www.academicleadership.org/empric... and elsewhere] Moreover, it is no secret that our public schools are failing and that we are far behind other industrialized nations in academic achievement. See: Public High Schools Failing: Colleges Now Spend Billions On Remedial Classes For Freshmen http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2... http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YmJ... What’s Wrong With Our Schools http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/04/09/time.co... http://www.time.com/time/magazine/articl... Dropout Nation http://www.time.com/time/magazine/articl... B) quote: “It is also not likely that a home schooled person...

Words: 1184 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Reading Habit in Children

...—National Council for Education Standards and Testing, 1992 discussions, and more. Now, 10 years later, we are hearing the same reminder (Brennan, Kim, WenzGross, Siperstein, 2001; Herman, 2001; International Reading Association, 1999). In fact, in July 2001 members of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teacher’s union, endorsed a policy calling for a combination of standardized tests and other assessment tools such as teacher designed assessments when making important educational decisions (Blair & Archer, 2001). Assessment has always been a part of the educational landscape. However, because assessment can serve so many different purposes and can come in so many different forms, it has been confusing and, sometimes, it has been the subject of contentious debate. Unfortunately, as a result, many of us have come to view assessment as a necessary evil, a requirement rather than a helpful part of instruction. But assessment IS a critical part of instruction and it CAN be useful if we understand the pieces of the puzzle. As far back as 1992, when the standards movement was launched, the National Council for Education Standards and Testing, a team of experts in education, assessment and policy, reminded our nation of the different purposes for assessment— from public accountability to creating individualizing instructional plans for children. They also cautioned us to use multiple measures to fit these purposes including standardized...

Words: 6073 - Pages: 25

Free Essay

Homeschool vs Public School

...schooling vs. public schooling. You most likely have thought about how much would it cost or the amount of time it takes to teach home schooling. With the news articles out there about things that happen at schools you most likely have thought about how that would be on your child as well. One of the last things that most parents think about when choosing to home school or not are how your child’s social skills will develop. There are many different articles out there on this topic. The following essay will give you an indebt description of the difference between public and in-home schooling and its effects on the children. To start the first thing that comes to most parent’s mind is how much time and money they are going to spend in each situation. Concerning home schooling, you do spend most of your time with your children. There is no hiding that fact. Depending on your day-to-day life, this might be easy for you. This is the first thing you have to look at when making that choice for your children. Now concerning public school, you get to send your children to a different location for anywhere between four to eight hours. Now one good thing about public school is there are extracurricular activities available for children whose parents cannot be home after they get home from school. Another thing that parents are concerned about is the price difference between home schooling and public schooling. Where public schools are basically a free education, except...

Words: 1189 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Lesson

...Principles of Learning and Teaching STUDENTS AS LEARNERS – 35% THEORISTS LEV VYGOTSKY http://facultyweb.cortland.edu/andersmd/VYG/ VYG.HTML JEROME BRUNER http://tip.psychology.org/bruner.ht ml JOHN DEWEY http://www.infed.org/thinkers/e t-dewey.htm Importance of CULTURE humans use of tools and symbols to learn – culture dictates what we learn and how • Higher and Lower mental functions – elementary (or lower) functions gradually transform to HMF through culture • Central ROLE OF LANGUAGE: Language is made possible because of our culture (tools and symbols). The learning of language (or signs) is brought about by social processes, and language or signs ultimately make thought possible. Three stages in the development of speech a. Social speech – speech to control the behavior of others b. Egocentric speech – three to seven year olds – talking to themselves to learn c. Inner speech – soundless speech – thinking in our head • ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT: The discrepancy between a child's mental age [indicated by the static test] and the level he reaches in solving problems with assistance is the zone of his proximal development. _________________________________ ABRAHAM MASLOW http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/m aslow.html HEIRARCY OF NEEDS • Physiological needs • Safety needs • Belonging needs • Esteem needs • Self-actualization • Principles: learning is an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current/past knowledge – DISCOVERY...

Words: 7945 - Pages: 32

Premium Essay

Desktop vs Laptop

...International Journal of Testing, 13: 105–122, 2013 C Copyright ⃝ 2013 Educational Testing Service ISSN: 1530-5058 print / 1532-7574 online DOI: 10.1080/15305058.2012.690012 Writing Essays on a Laptop or a Desktop Computer: Does It Matter? Guangming Ling and Brent Bridgeman Educational Testing Service To explore the potential effect of computer type on the Test of English as a Foreign Language–Internet-Based Test (TOEFL iBT) Writing Test, a sample of 444 international students was used. The students were randomly assigned to either a laptop or a desktop computer to write two TOEFL iBT practice essays in a simulated testing environment, followed by a survey of computer experience. The survey results suggested that the participants had extensive experience using computers, had more experience with laptops than with desktops, and preferred using the laptop computers to the desktop computers. The computer type (laptop or desktop computer) was found to have a negligible effect on essay performance (essay score, essay length, and writing speed). However, other factors, including gender, regional background, daily experience with laptop or desktop computers, preference for a particular pointing device, and previous TOEFL experience, were found to be significantly related to essay performance but did not interact with computer type. Keywords: computer type effects, desktop, e-rater, essay length, essay score, laptop, writing speed INTRODUCTION When large-scale computer-based testing began in the...

Words: 7410 - Pages: 30

Free Essay

Chapter 3 Selecting and Using Assessments

...select and use different assessment tools. At the end of this chapter, Exhibit 3.1 contains information that can be used to help with the selection and use of assessments, including a directory of commonly used published tests. Meeting Institutional Assessment Needs Agencies and organizations in the workforce system use assessments to meet institutional needs in two ways-to determine a youth's eligibility for services and to document achievement of program goals by assessing the progress of program participants. The number of participants served and achievement of program goals can impact the amount of funding an organization receives. Funding for the youth programs considered in this guide may come from the Department of Education, the Department of Labor, other federal agencies, states, local governmental agencies, or a combination of these. Table 1.2 in Chapter 1 summarizes the eligibility and assessment requirements of IDEA, WIA Title I, and the Rehabilitation Act. More specific information on assessments mandated or permitted by several federal funding sources may be found in Appendix A. (Mandated assessments are those required for all applicants or participants. Permitted assessments may be provided for some applicants or participants if appropriate or under certain circumstances.) Assessing progress can be complicated, since the outcome measures required by different funding sources often vary, sometimes significantly. In order to address this problem, the...

Words: 27525 - Pages: 111

Premium Essay

Special Education

...Chapter 1: Student Characteristics Understand Characteristics of Students with Disabilities Some students with disabilities pass through typical developmental milestones and express skills within an average range for their age group. Others show delayed growth at certain developmental milestones, and many students with disabilities experience challenges as they navigate through the school curriculum. It is critical that special education teachers know how to differentiate between typical individual differences among children without disabilities and differences that may indicate a disability that requires interventions and/or specialized designed instruction. In addition, special education teachers need to know the most common types of disabilities that students may experience and how those disabilities affect their ability to learn and their behavior in the classroom. Competency 1 thus focuses on the characteristics of typical and atypical human growth and development and the characteristics of students with various disabilities that special education teachers are likely to encounter. The test includes a wide range of multiple-choice questions that address Competency 1. * Questions on typical and atypical behaviors and abilities for children and adolescents at particular ages. * Questions on the types and characteristics of various disabilities. * Questions on the similarities and differences among students with and without disabilities. This competency encompasses...

Words: 37727 - Pages: 151

Free Essay

Gre Method

...10 Steps to Earn a High GRE Score The following is a guide to scoring high on the GRE test. If you follow these steps, your GRE score will improve. 1. Relax: Preparing for the GRE can be stressful. Try to focus on the task at hand and not so much on everything else you have to do. If you take GRE test prep step-by-step, day-by-day, and give yourself breaks when your body needs them, you'll be able to concentrate on GRE studies a lot better. 2. GRE Diagnostic Test: Begin GRE test prep with a GRE practice test to find out what you're good at, and more importantly, what you're not good at. Correct your completed practice test and evaluate the questions you missed. What kind of questions did you miss? Are they mostly Quantitative or mostly Verbal? What score would you give yourself on Analytical Writing? Did you miss a lot of analogies but do well on reading comprehension? With this information you'll be able to focus your GRE test prep studies on your weaknesses. 3. GRE Study Plan: With your GRE weaknesses in mind, make a very specific study plan for yourself. You should know what, how, and when you are going to study for the GRE test. Put your study plan somewhere in plain view, and make sure you stick to your plan. Try to keep GRE test prep interesting by planning to study different things in different ways. For example, study GRE vocabulary from flash cards one day, from a list the second day, and by reading and learning words in context the third day. 4. GRE Vocabulary: ...

Words: 7186 - Pages: 29

Premium Essay

Feeding Program

...a teacher one can touch the hearts of the young and open their minds in order to tap their thirst for knowledge. ------------------------------------------------- [edit]The Long Road Becoming a teacher is a lengthy process obtained by numerous routes, such as night school or attending a four year college. Regardless of the process it is important to obtain at least a Bachelors degree in the desired teaching area, as well as a teacher certification which should include clinical experience (Lewis, L., Parsad, B., Carey, N., Bartfai, N., Farris, E. & Smerdon, B., 1999, para. 3). The average starting salaries were about $31,704 in the year 2003-04, whereas the average teaching salary was about $46,597 for the year 2004-2005 (Pearson Education Inc, table). Compare this to the average cost of living in the United States today which is continually rising (Boskey, para. 3). style="background-color: #FFF7F7;border: solid 1px #FFBDBD; padding: 1em;" valign=top | Teacher's Salaries Across the US | Teaching is not a pocket cushining job, but one with...

Words: 21735 - Pages: 87

Premium Essay

Differences of National Cultural Influences on Higher Education in China and the United States

...Introduction 1.1 Problem definition Any discussion of higher Education in different countries needs to be conducted within the context of the overall perception of a country’s culture, society, history, salary and intellect. These influences are the foundation of the education in a country. Due to these different influences every country has a different understanding of education. I will also concentrate on the influence of culture on education in China and in the United States (U.S.) with special emphasis on Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions, because culture and history can lead the way in understanding the differences among student’s higher education. 1.2 Objectives The paper investigates the differences between the education in China and the U.S. against the background of dramatical differences in culture and history. First the country-specific Cultural Dimensions by Hofstede need to be elaborated to reveal a basic approach for the understanding of a nation’s culture. Based on Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions and the history the effect on education and instructional strategies in China and the U.S. will be discussed. 1.3 Course of the Investigation To achieve the objectives the course of the investigation will be carried out in three steps. In the first step the conceptual background on the topic will be defined to provide a basis. Chapter 2 describes the theory and the five Dimensions of Hofstede’s Culture’s Consequences. In the second step the explanations focus...

Words: 4510 - Pages: 19

Premium Essay

Effective Learning Techniques

...psychologists have been developing and evaluating easy-to-use learning techniques that could help students achieve their learning goals. In this monograph, we discuss 10 learning techniques in detail and offer recommendations about their relative utility. We selected techniques that were expected to be relatively easy to use and hence could be adopted by many students. Also, some techniques (e.g., highlighting and rereading) were selected because students report relying heavily on them, which makes it especially important to examine how well they work. The techniques include elaborative interrogation, self-explanation, summarization, highlighting (or underlining), the keyword mnemonic, imagery use for text learning, rereading, practice testing, distributed practice, and interleaved practice.   To offer recommendations about the relative utility of these techniques, we evaluated whether their benefits generalize across four categories of variables: learning conditions, student characteristics, materials, and criterion tasks. Learning conditions include aspects of the learning environment in which the technique is implemented, such as whether a student studies alone or with a group. Student characteristics include variables such as age, ability, and level of prior knowledge. Materials vary from simple concepts to mathematical problems to...

Words: 48661 - Pages: 195

Premium Essay

Resume Guide for Teachers Final Revised

...creating or improving your teaching resume. Included in this packet are best practices that the Career Center have researched and found to be true. Information and sample resumes within this packet are not intended to be taken verbatim. Constructing a teaching resume is an art, not a science. Make your personal resume unique and stand out by making it represent you. The resources this packet highlights are available to all students; take advantage of the Career Center and the services it provides you. What to Expect Teaching Resume Aesthetics, Content & Editing…………..………………………..Page 3 Three necessary components of a great teaching resume are detailed Key Elements of a Successful Teacher Resume……………………………………...Page 4 Mandatory vs. optional elements in a successful teaching resume Poor Teaching Resume Example……………………………………………………..Page 5 Details common mistakes of a teaching resume Transferable Skills & Action Verbs…………………………………………………....Page 6 A comprehensive list of transferable skills and action verbs that have potential in a teaching resume Constructing a Proper Achievement Statement (bullet point)………………………Page 7 Creating a bullet point stress you out? Here is a fool proof way to construct a proper achievement statement. Buzz Words……………………………………………………………………………..Page 7 Answer the question, “What are buzz words and how should they be used in a resume” Teaching Resume Samples...………………………………………………………Pages 8-11 These should not be viewed as a template...

Words: 4695 - Pages: 19

Free Essay

Ojt Experience

...NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL Monterey, California THESIS AN ASSESSMENT OF THE SHIPBOARD TRAINING EFFECTIVENESS OF THE INTEGRATED DAMAGE CONTROL TRAINING TECHNOLOGY (DDCTT) VERSION 3.0 by Stephen J. Coughlin March 1998 Thesis Co-Advisors: Bernard J. Ulozas Alice Crawford Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. PTIC QUALITY INSPECTED 6 REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE Form Approved OMB No. 0704-0188 Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instruction, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington, VA 22202-4302, and to the Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project (0704-0188) Washington DC 20S03. 1. AGENCY USE ONLY (Leave blank) 6. March 1998 Master's Thesis FUNDING NUMBERS TITLE AND SUBTITLE An Assessment of the Shipboard Training Effectiveness of the Integrated Damage Control Training Technology (IDCTT) Version 3.0 AUTHQR(S) Stephen J. Coughlin 7. 2. REPORT DATE 3. REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED PERFORMING ORGANIZATION...

Words: 34538 - Pages: 139