The Standardized Testing Nightmare Essay -- High-Stakes Standardized Te

As children grow up some of their frightful memories include a visit to the dentist or to the first day in elementary school. Perhaps their greatest nightmare is standardized testing. Since starting school as first graders students are taught to test in the United States. In many cases students are placed in remedial classes or even held back because of their low grades. Many do not realize that the students with low grades are mainly students who are not good test takers, and educators start to believe that these students are low achievers. When educators do this, it leads the students to have lower self-esteem and encourages them to drop out of school later on. Students are also forced to memorize information merely as facts without sparking their creativity or enhancing their knowledge. Prior to the educational reform movement of the 1970s and 1980s, standardized tests were primarily employed as measures of student achievement that could be reported to parents, and as a means of noting state and district trends. (Moon and Brighton) Educators paid little attention to these tests, which had little impact on curriculum. In the continuing quest for better schools and high achieving students, testing has become a central focus of policy and practice. Standardized test are tests that attempt to present unbiased material under the same conditions and with consistent scoring and interpretation so that students have equal opportunities to give correct answers and receive an accurate assessment. The idea behind standardized testing is that these similarities allow the highest degree of certainty in comparing results across schools, schools districts, or even the state. As the high-stakes testing becomes more popular, stan... ...ndustrial nations in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. He reported that tests measure exposure to facts and skills not whether o (Osburn, Ritter and Suitt)r not kids can think. (Osburn, Ritter and Suitt)â€Æ' Works Cited Bachelor, Denessa. "Are These Tests Failing?" April 2006. Hearts & Minds. 2013 . Longo, Christopher. "Fostering Creativity or Teaching to the Test?" The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Stategies, Issues and Ideas (2010): 54-57. Moon, Tonya R and Catherine M Brighton. The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented. Storrs: Center, 1991. Osburn, Monica Z., et al. "Parents' Perceptions of Standardized Testing: Its Relationship and Effect on Student Achievement." 2004. University of Arkansas. 2013 .