Standardized tests are the answer
Do you think that standardized tests are a great idea? Standardized tests are assessments developed by the testing companies to evaluate what many students in the different school districts know. All students need to continue to take standardized tests.
The first reason standardized tests should continue is that the high stakes of the standardized tests cause students to achieve more. For example, 20 school districts use standardized tests as goals. This caused the students to achieve more. Another example would be Richard P. Phelps, a scholar, who did a study and found out that 93 percent of the standardized test-taking students did better in school. Students that take standardized tests had higher academic achievement compared to students who did not.
The second reason is that parents approve of the standardized tests. The reason for this is because parents want to find out what parts their child needs additional help with. Furthermore, parents state that their children are not taking a large amount of tests. To conclude, parents approve of standardized tests.
Lastly, many teachers like standardized tests. The teachers also think that students should do more of them. Another piece of evidence is that 81 percent of teachers said that standardized tests are important to schools. Finally, according to Education Policy Analysis Archives, the tests do not make the teacher teach to the test.
Students in school districts should still take the standardized tests. Due to high- stakes standardized tests, students achieve more, parents approve of the standardized tests and testing does not force the teachers to teach to the test. Help the school districts keep giving standardized tests by making presentations, powerpoints and writing to lawmakers.
Darina Pugach
Greenberg Elementary School
Why standardized tests are not worth taking
Have you ever wondered why some students earn extremely poor scores on standardized tests? Standardized tests are tests that testing companies create to see what students in many school districts know. The United States should not have standardized testing.
First of all, standardized tests make young students have serious tension and anxiety, which can cause them to weep and vomit.
Therefore, the Stanford-9 exam has instructions on what to do if a student vomits. Students do not deserve to face anxiety just because they have to take standardized tests.
Secondly, standardized tests are not a great way to see what students know. In 2001, the Brookings Institution discovered that 50 to 80 percent of each year’s test score improvements only lasted for a small amount of time. This shows that the tests are not really improving students’ achievement. There are better ways other than standardized tests to see what students know.
Lastly, standardized tests are not fair for children that have special needs and for children that do not speak English. Children with special needs have a hard time taking the test, which is unfair for them. They take the same tests as other children and little assistance is normally given. Children that do not speak English have trouble taking the test because they do not understand the content written in English. This is discriminatory because these English language learners have to take the test in English before they know the language well.
In conclusion, school districts should not use standardized tests in schools to measure student achievement. It is urgent that we must only vote for lawmakers that agree to not have standardized tests.
Aiswariya Thomas
Greenberg Elementary School
