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The Institution of Standardized Testing and the System of Education. Spencer Webb 08/04/2014. Introduction. History of standardized testing No Child Left Behind Goal of decreasing education inequality Standardized testing is harming the environment of education in 3 ways.
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The Institution of Standardized Testing and the System of Education Spencer Webb 08/04/2014
Introduction • History of standardized testing • No Child Left Behind • Goal of decreasing education inequality • Standardized testing is harming the environment of education in 3 ways. • Testing is done generally by private corporations and a conflict of interest occurs between those institutions’ values. • The disjunction between those values causes changes to how education is administered, and how it is analyzed. • These previous harms are only contributors to the greater detriment they cause education; decrease in student and teacher morale. This new perception of education is one of greater negativity than prior to the testing boom, and negative affects due to the occurrence can be easily observed • Thesis Standardized testing is harming the education system because of its failure to create an environment suited to student’s and teacher’s needs for successful learning.
Argument 1 • Standardized testing has interfered with teacher’s curriculum • Incentive has shifted from an interest in a subjective processes in engaging students, to an incentive for standardized curriculum in order to best prepare the greatest amount of students the tests. • Field of study is narrowing because teachers are enticed only to teach by the test rather than initiate their own applications of learning. • The incentive has shifted due to government grants and bonuses being affected by test success.
Argument 2 • Standardized testing is not a system designed with the interests of students and teachers in mind. • Almost all testing in the United States are owned and operated by profiting, contracted, 3rd part corporations. • High drop out rates, due to students being “left behind” by testing, has been seen raising test scores drastically, marking a lack of accurate definition of education equality.
Argument 3 • Due to the presence of standardized testing, the factors such as lack of teacher crafted curriculum and win or lose outcomes for students, teacher and student moral has significantly decreased in the classroom. • This is the most detrimental and unacknowledged effect of standardized testing. As teachers and students perception of education becomes more negative, the participating character’s natural incentive diminishes due to the surrounding decline in motivation.
Counterargument • Testing provides increased equality in educational opportunity • Testing gives teachers a frame of reference in comparing success among classrooms and schools. • Testing can aid in determining the curriculum and teaching styles that create success. But, at the risk of teachers ability to exercise discretion in his or her curriculum, and the risk of results wrongly harm certain groups educational opportunity, the detriments that testing serves the classroom far outweigh the reward they would provide.
Conclusion The most immediate repercussions within the establishment which standardized tests are being used must be recognized for their ultimate effects on the system, not just examined in their intended purpose. Educators voices are being ignored by test creators and legislatures, as they have determined goals dissimilar from the interests of teachersare the priority. Until teachers and students feel as though testing is done for the sake of their learning and benefit, the perception cannot and will not be one of affirmat
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