Standardized Testing Argumentative Essay
In my argumentative essay, I will discuss the problem of why standardized achievement tests should not be used to measure students’ achievement in denver public schools. When, by whom and for what reason were standardized achievement tests created? How has the purpose of these tests changed since their beginning? I found a lot of information regarding this issue in different scholars sources. In my essay, I will use some of them in order to prove my argument that denver public education authorities need to eliminate standardized achievement testing and allow teachers ownership over their classroom curriculum while adhering to state and national standards.
I am talking about denver public school system , as both my children are attending them: …show more content…
According to Jerry Webster, a special education expert, “Standardized testing is any testing which is given to large numbers of students under standard conditions and with standardized procedures. Usually they are multiple choice.” There are a lot of definitions we can find throughout the sources, but they are pretty much the same, as standardized, by the Webster dictionary means “to bring into conformity with standard.” So standardized tests are tests that standard “something established by authority as a rule for the measure of quantity, weight, extent, value, or quality.”(Jerry …show more content…
James Popham argues that test scores should not to be used to determine educational quality. A good test question is one that spreads out the scores of students’ total test scores and is answered correctly by about 40%-60% of students. If an item is answered correctly by about 90% of students, or above 80%, then it probably won’t make the final cut when the test is revised. Questions like these are most likely going to be erased from the test, leaving middle-difficulty questions left on the test. It seems like “the better the job that teachers do in teaching important knowledge and/or skills, the less likely it is that there will be items on a standardized achievement test measuring such knowledge and/or skills.”
I am talking about denver public school system , as both my children are attending them: …show more content…
According to Jerry Webster, a special education expert, “Standardized testing is any testing which is given to large numbers of students under standard conditions and with standardized procedures. Usually they are multiple choice.” There are a lot of definitions we can find throughout the sources, but they are pretty much the same, as standardized, by the Webster dictionary means “to bring into conformity with standard.” So standardized tests are tests that standard “something established by authority as a rule for the measure of quantity, weight, extent, value, or quality.”(Jerry …show more content…
James Popham argues that test scores should not to be used to determine educational quality. A good test question is one that spreads out the scores of students’ total test scores and is answered correctly by about 40%-60% of students. If an item is answered correctly by about 90% of students, or above 80%, then it probably won’t make the final cut when the test is revised. Questions like these are most likely going to be erased from the test, leaving middle-difficulty questions left on the test. It seems like “the better the job that teachers do in teaching important knowledge and/or skills, the less likely it is that there will be items on a standardized achievement test measuring such knowledge and/or skills.”