Standardized Testing Failure

The Lesson Plan of Failure Standardized tests have taken over the lesson plans of teachers, dictating the quality and content of education in the American public school system. The curricula is tailored to prepare students for subjects on the test instead of on a full spectrum education. The government tests focus primarily on reading, writing and arithmetic leaving out crucial developmental topics like humanities and social sciences. The results from these tests not only to judge the intelligence of the students, but evaluate the effectiveness of teachers, and determine the federal funding each school will receive; rewarding the schools that do the best. However, should the federal funding of public education be treated as a trophy? The use
Teachers are subjected to even more pressure from school, and for their own jobs. The pressure increased on teachers in 2009 when the Race to the Top proposed by President Barack Obama was approved by Congress. This bill not only inflated the federal funding to the most successful schools by 4.25 million dollars but also prevented any state from creating laws that prevent the use of standardized test scores in teacher’s evaluations. However, using student test scores to determine a teacher’s effectiveness is not a fair way to rate a teacher. There are huge discrepancies in the standardized test compared to other test that test the same subjects. For example, the Annenberg Institute for school Reform noted that in 2010 students in Houston schools were given two test on the same topic in the same testing week, the Texas Essential Knowledge (TEK) and Skills Reading Test and the equivalent standardized test, the Stanford Achievement Test (SAT). The student average on the TEK ranked 17% of teachers in the top category, but the student average on the (SAT) ranked in the bottom two categories. Both of these tests were taken by the same students, with the same teachers and at the same time in the school year (Corcoran) . Students may not do well on a standardized test because of the content in those tests as seen in Houston; However, this doesn’t mean that the teachers are ineffective. The student’s
Students in these areas have a disadvantage primarily with the lack of resources they have to succeed in schools. Underprivileged school struggle to provide textbooks, computers and teachers to their students. Those that have text books often don’t have enough for every student or they don’t allow new books to be taken out of the classrooms. While text books seem like a standard learning tool, they are vital to the success of standardized testing because these test are created by the Authors of the textbooks. The lack of resources for these students is also a deterrent for many teachers. Especially now with evaluations so closely tied to test score’s received. Over half of the school district’s in the United States fall below the poverty line and struggle with providing education to their students. It is no surprise that low income public schools have the lowest test scores on standardized test. Since the ‘No Child Left Behind Act’ was instated in 2002 public schools in low income communities have been steadily disappearing or downsizing adding the additional problem of overcrowding. In 2005 New York closed 12 schools and downsized 3 others (Patrick Stark). All of these schools had a high rate of immigrant and non-native speaking students, but no programs aimed at acclimating these students because school funding was aimed at providing free lunch programs, or maintaining the school building and