Standardized Testing In Education Essay

Testing has been used in school seen the beginning of schooling. These assessments are used in a variety of ways for a variety of reasons. However, as we talked about in class and on the online content, standardized tests have changed in the past years. In fact, in the videos we viewed this weekend, it it shown how these test effect students. Unfortunately, school is shown as less fun and students are not enjoying school. Also, the government has been involved in education. Acts like the no child left behind act signed by George W Bush have been signed by different presidents. These were instilled in order to help students improve education. Testing has been used in the classroom for many years and can be a valuable tool if utilized correctly.
After reading Psst it Ain't About About the test, I learned a lot more about testing.
In this article, it discusses that to be a good teacher is more than just test scores. I feel like this is important to know because education and learning is not just taking test. Really understanding the material is being able to apply and demonstrate what you have learned. However, the government and many others put so much emphasis on a variety of tests. For example, how much funding a school gets in Pennsylvania depends partly on test scores. This creates an environment of pressure on the children along with teachers to get outstanding test scores that can be very detrimental to a child. Children as young as Kindergarten are required to take some type of test. Unfortunately, I have seen the negative effects of tests on young children first hand. Last year, I had the wonderful opportunity to go down to an elementary school everyday for two periods of the day. One day as I was there, the kindergarteners had to write an essay. This was a persuasive piece that required the students to write about why they like something. Half of the class was crying and they were all extremely nervous about their upcoming assignment. I feel like we need to find different ways to measure that the children know that will not extremly upset them. To go along with this, the article also discusses how it is important to have faith in yourself as a teacher. One can not just depend on one method, such as
testing, to determine success. In conclusion, standardized testing has changed during the last ten years in a negative way. I do agree that we need to have some way to measure what students learn. However, the method used now is very negative. I believe that learning and being “good” at something does not just depend on your test scores.