Preview

Should All U.S. States Require High School Students to Pass Standardized Exit Exams in Order to Graduate Essay Example

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
647 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Should All U.S. States Require High School Students to Pass Standardized Exit Exams in Order to Graduate Essay Example
L. Gomes
Comm 101
Professor Jenkins
2, December 2012
Should all U.S. States Require High School Students to Pass Standardized Exit Exams in Order to Graduate? On September 21, 2011 60,000 students were denied their diplomas due to their failure of the Standardized Exit Exams (Standardized High School Exit Exams). Advocates say schools are diminishing the importance of acquiring a diploma and awarding them to students who have not earned them (Standardized High School Exit Exams). Critics believe that the exams create an uneven amount of negative impact on graduation percentages of minority, low-income, and disabled students, without significant proof that theses exams make an academic difference (Standardized High School Exit Exams). On either side of the spectrum, students benefit from this type of testing, i.e. by getting extra help if need and by graduating with an acceptable education, and it leaves them better prepared for life. Supporters of theses exams believe that they are necessary to guarantee that all children have basic Math, English, and other skills in order to continue life successfully either by continuing their education, via college or trade school, or to obtain gainful employment (Standardized High School Exit Exams). The standardized testing helps to weed out those who are performing at or above level, from those who have fallen behind and are in need of tutoring; it will also assist in uncovering children who are in need of extra help, such as English as Second Language (ESL) students, so that the school districts are able acquire more funds to assist these students (Standardized High School Exit Exams). This form of testing also encourages students to try to learn more, while also requiring schools to uphold higher educational standards (Standardized High School Exit Exams). When students are given these tests at the beginning of their freshman year, it allots sufficient time for them to study and be more prepared for taking the exam

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Most people do seem to generally agree that the exigence exists because the people all have been attempting to get into colleges and have gone through the pressure placed on standardized test scores.…

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    When going to school students are supposed to learn based off a curriculum, but instead they are learning based off a test. These test are meant to help students, but instead they are hurting them. Standardized test requires all test takers to answer the same questions, or a selection of questions from common bank of questions, in the same way. Also they are scored in a “standard” or consistent manner, which makes it possible to compare the relative performance of individual students or groups of students. Each state has a different name for their standardized test, for Virginia they call theirs the Standards Of Learning, SOL’s. These test are neither fair nor objective, puts pressure on the students, and it cuts off time in the school year.…

    • 1488 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Every year, mandated annual exams are administered to students, of all ages, across all 50 states. School districts, school boards and teachers use these scores evaluate student’s academic progress. Separated by state, there are different versions of standardized exams that students are required to take that cover the same basic math, science, and reading skills. Standardized testing is a symptom a disease that lead to a broken education system that is based off the performances of students on a standardized achievement test. These tests are heavily influenced by three causative factors that contribute to students' scores on standardized achievement tests: what's taught in school, an intellectual disability, and the way students learn.…

    • 1886 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    Brittany, an honors student in Atlanta, Georgia, had worked hard her entire academic career to celebrate what would be her proudest moment in high school: commencement. She wanted to walk across the stage to the flash of cameras and smiles of her family just like her classmates, and then journey off to a college in South Carolina where she had already been accepted. So she gathered her proud family members from Chicago and Washington, D.C., to come to share in her joy. Brittany watched as her classmates put on their caps and gowns, and walked across the stage to receive their diplomas. But she did not, and waited all during the day to get a last-minute waiver signed. She continued to wait through the night, but it never came. She began to realize that if she graduated, it would not be quick or easy. Her problem was that she had not passed one of four subject areas in the state’s graduation test, which students must pass to earn a regular diploma. She is not alone. Thousands of students, such as Brittany, every year do not make it across the stage at graduation due to failing these state tests. And many of them, such as Brittany, were honors students who had fulfilled all the other requirements of graduation except this one (Torres, 2010).…

    • 2417 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nebraska should not require its high school students to take an exit exam to graduate from high school. Even though exit exams make students work harder because they know this test is important and schools can identify student’s weaknesses early we should not have exit exams because it does not increase academic performance or increase students wages in states that do have them. Exit exams do not promote the skills, knowledge and habits needed for success in college or the real world. According to employers and college professors, high school graduates must be able to support arguments with evidence, analyze problems, and solve problems that have no obvious answer, conduct research, reach conclusions, and brainstorm ideas. Also skills needed are good study skills, time management and being aware of your performance.…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A new phrase has rapidly become familiar in schooling: "opt-out." Across the nation, hundreds of thousands of students are refusing to take state reading and math tests. The opinion is vary from people to people. Advocates of the opt-out test say that standardized test will result in student’s unbalanced learning and judge teachers unfairly. Opponents of opt-out test say that standardized test will close the achievement gap. In my opinion, the students should refuse to attend the standardized test.…

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Diagnostic Writing

    • 770 Words
    • 2 Pages

    If a standardized test was in the way of receiving your diploma, do you think you would pass? Students today are given a huge amount of pressure to finish high school and to achieve an education. Some people believe academic achievement will improve by requiring high school students to pass a standardized test before being awarded a diploma. However, I disagree with this argument due to more pressure being put on students, the high number of drop outs already, and the increase of drugs that could be used by students. High school is just the beginning for students and giving them an enormous struggle to move up to even bigger struggles in college can decrease academic achievement, other than try to increase it.…

    • 770 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Standardized testing is one of the most passionately debated educational topics in America. As a student within American school system, thoughts of my own are formulated on such topics. Standardized testing is a debate on whether or not they are useful in improving instruction and performance. While some believe that standardized test such as EOG (End of Grade), SAT, or ACT are great ways to strengthen a student’s instruction and performance, I. myself have to disagree for many reasons.…

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Since NCLB in 2002 saw a large rise in the use of standardized testing America’s PISA ranking actually fell from 18th in math to 31st, science and reading also fell similarly(Walker). Sadly America is raising a very unintelligent generation, who is so worried about learning how to take tests well that they forget to actually learn. We can’t really trust these large testing companies to gauge our education system’s effectiveness when they themselves have repeatedly had major issues with faulty scores on tests. Legislators from across the country should come together to not only save our country money, but to protect this country’s future, the next generation’s…

    • 766 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts,” this is an inspirational quote by Winston Churchill, which can lead as an example to all the students in the United States that have dropped out of high school. According to dosomething.org, the U.S, which had some of the highest graduation rates of any developed country, now ranks 22nd out of 27 developed countries. Stress, low self-esteem, and poor support from family members are all responsible for leading students to dropping out of high school. However, the United States have been improving in that area and they’ve been efficiently, increasing the number of students that earn a high school diploma. Ultimately, the amount of students that have dropped…

    • 1105 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Not all students will be able to comprehend and/or learn concepts as well as others. Standardized tests do not portray real-life skills. Teachers are straying from actually doing what they can to help students explore their brain’s full potential and focusing on overachieving competitors’ test scores. Schools need to focus on each individual and their natural born skills, harvest them, and allow them to grow and unravel for them to succeed in whatever field of work they choose to…

    • 1284 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Standardized testing has become the focus of modern school reform since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind law in 2002 (Evans 1). The act was designed to hold all public schools to a high standard of education, measured by the results of students’ test scores on statewide standardized tests. Not all students are good test takers, and not all careers require the ability to take traditional tests in order to be successful on the job. A significant number of students nowadays would care much about standardized tests. This is because students feel like they must worry about a test which directly affects their grades and ability to learn. Standardized tests place a heavy weight on students that can lead to stress, take up instruction timing, and students won’t be able to learn anything from them.…

    • 407 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Malcolm X

    • 947 Words
    • 4 Pages

    One of the proudest moments of life is walking across the stage receiving a high school diploma. However, approximately 1.2 million high school students fail to graduate each year. Three out of 10 tenth-grade students in American schools do not graduate. About 20 percent of the drop-outs are white or Asian while 45 percent are blacks and Hispanics (Gales). One of the biggest debates regarding the mandatory dropout age is deciding whether it should be raised or kept the same. Eleven states have set the drop out age at 17, while 19 states allow students to leave school at age 16 (Gales). This paper will show why it is beneficial to raise the age a student can make the decision to drop out of high school to 18.…

    • 947 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Standardized Testing

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages

    high school career, they should not have to take a required test to graduate. The students have the opportunity to graduate and pass classes with normal grades, the standardized tests are just causing the students stress. These tests are judging the students intelligence by one essay and a couple of math problems. They do not have enough information to judge the student. Michele Forman says, “I don't think a simple pencil-and-paper test is going to capture what students know and can do”(Demause). Students who have worked hard their whole life, with passing grades,…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Since being implemented into school curriculum more than fifty years ago, standardized testing has become the most prevalent form of comparing and ranking students across the nation and around the globe. Although standardized testing occurs in the majority of first-world countries around the world, The United States has received the brunt of public criticism for their overuse and excessive difficulty of the tests. Most American students begin state-wide or nation-wide assessments in elementary school and continue all the way through junior high and high school, culminating with perhaps two of the most well-known standardized tests, the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the American College Testing (ACT). The tests can cause severe stress and…

    • 230 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays