Monday, April 28, 2014
Standardized Testing
Texas has recently switched to a new form of standardized testing, State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR). The new STAAR test replaced the outdated TAKS test, but is not any better than its predecessor. New legislation passed in 2013 was supposed to limit the number of standardized tests students would have to take each year, but those limits did not effect the preparation for them. Students still have to take a mid-year benchmark test to assess where they are at and they receive multiple packets with practice problems on them to prepare for a practice test. Standardized testing is time consuming and ineffective. Teachers are forced to change their curriculum to fit the needs of the government test, instead of teaching more closely to the course's actual curriculum. Instead of taking a weekly spelling test, elementary students now have to go through "STAAR boot camp". Students are losing out on proper education by having to focus on passing just one test per class every year. Even though Texas legislators reduced standardized testing just last year, they need to limit it more and limit the amount of preparation work that is also required for those tests.
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I agree, standardized testing can be very stressful. You not only have the pressure of studying but also, if you do not pass that test you do not pass to the next level. I remember taking such test in high school and all year long all teachers would talk about were these test and how important they were. Juniors in high school have to pass these test in order to graduate which is not bad because a diploma shouldn't just be handed to them, they have to earn it, But maybe instead of taking benchmarks and the standardized test every single year, it can be taken only a year before to see where the student is at and give them the help they need to succeed once the real test comes along.
ReplyDeleteAlso, not all the students are good with taking tests, myself personally I can study for weeks and memorize everything but once I'm there with the test in front of me, I completely forget everything. I'm not I wasn't the only student like that.
There has to be an another way that this situation can be handled because these test are not only changing by name also they are getting tougher.
I agree that standardized tests have become too prominent in Texas schools. In my opinion, they do not gauge a student's knowledge, only how well they can take a test. Also, the original purpose of standardized testing was to see how the states stacked up against one another. However, the tests are different in every state so there is no way to compare the knowledge levels across state lines. There should be one test every year that is the same for every state, or no test at all. I wrote a blog about this for my first editorial and I believe that Texas schools' performance should be based on how many students go to college, not on a yearly test. Ideally, this would create a better society in Texas and possibly bring our state to the top of American education.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Hunters argument about the new form of standardized testing, is not working out so much like they thought it would. Hunter argues about how the new procedure STAAR test replaced TASK test but it isn't any better. With this new procedure it was supposed to help limit all the number of standardized tests the students had to take each year but it did not help at all. Students are still in need of taking this test, like the mid-year benchmark test. I agree with hunter on the fact that all this standardized test take time away from students and teachers. Students are losing out on education because they have to worry about passing one exam per class each year. Hunter gives a great example of this, elementary students instead of having a weekly spelling test or something similar to this they now have STAAR boot camp to help them prepare for the test. I also have a personal experience from my little brothers, when they had to take it they spend about two week I believe preparing for this and when it came to the day they still didn't feel confident about it. They talked about all the time it was taking away from them, and also said they felt it was worst than the TASK test.
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