Hey everyone! I'm writing a paper for my Sociology of Education class and just wanted to know your opinions concerning standardized testing. Is it good or bad? How effective is it? And anything else you want to add would be great.\n\nThanks
215525
I feel very suspicious about it. Everyone of my age can see that standards of education are lower than they were forty years ago: children can barely read, write or do arithmetic, let alone read a map, name a handful of British heroes or whistle a few bars of a piece of classical music. Yet the results of all the tests, from the ones that five year olds have to do right up to the A levels, go up and up and up,  rising relentlessly. I believe that the tests are falsified.
605840
1. Yes.\n2. Regardless of a child's family background, finding and building that child's full potential will create more fully productive adults, and will find more of those "diamonds in the rough." Equal funding creates better chances for those from poverty areas to access the instruction and materials they need to gain the skills to become part of the productive work force.\n3. Absolutely it affects education. Lowered funding means increased class sizes and less materials to work with. The top two in-classroom variables for student success are student to teacher ratios (lower being better), and an intelligent and well-trained teacher. (The top overall variable being student economic class background).\n4. Statewide tests are a joke. They are in place for two reasons... the first being that they are a money-making industry with strong lobbyists, and the second being that the Bush administration wants to scapegoat teachers rather than being straightforward about wanting to cut Education out of the Federal budget (it isn't a Constitutionally defined federal area, anyway). \n\nTrue accountability can be easily implemented through the following steps:\n1. students pass at 80% (B-average), not 60% (D-average), and passing to the next grade must be documented and justified, rather than having to justify retention (students being retained more than once in their school careers should be placed with additional supports, such as remedial classes with even smaller teacher-student ratios, and/or special education supports)\n2. student achievement documented through portfolios demonstrating pre- and post-instruction work and tests, addressing the state standards and benchmarks. The tests can be the unit tests the teachers are using anyway already.\n3. Accountability for attendance (excepting severe health issues...requiring special education and homebound instruction) and behavior (excepting Emotional disorders requiring special education and possible alternative placements) should be held entirely by the parents, not the schools. Right now, schools are held entirely accountable for both, and can lose AYP for these issues.\n4. All the funding and staffing by states currently used for state testing, should be placed into independent auditors of student portfolios on a random sampling basis.\n5. If the Bush administration wants to end Federal funding for Education, bite the bullet and have the courage to say so, with a plan to ease Federal control back to total state control over a 5 year period, with a direct transfer of federal income taxation to state income taxation percentages to cover the change. Federal taxation can be graually increased again, anyway.\n\nSorry, that's to logical and simple.
220877
No Child Left Behind is FULL OF IT!!!\n\nIt is unfair to students (how fair would it be to go to the hospital and inform the staff there that every patient, including those in the ICU, will have to run the New York City Marthon in less than 6 months or the hospital will be closed down and the staff won't be able to find jobs elsewhere?), makes teachers and schools the scapegoat for variables out of their control such as parenting issues (student attendance, etc.), and totally ignores most Special Education and ELL best practices research.\n\nAlso, increased testing time reduces instructional time (both the "big" state testing done in the spring, and the constant "data collection" efforts by districts using various assessment instruments in an attempt to provide alternative data if the kids fail state testing).\n\nThe "highly qualified" provisions place burden of proof for knowledge and skills on districts and teachers rather than on teacher prep programs. You would think that the college diploma (and continuing professional development certificates) would be proof of appropriate professional training. If incompetent teachers are there, it is because college programs failed to screen them properly. \n\nThe top cause of teacher burnout is paperwork/administrative stress, not the students. NCLB increases paperwork and administrative demands on the teachers.\n\nSchool administrators are finding their hands tied in regards to building discipline, because NCLB places AYP in jeapordy if there are "too many" office referrals and discipline actions...and the real troublemakers are quick to notice this and abuse it.\n\nWell, I could go on with more examples, but you get the idea.
358042
It is a good way of checking how well we are educating our children.  If we can see they cannot spell the word Standardized, for example, we know there is a problem, and can take steps to address the problem.  If we don't have standards, we aren't aware of the problem until it's too late.  When you goto the market, do you just pick up pieces of fruit at random?  or do you check for bruises, insects etc.  Standards insure quality.
580027
All standardized tests suck. Unless you do really brilliantly on them, then they are wonderful.
490303
There was a test called the "Gate" test and we all took it in first grade.  After that test my two best friends would leave the school we attended for "accelerated" learning  2-3 days of the week and I was stuck at school without them. \n\nBy the time I was in 6th grade I was getting in a lot of fights and suspended from school for hitting a teacher.  They of course sent me to the school counselor who opened my records and said, "why didn't you attend the Gate program?  You got the highest scores in our district!"  I went on to get expelled from 2 High Schools, a Boarding School and even 2 Projects.\n\nMom and Dad never told me about the letter they got about passing the Gate exam.  They called the school back in first grade and said they didn't want their son to be "different" from the other kids.\n\nWhat were my dreams?  To be a Criminal... I won't go into detail, but not one stopped me.  Thankfully I learned from my mistakes before I ever got caught, I learned that being the tough guy left you with a dirty conscience... so now I'm serving in the military trying to repay my good luck in service to this country.\n\nCan't wait to get out, and just be "different!" =P\n\nMom and Dad... it's not your fault, but I can't help but wonder what might have been.\n\n*ADDED* A  few of my boys and I jam on Sundays... it's what we do instead of church, since it's the only time we are all off together when we are deployed here.
341924
Excellent!\n\nPeople are all for special perks and programs until it directly effects them in a negative way.\n\nHere's how you explain it to the young college crowd: How about if we take the average grade for the class and give that to everyone regardless of whether or not they studied, did their homework, or even showed up for class? Then, black and Hispanic students get a 10% bonus for simply being black. Do you think that's fair?\n\nI haven't heard one logical argument from any one of them.
623127
No child left behind. Too much emphasis on test scores and not on education. Schools will prepare for these standardized tests for weeks
425606
I don't know what kind of random hits your teacher is making on the students.  Perhaps you can't get past that?  I went to three universities and graduated with a 4.0 GPA in all.  The key to my good grades was my note taking.  I took amazing notes and then when I got home, I went through them and outlined my notes making more sense of them.  By the time I got through outlining and making a really nice bunch of note pages, I knew the material.  It helps to not be freaked out by tests as well.  They never bothered me.  You either know it or you don't.  I think trying to study at the last minute outside the classroom door is foolish.  All that can do is get you all nervous and confused.  Even being around other students who are panicking over their last minute studying will have a negative effect on you.  I stayed away from the classroom and those students until the very last minute and didn't crack a book before the test.  Like I said, "If I didn't know it when I got there, I wasn't going to learn it in 5 minutes!"  I also helped other students study for their exams (the same ones I was taking) and this also solidified the information in my brain.  In that case, you give and you get something in return.  If there was an area which was extremely difficult to grasp onto, I stayed after class and talked to the instructor or made use of the computer programs available for that particular subject.  Good grades take hard work.  Your grades to date are not to be sneezed at, so don't be so hard on yourself.
13830
If you don't want to ask your teacher for help (i think that'll be the best solution) you can ask one of your classmates who get a good grade in LA. If your worried about the tests, is there a certain format that he usually uses? For example, my teacher would usually quiz us on the story and the vocabulary words. If there is a certain format, or something that he'd usually put on the test, study those things.
552311
Is there a place for spec.ed. students in to days world?\n\nWhat happens to students who live in gang infested area are they leave school?\n\nHow can a teacher teach the gifted student and the below level  grade students in the same class. especially when certain standards are expected?
467537
Gee, the last time I saw that on the homework list, it wasn't nearly so well worded.  I guess I'm supposed to be lured into answering this because it's so polite and insightful.  Yet, you see, I'm in a, ummm,  a double-bond here.  1)  I don't like doing people's homework - it's unethical, and 2)  How do THEY learn the material?\n\nAnyone out there got additional comments?
561958
I taught in a public school for three years.  The "powers that be" actually told me to stop grading for grammatical and spelling errors, saying all of my students would fail.  That is a travesty.  From my perspective as a teacher, ignorance (which is what I believe you are really asking) is on the rise.  Despite compulsory education, it almost appears to me that we are reverting to a 19th century-like model with an educated few and masses of ignorance.
507177
Any testing is good I feel.  i was not good at tests but maybe if i got them regular in primary school I may have not been too concerned about them.\n\nI did not like secondary school, it was a waste of time.  If you want your child to have a good education then get a tutor or send them to a private school.\n\nWhy oh why did I get country dancing, basketball, indoor hockey for Physical Education in Glasgow.  Nobody in the history of the school has ever became a professional at any of these disciplines.\n\nIn addition music class.  No professional musicians either.  We did have a couple of footballers.  One of which Andy Gray however when I was there, the teachers had a pay dispute and no school team cos they didn't get paid enough overtime. \n\nI wonder if at their interview they made that clear to the panel the the children's development meant nothing when money was involved.
473315
You are posing timeless questions, the sort that have been asked in one way or another by every generation.  It is the way of the world and of life that the young are supposed to be idealistic and question what goes on around them and in their lives.  Continue to question.  You may not find all the answers, but you will learn a great deal along the way.\n\nSociety imposes certain ways and measures in order to evaluate progress.  Different societies do this in different ways.  Right now ours is focused very much on test scores, but all things in education are cyclical.  This trend has been here before, disappeared, and came back.  I believe these trends tend to run in about 30 year cycles, and you just happen to be in school during the "testing" trend.  Teenagers before you had to deal with other trends, as will those after you.  And in a generation or two the testing trend will come round again.\n\nDon't despair.  From what you have written, I think you are going places and will do well.\n\nHere is a piece of writing I have read often over the years when I feel a bit discouraged about things.  I hope you find it at least thought provoking.  Best of luck.
654946
I feel for people who have a "cheating" mindset.  They say their only goal is to pass and succeed.  Yet they do not realize that they can have no self-worth in the process, because their success depends on the talents and abilities of others.\n\nSecond, whether or not other people have cheated and appear to have been successful in the process is beside the point.  The question is whether I will stoop to their level, or whether I will have integrity.  "What do you expect me to do?"  Honesty is an option, because a grade of "A" means nothing if it was not earned.\n\nThe problem we are running into--the reason that so many states are finding problems with their education systems--where high school students graduate but cannot read or do basic mathematics--is because we are focused on passing and not learning.  And this is going to catch up with us.  For the individuals who cheat, they will ultimately cheat themselves out of success.  For us as a nation, we will find ourselves paying the consequences for this in the near future, I fear.\n\nThe gap between the "haves" and the "have nots" is widening.  There are fewer and fewer who are learning and applying themselves--and as that number continues to shrink, there will be no foundation left.  Those who "have not" understanding but have only focused on getting the passing grade are ultimately hurting us all.\n\nGeez, now you got me on my soap box!!!
135900
in Omaha there is a movement to seperate the schools back along racial/ethnic lines under the theory that students will learn better amongst people more like them i guess. I dont really think this is a good idea because as history has shown us, seperate but equal really does not hold much water as a idea. It is ulitmately up to you if you feel the segregation is a healthy practice, however the action is very controversial constitutionally because it is in seemingly fairly obvious violation of the brown v board of education of topeka case.