Thursday, February 21, 2008
Standardized Tests
More and more states are moving toward standardized tests as a way to show that students have the skills necessary to graduate from high school. Some states, including New Jersey, have or are experimenting with having standardized assessments in other areas: science, social studies, the arts, etc. Identify the pros AND cons of having these tests as a graduation requirement.
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There are both pros and cons to having standardized testing in states. Some cons of standardized testing are that some kids just don't test well. Personally i know i don't test well however i do know the material that is current at the time. Also it lowers the confidence of some students because if they don't know what they are being asked they will think that they are stupid, when they are really not. Pros of the test are that the student will be able to see where they stand with the knowledge that they have gained. Also for students who are very intelligent it will allow the colleges to see that they are very knowledgeable in a variety of subjects. All of these will help the students prepare for subjects they are weak in and need to improve in. That way, they will be able to pass high school with higher grades can be that much better then the next applicant to apply to a college.
The test that we have now to gradate is based mostly on reading and writing and math. These are the subjects that a person basically can not function in our current society without. But adding in art history and science doesn’t seem fare. They could be added as an extra part of that test that doesn’t count in to the student’s graduation, but shows where the student stands on such topics. Its not fare because some students just cant do anything in the arts department and some just don’t get science, the only one that seems fare would be history. And it should be the history that was taught in the student’s high school career. But if history was adopted as another testing subject I don’t think it should be a major part of the test because it’s not something that a graduate would have to rely on and use every day like math and English.
I think there are both pros and cons to having standardize tests as a way to show that students have the necessary skills to graduate from high school. The pros would be that students would know what areas they need to improve in and would be able to work on that. They would also see where they excelled and this might help them choose a future field of study. The cons to having a standardized test would be that some students don't test well. A test might not be a true assessment of their knowledge. Some people suffer from test anxiety and others just don't test well at all. For these students this might be very unfair.
I believe that standardized testing has both pros and cons to being one of the high school graduation requirements. The pros to having standardize testing would be to show the students their high points and low points. Therefore, they can work on their skills that need to be improved. Some cons to having to take these tests would be that some students have poor test taking skills, and may know the material but cannot understand the questions being asked. This gives an inaccurate judgement on the students intelligence.
The pros are that it tells the student that they have learned well and that they have acomplished their goal to graduate high school. Parents would be happy to see their child do well. The con is that a lot of students hate standardized tests. They do not being put in a room for four hours to take a test that they do not reallly care that much about. Theres not that much to test a person on in the arts because its mostly used during the English section. I would not mind to see a history section on it. Depending on what type of science i also would not mind having that on the standardized tests. As long as its not bio or physics because i did/am not doing that well in those subjects.
I think that we should not have to pass a standardized test to pass high school. Although it does show that you know how to use what you have learned. Many people are just bad test takers. So this is quite unfair to expect them to take a timed test in order to pass highschool so they can have a furute. It will let people know where they stand but that should not stop them from graduating. If they want to take it a step further to improve that should be up to them not the state.
A pro would be having more options in the test to excel at. A student may not be great in the certain subjects given on the standardized test but if given more subjects the student might have a better chance because of a wider range of knowledges. If a student is not great in any subject then they will have a problem with the testing. Along with adding on more subjects will make the student study a wider randge of information than before which therefore puts more pressure on the student to succeed. Adding subjects can help a student greatly or hurt their chances even more.
As far as i know the HSPAs are only math and english. these 2 are obviously the most important for life but there not the easiest of subjects for most kids. the obvious pros are that it would give kids a better chance at a good score on these tests overall. history or "social studies" is my best subject granted i have a D in it (my work ethic) i would do so much better on these tests if they had history questions. a con would be, maybe theres to many subjects for kids to handle in 3 straight hours of testing.
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