Sample essay topic, essay writing: Standardized Tests - 576 words

Standardized tests are very common throughout the United States. They are used to measure students' academic performances in school. These tests vary from state to state in all grade levels. However, these tests are believed to be biased towards those students who come from higher-class neighborhoods, simply because they have more educational resources. "The absence of standards virtually guarantees stratified resources and access to knowledge, based upon income, color of skin, and the community and neighborhood in which one lives" (French, 2003).

The resources in the suburban areas differ from those in the urban areas, because of the gap within the difference of incomes. Families living in suburban neighborhoods have a bigger income, which enables them to have more resources than those living in urban neighborhoods. Most educational resources come from taxes, which plays a big part in the gap between urban and suburban neighborhoods. This gap causes a disadvantage to those individuals living in lower class neighborhoods, because they do not see or have as many resources as those living in the suburbs. Because of the lack of resources that are provided to those living in the lower-class neighborhoods they are not as prepared for the standardized tests as their higher-class counterparts

These standardized tests are seeing new standards every couple of years or so. Some of the new standards include, students receiving a certain score in the tested subject areas in order to refrain from failing and being retained in the same grade, or even going to summer school just to be promoted. Are these standards helping or hurting? It is hard to say whether these tests are efficient in assessing a student's knowledge. There have been studies done that shows how students perform contributes to a number of factors. Students are individuals just as adults and can easily slip up on a test, just as many adults have done because of numerous reasons. They suffer from stress, lack of sleep, how they are feeling, whether they ate, and many other reasons. "These influences most dramatically affect low-income students and students of color" (French, 2003).

From the rise of immigration there have been tests (IQ and Stanford-Binet) that were used to sort and track students based on race and income. According to a study it has been concluded that these tests will continue to hinder the ability of Black and Latino students to graduate from high school (Orfield and Wald, 2000; Haney, 1999; McNeil, 2000). These tests have been found to decrease choices in the classroom, motivation to learn, and extent to where instruction is more teacher-centered rather than student-engaged (French, 2003). What can be done to solve this problem? The standardized system, which is in place, weakens the idea of building schools that are both admirable and fair. It is also important to recognize that teachers evaluate students regularly as part of their on-going teaching.

The challenge is to match assessment that is integrated into classroom instruction, and is focused primarily on helping individual children, with assessment that provides school - and district-wide information being demanded by local and state officials or various community forces. Standardized testing is a way of assessing, evaluating, and measuring students' achievements in school. Other ways of assessing nationally should be implemented to address the inequities that are based on based on the color of skin, income, and the community in which one lives. French, Dan. "A New Vision of Authentic Assessment to Overcome the Flaws in High Stakes Testing." Middle School Journal (September 2003): 2-11.

Research paper and essay writing, free essay topics, sample works Standardized Tests

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