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  • Essay / Standardized Tests: A Failure in Education - 1339

    Standardized tests assess skills in the most generally accepted academic areas. The margin of error is too great to qualify this method as effective. “High test scores are usually linked to things other than the actual quality of education students receive” (Kohn 7). “It is only recently that test results have been published in newspapers and used as the main criteria for judging children, teachers and schools. » (2) Standardized testing is a great travesty imposed on the American public school system. Politicians claim accountability is necessary. Dylan Wiliam has written that “the logic of responsibility is deceptively simple” (110). He goes on to say that "students who attend higher quality schools will (by definition) perform better than those who attend lower quality schools, so differences in the quality of schools will lead to systematic differences in outcomes between schools” (110). Yes, accountability is indeed necessary. It is needed by those who fund education (taxpayers) and the educated (students). Institutions that regulate education should be held accountable for the policies they adopt as well as the government that approved those actions. “Of the total math achievement gap among 15-year-olds in the United States in 2004, only 8 percent was attributable to the actual quality of instruction provided by the school; science achievement is similar” (111 ). It is an indictment of the American school system, which highlights that standardized tests are in fact inaccurate and unnecessary. These facts are also linked to the poor quality of standardized tests and directly to the poor quality of education received in our public school. systems. These tests ...... middle of paper ...... are progressing there, which means that we too, as a nation, must be progressive in the way we educate ourselves. There is no single answer to this country's educational problems, but rest assured that the right answers do not lie in standardized tests. Works Cited Kohn, Alfie. “The Case Against Standardized Testing: Raising Scores, Ruining Schools.” » New Hampshire: Heinemann, 2000. Print. Ravitch, Diane. “Start a revolution in standards and assessments.” Phi Delta Kappan 74.10 (1993): 767. Summaries on Educational Administration. Internet. November 22, 2011. Solley, Bobbie A. “On Standardized Testing: A CIRA Position Paper.” Childhood Education 84.1 (2007): 31-37. Premier Academic Research. Internet. November 27, 2011. William, Dylan. “Standardized Testing and School Accountability.” » Educational Psychologist 45.2 (2010): 107-122. Academic Search Premier Web.. 2011.