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American Public University *
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502
Subject
Philosophy
Date
Apr 3, 2024
Type
docx
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3
Uploaded by Wendigo54
Standardized tests are done where we work, and in our schools, but our debate is going to
take a jump into the advantages and disadvantages world. Just like a school’s standardized tests, tests in the workplace run in a parallel fashion. Therefore, when I argue about testing in schools, I will also be referring to the workplace, for many employees of companies who have tests in their training and development curriculum. After looking at some schools who have supplied an argument about standardized testing, it may explain why there are benefits to them. Some of the advantages to standardized testing allows for some important information about the students. First, the ability to see if the student is learning and applying what they have learned in a way to evaluate if the school itself is growing the student in a positive manner. What
teachers learn from the testing they are able to pinpoint areas of learning concern for each student (Nixon, n.d.). Furthermore, research involving teachers and how they prepare for standardized testing, proved to be quite interesting. The research involved teachers with a mean teaching experience of fifteen years. What the teachers did, was include lessons into their teaching curriculum for the year. Therefore, some of the teachers work to add some form of the standardized testing in their preparation of lessons. This gets the students to get some type of exposure to the tests they will be taking later in the school year (Klein, Zevenbergen, & Brown, 2006). Finally, the largest and most important factor for having standardized testing, is the parents will know how their child has performed, and the level of learning they have achieved. This is important, for parents who have options to which school in a school district the child can attend. For example, the school district where I live. When my son was in elementary school, we moved him into another school, mainly for the person who was performing his speech therapy. He had spent a year with the teacher, then we moved to another state for a year, only to return to
the same city, but in a different elementary school zone. We were able to transfer him back to the
school, he was originally in, returning to a teacher he was familiar with. With every advantage, there are disadvantages. This is the same with standardized testing. Some of the disadvantages are the stresses put on teachers and students, and the competition it creates between schools and school districts (Pros & cons of standardized tests, 2014). One major topic that tends to come up at least once a year, if not many times a year. That topic is how standardized tests do not allow for racial disparities. Research done in 2010 explored the racial disparities in the state of Virginia. Furthermore, they identified gifted students
over students having a disciplinary problem. Another fact about the black students are they still make up the largest group of minority students. However, the researchers emphasized the suspended or expelled percentages of black versus white students. In the end, there were not suggestions to improve the inequality to standardized testing, between the races, other than improved resources for districts with a majority of minority students (Brunn-Bevel & Byrd, 2015). Will his help or not? It can only be seen through a blind eye, and not through a political lens, which makes most school districts become victims of not Jim Crow laws, but of the grandstanding and tug-a-war from politicians. NCLB (No Child Left Behind Act) is one way the government is trying to boost test scores. However, what has happened in some school districts, is the administrators were cheating
on the testing and analysis of the testing, increasing the success of the testing. In reality the students were not doing any better, or are doing worse in some cases. The only way to combat this, is what was explained in the Brunn-Bevel and Byrd research, schools are given a random number, where only a small group knows the actual location of the school district. The issue with
this, is the ability of the group who knows the district that corresponds with the number, is not used for political or greed purposes. References
Brunn-Bevel, R. J., & Byrd, W. C. (2015). The foundation of racial disparities in the standardized testing era. Humanity & Society, 39(4), 419-448. doi:10.1177/0160597615603750
Klein, A., Zevenbergen, A. A., & Brown, N. (2006). Managing standardized testing in today's schools. The Journal of Educational Thought, 40(2), 145-157. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/docview/213795793/fulltextPDF/
97C9E71B28484C7BPQ/1?accountid=8289
Nixon, B. (n.d.). The pros and cons of standardized testing. Retrieved from Whitby School.
Pros & cons of standardized tests. (2014, Oct 29). Retrieved from Oxford Learning: https://www.oxfordlearning.com/pros-cons-of-standardized-tests/
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