Friday, April 15, 2016

Toxic Testing is Taking Its Toll

     I completely understand why teachers are scared and nervous about standardized testing. I think the biggest most obvious reason, is the fact that they may not be able to reach all of their students. There are those students that just refuse to learn, despite what the teacher tries to do to help them. A teacher can only do so much for these students, but a student has to put forth some effort as well. There are also students who are scared to ask for help if they need it, so for this reason they may not do well on tests because the teacher may not know they are struggling. I was a very shy student in high school, and there were a lot of times when I did not ask for help when I was struggling because I was too shy to speak up in front of the class and ask my qestions. I did not ask after class because I felt embarassed that I did not understand the material. These instances are not something teachers can help, so I can understand why they get nervous.
     Not only is this upsetting the teachers because it is tearing them down, the students are also suffering. They are missing out on great learning activites, and more enjoyable learning activities because they are having to prepare for standardized tests. All the worksheets, and standard questions are not benefiting students in my opinion. I think in order for students to retain information, they need to learn in a way they can enjoy atleast a little bit. Memorizing answers to take a test is not helpful for anything besides passing the test.

I found this link that says 15 reasons standardized testing is pointless:
http://institute4learning.com/blog/2013/02/28/15-reasons-why-standardized-tests-are-worthless-2/

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