Negative Effects Of Standardized Testing In Schools

Bob Schaeffer, a public education director once said, You don’t make a sheep fatter by weighing them more often. (Nagourney, 2) This represents the process of Standardized Testing and one of the risks it causes; testing too often. Standardized Testing is a process where all students take the same kind of test with similar questions all addressing the same subjects and scored in a consistent way as groups or as individuals. Standardized Testing has brought nothing but negative effects to schools since its commencement. Standardized testing in schools has been around since the 1920 s starting with the SAT. There are many risks in Standardized Testing, that is why Standardized Testing should be revised due to negative effects. On the†¦show more content†¦Teachers being evaluated are similar to schools being evaluated. If a school as a whole test poorly there is a risk that they could lose students. Since there is a risk of consequences at schools, there is a pressure to save themselves at the expense of their students. Schools feel pressured by the public to perform well, often what they do is try and transfer the struggling students to other schools to try and take them out of the equation. There are programs that are put into place to help schools keep up with the standard testing curriculum, like The No Child Left Behind Act. The No Child Left Behind Act tests that judge the schools performance has the power to close schools, fire staff or turn the school, private if the school continues to struggle with overall testing scores. Schools try to save themselves so that they unforced into something that they do not want to do, for example shutting down their school. Standardized testing isn t cheap. Forty-four states and the District of Columbia currently spend over $1.7 billion dollars for these tests. (Tager 1) Title 1 schools are schools where a majority of students are low income, so the state helps pay for these schools so they can stay caught up academically. Schools pay extensive amounts of money for these tests, and 58% of public schools are Title 1 schools. Since over half of the public schools in America are Title 1, a majority of students are not able to transfer from low performing schools, leaving themShow MoreRelatedStandardized Tests : Standardized Testing963 Words   |  4 PagesOct 2015 Standardized Testing in Florida In recent years Florida’s standardized testing program has taken a turn for the worst. After doing away with the FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test) the debate has only grown due to flood of new tests being created such as the Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) or End of Course Exam (EOC). These tests are administered to test students’ abilities at the end of the school year. 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