When it comes to the education system in our country, I have a lot problems with it but nothing frustrates me more than standardized testing. My stance against standardized tests started after taking the SAT and ACT to get into college. I walked out of both of those and asked myself "What was the point of that?" I've been taking AP and Honors classes for the past three years, why am I now being even further tested on it. Why aren't my good grades in my classes enough to prove I'm good enough for college?
The further in my education I get, the more I disagree standardized testing. We've learned quite a bit about multiple intelligences. Multiple intelligences is not something that was discovered recently, researchers and educators have known about it for years. So my question is why are we still putting such emphasis on standardized testing when we are fully aware that we don't all learn the same way. If we don't learn the same way, then we don't all test the same way either. I truly believe there has got to be a better way to test someone's intelligence that doesn't involve them taking tests that are costly and timely.
This student at Lewis and Clark College feels similarly and has taken a stance against standardized testing as well https://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2013/09/30/a-student-says-no-to-standardized-testing/. He makes many good points and puts his opinion of standardized testing in a great perspective.
You bring up an interesting point...why aren't your grades good enough? Schools vary, as you know, by difficulty, subject matter covered, etc. Who is to say that your A in AP Bio was as hard to achieve as my B in a college preparatory Bio? There has to be some test across the board that gives everyone a test on basic intelligence and ability because grades alone have too many variables to be much of an indicator of student abilities.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Angela. There really is a lot of possible variables in achieving an A in a class. Just because you got a good grade in a class, doesn't mean you understand the material. I mean there are some classes that put a lot of emphasis on completion of homework assignments and participation rather than with tests scores.
DeleteWhile I also don't like taking standardized test, I think there is a meaningful purpose to them. Unfortunately, we live in a society that needs to see to believe. We want numbers and statistics to show what level of intelligence students fall into. We also like to compare, whether it's with other schools or other countries.