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Reblog

F) Testing Action Plan The testing action plan is currently in place to review current and future standardized tests. The U.S. Department of Education states “In too many schools, there is unnecessary testing and not enough clarity of purpose applied to the task of assessing students, consuming too much instructional time and creating undue stress for educators and students. The Administration bears some of the responsibility for this, and we are committed to being part of the solution.”  This is the one of the few parts that is right with testing action plan. Finally the government is realizing that over testing does not help our education system, it pulls it down, and frankly it stresses out students and teachers. Also, now that students are able to opt-out of these standardized tests, it is a waste of money for schools to be paying for these tests that many students will over throw and opt-out of. The government needs to reform and their plan seems clear but needs to go through with their actions: 1.     Worth Taking - Schools need to establish if the efforts and money that goes into these tests are worth it, or if it will be taking valuable time away from students in all classes 2. High Quality - Provides an accurate measure of student growth, an accurate measure of student achievement, covers the full range of the relevant state standards, and demonstrates applications of knowledge 3. Time-limited - Is there enough time to prepare and review for these standardized tests. Some tests don’t have current information students are learning which forces teachers and students to cram in other lessons that wont help them within the school year 4. Fair – and Supportive of Fairness – in Equity in Educational Opportunity -Tests should be and supportive for all students. Not too difficult or easy and should be accessible for all students, and students with disabilities. Are these tests being given state and nation wide- if not how can we accommodate the students to help them prepare and why it is required. These actions and steps are the four main points that need to be put into action.

Response:

In this blog post by another student she discusses and explains the current testing action plan that is in place today. This action plan is in direct relevance to my topic question should there be standardized testing. The plan that is instill for standardized testing seems like it would be a positive one. The 4 principles of this plan is are they worth taking, high quality, time-limited, and are they fair. these four things need to go into direct consideration when thinking if there should be standardized testing. So to determine this you have to think if the tests are worth taking. We have come to a point where it needs to be decided if the money and efforts put towards the testing is worth it or are we wasting valuable time. The next principle evaluated is the quality. The test should be a high quality test that shows accurate progression. They should measure student growth accurately and cover the full range of skills and topics the students need to be properly educated. Then the aspect of time comes into play. Is there enough time for students to take and prepare for the test properly? Then also is there to much time in general spent on the tests. The last principle is the fairness. The standardized tests need to be fair for all students and reach the proper line of easy and hard.

When thinking of a response to should there be standardized testing? These four principles in the action plan in effect for testing are very key. Whether you think of getting rid of standardized testing or fully implementing it these four aspects should be taken into consideration. This plan needs to be evaluated and analyzed to determine if this plan is effective. If this plan is effective then there's no need to change it, but if it is not properly working maybe we should look into other options.

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Standardized Testing Costs States $1.7 Billion A Year, Study Finds

What is one thing whether we like it or not that our world today revolves around? The thing that probably popped into your head is money. The world revolves around money and everyone wants some of it. Well how does money relate to standardized testing you might ask. Something that should be taken into consideration is how much does standardized testing cost.

In 2012 per The Huffington post a study finds that the Standardized testing industry costs states 1.7 billion a year. On November 29, 2012 after a chunk of research shows there were plenty of articles also supporting these numbers supported. In the article Standardized Testing Costs States 1.7 Billion A Year, Study finds the study used was from the Washington based Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution. The spending was based off 44 states and the District of Columbia and those all reached the number of 669 million and after the other states are considered the number of 1.7 billion was reached. Each test has a different cost for each state. For example, New York is $7 per student, Oregon is $13, Georgia ($14) are the lower sates. Then the higher costing states such as Hawaii reaches up to $105 and the District of Columbia reaches $114. These numbers vary quite a bit all over the country, but the main point is the money it is costing.

Now, what is the point of explaining this article to you? Well after reading these posts you have been shown ideas all revolving around the question of should there be standardized testing. so here is another idea to take into consideration about your opinion on the topic. Is standardized testing worth 1.7 billion dollars in our country. Is our education system getting 1.7 billion dollars of production from these tests? The number 1.7 billion is a huge payout and very few people have that money. Take into consideration could that budget be reduced and then there is money to budget into other things. One idea that strongly crosses my mind and needs to be thought about is finding another strategy. There must be a way to find a successful strategy that creates educational progression through the students without it costing 1.7 billion dollars. I am all for putting money into our education system because that is one of the most important things within society, but is a test worth 1.7 billion dollars?

Click here to read the article.

The Huffington Post is an online news resource “Standardized Testing Costs States 1.7 Billion A Year, Study finds November 29, 2012″ claims that the standardized testing is costing the states 1.7 billion dollars a year. A study done by Washington-based Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution calculates 44 states costs 669 million and after calculation the other states the total reaches 1.7 billion. The Authors purpose is to inform you on the price that standardized testing is costing our country. Because of the informative style the author is directing this to the general audience who has no prior knowledge of the price of standardized testing.

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No Child Left Behind

Standardized testing has been the topic of discussion and the question of whether we should even have this system of testing or not. Another idea to think about is what caused the standardized testing and or why did it turn into such an educational controversy. Well this is very simple to ex plain. George W. Bush in 2002 installed the No Child Left behind policy with in American Education. The No Child Left Behind policy focused on a few key areas. They focused on standards and testing, reporting results, adequate yearly progress and accountability, and an independent benchmark. What do all these really mean? Now the states have the power to instill their own state testing and they will use the results to figure out the progress or educational capability of each student on a yearly basis. If you look at this website it goes into deep detail about this policy (click here).   Now whether I agree with this policy or not is the question. I do agree with a policy called no child left behind, but not the way America is doing it. They placed this policy into education to help better the kids and give them the best opportunity to improve, learn, and graduate from school. One of the only things that appears to come out of this policy is standardized testing. I believe the focused should have certainly been taken off the testing, yearly progress, accountability. All these are just smart sounding words and ideas that take the focus off the students and we focus on testing. What should be our focus? The students getting a quality education should be the main focus and I know our country is trying to do that, but maybe we need a few more ideas other than a policy that focuses.

Specific definition:

No Child Left Behind Act:The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which passed Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support in 2001 and was signed into law by President George W. Bush on Jan. 8, 2002, is the name for the most recent update to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. The NCLB law­—which grew out of concern that the American education system was no longer internationally competitive­­—significantly increased the federal role in holding schools responsible for the academic progress of all students. And it put a special focus on ensuring that states and schools boost the performance of certain groups of students, such as English-language learners, students in special education, and poor and minority children, whose achievement, on average, trails their peers. States did not have to comply with the new requirements, but if they didn’t, they risked losing federal Title I money. (source)

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A little bit of Controversy

This post will explain to you three controversies that are very important to the world of standardized testing. There are so many more than three controversies, but we will go into depth with three. The first controversy and major argument is a very simple but an important one. Is it improvement. That’s the key to really anything in life. People are always trying to improve and the question is being standardized tests allowing us to improve as society in education. The debate is very difficult because you have studies showing improvement, but then there's studies that show no improvement who has the right answer? That is part of the controversy. The next controversy is also very serious. Are the students taking the testing serious? On a personal experience when I was younger everyone took the testing serious, but as you get older most students in my school did not take it serious. This could certainly show an in accurate representation of the academic achievements. This makes a big difference if kids are taking it serious because then it is just a big waste of time. Then people believe the children do take it serious so once again were put up in a pretty big controversy. The next controversy that is another serious issue. The question is being these tests preparing the children for college and ultimately the real world or can we find an alternative route that would find more success. This issue is very important because if it is not properly preparing students once again it’s a waste of time, money, and it sets us back as a society. These three issue are very important to standardized testing. There are so many more issues, but these are three that really stick out and I think it's important to recognized them. I also believe the problem is we are too busy arguing over all these issues instead of fixing them.

If you take a look at this reading it has a lot of great material to look at that will help better understand the topic. (click here)

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Theory of Standardized Testing

After Focusing on the first two post I realized I focused towards the negativity of standardized testing. This post will allow you to transfer your thoughts in the other direction. This entry will revolve around a question. The question that I will be analyzing is why is there standardized testing? I think that it is very important before moving on in this blog that you have the ideas towards why we even have standardized testing. Well the testing comes from early Chinese culture and "In 1905 French psychologist Alfred Binet began developing a standardized test of intelligence, work that would eventually be incorporated into a version of the modern IQ test" (source) The tests were originally used to test military men to pick the correct service jobs. There's a short history on where the tests originated or how they originated, but why is there standardized testing? The concepts of cognitive development and objectivity are explored preparatory to a discussion of a suitable theory of development to be used as the foundation for developmentally-based standardized tests. It is hypothesized that Piagetian theory is the most appropriate basis for such tests and two possible approaches for constructing Piagetian-based standardized instruments are presented. (source) The idea of this developmental theory is to have desirable change in society and they do this by using the standardized testing and in hand goes which is mentioned the Piagetian theory which has four developmental stages. These four stages go straight into the process of standardized testing in the aspect of preparing for the test, practicing, and having a formal written test. The idea of all this to simplify it is to have the students' progress through out there schooling and ultimately develop into a reasonable person in society. Now why do I think there is standardized testing? I think there is this big epidemic of the testing all over the country because of the government. I believe we have no other solution to education. I am not saying if it is working for our society or not. The government instills and allows the state to have their standardized tests because it’s the easiest way to approach education. If you look at everything at a large scale the testing makes evaluating scores, results, and progress of schools easiest because of how many students are in our country. So, in a professional and academic look at why we have standardized testing is because of the developmental theory and Piagetian Theory which do have their evidence and reason. Then what's my opinion, well I think it’s the easiest root for our country to pursue education and that’s why we are pushing it so hard. Then also our government has no other solution towards education. Now after reading this and understanding why there even is standardized testing take this into consideration when examining my blog question should we have standardized testing?

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Parents all over U.S. 'opting out' of standardized student testing

This post will revolve around an article from CNN that relates to the question should there be standardized testing? click here to read the article. This article will help expose you too some of the thoughts and ideas have been going around the country. The article "Parents all over the U.S. opting out of standardized student testing" shows a good side of parental opinion in the state of New York. Towards the end of the school year of 2015 parents in the state of New York start to express their opinion to standardized testing. Some parents take the Opt out way of dealing with the controversy of standardized testing. Some parents decide to not have their children take the tests at all. There are mass amounts of people taking on this idea. The New York State Allies for Public Education reports that over 156,000 students missed the states English exam. There were only 50% of schools that reported their numbers meaning there could have been a lot more. There were 1.1 million students from grades 3-8 in 2015 in New York and a projected 14% did not take the tests. These numbers show that parents are acting and are getting sick of these standardized tests. The school boards and government argue that these tests give them a set of information that allows parents and teachers to see where the students are at. The say that parents choosing to opt out and not take the tests are just hurting the children. The most important thing is to think about the children and do what's best for them. There appears to be plenty of parents not having their students take the state testing's all over the country. In just the year of 2015 there was a giant cheating scandal in Atlanta. In Indiana, the super Intendant of the years says that children who choose not to take the test could be home schooled. In New Jersey law makers approved a law that allows students alternate activities. This shows that although there is mass amounts of controversy towards the testing some states are trying to compromise. Compromise is a key aspect to solve any sort of issue in society. This article corresponds perfectly with my research question. For the first time, you can truly see the controversy in this topic. When children and our youth are missing education because of this testing, the problem needs to be fixed. This article allows you to open your eyes and start to take your own opinion on this topic.

Rhetorical Précis

P1: With approximately 1.1 million students eligible to take the tests in grades 3-8 in New York, that means at least 14% of students are projected to sit out this year.

Thesis: Parents are opting students out of standardized testing all over the country.

Here is a chart that shows an example of students opting out. (source)

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This post will discuss a personal experience that I have had with these standardized tests taking. The question of this blog is should there be standardized testing? This story will help introduce you to what goes on around our country with the standardized testing. While reading this experience that I have had just start to think about your opinion on the topic and see how you feel about it. Like I mention in the about me page I have had plenty of experience in standardized testing. In Pennsylvania, there are state testing currently called the keystones. I took these keystones in 9th and 10th grade and fortunately enough I passed them and did not have to take them my 11th and 12th grade year. Now the problem with this is the testing most of the time took a week and a half. My 11th and 12th grade year I could drive and so could everyone else. So, for the week that we had the testing we were permitted to wait in home room for two hours while the tests were administered. Well what did we all do? We came in late every day for a week straight because it was pointless to just sit in homeroom and do nothing. All though I am not complaining because I had gotten a lot of extra sleep and enjoyed going in late, but now as a college student you can look at things a little differently. This was a wasted 10 hours of education for the week. You see because of the testing the were numerous hours of education taken away. For example, to get more into depth on the hours absorbed by the testing it all started at a young age. I remember having weeks of this testing starting in fourth grade. The tests giving out were called the PSSA's. These tests always seemed to be priority and it absorbed so much time. The focus of my personal experience is time. I want you to think about the time that is put into the testing and how it can add up through an academic career. Now analyzing my personal experience and the experience I have with the topic I do want to recognize that there are plenty of other stories people share whether there positive or negative. The simple thing that is stated through my personal experience that needs to be recognized and is something that should be taken into consideration when examining the question should there be standardized testing? Is the hours put into the standardized testing necessary? When considering should there be standardized testing there are multiple questions that come into play and one of the questions is it worth putting the hours into the testing? Does it properly benefit the education of the students? Take all these questions into consideration as we continue on in the blog.

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[standardizedtests20-blog]

Introduction

What is a standardized test? The correct definition of a standardized test is a test, administered per standardized procedures, that assesses a student's aptitude by comparison with a standard. The students in the Education system today are administered the tests yearly and sometimes even more than once in a year. I remember being in school and sometimes these tests took a week or two. I took the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment which was a state standardized test giving to grades 4-12 and these tests often took up to 1-3 weeks of testing during the school year. That is my experience with what exactly a standardized test is. There is multiple test like this giving all over the country. Here is a link that will take you to the list of every standardized test in the country https://www.time4learning.com/testprep/. so, to some up what a standardized is it a test that is formally given to students that focuses on assessments.

What to Talk About?

The question this blog will be focused on is should there be standardized testing? This is a big controversy in our education system today and it should be able to be an open discussion. So, I will be addressing the positives and negatives of standardized testing. I will also address why we should have this kind of testing and why we should not have this testing. I will also talk about the strategies and teacher styles that could maybe replace the testing's. I will have a post about the SAT’ s and per Ivy Aspire “the test given too Nearly three million students take the SAT each academic year at nearly 7000 test centers in more than 170 countries. More than 1.6 million students in the high school class of 2012 took the SAT at least once during high school.” http://www.ivyaspire.com/faq/how-many-students-take-the-sat-each-year/ As you see this test is taken by millions and is a big topic in standardized testing. There will be plenty to discuss about the topic of standardized testing and ultimately, I will give my opinion and answer to if there should be standardized testing.

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Why is this Important?

Lastly this whole discussion of standardized testing and whether we have it or not is very important because it affected and will affect millions of our future children citizen of society. These test affect the future of our children in the education system and we need to decide as a society if it benefits our children or if we can find strategies that will benefit our children in a better way. Believe it or not but these tests have a big impact on everybody.

Closure

I am very excited to find all kinds of research and talk about all these ideas bout the testing's. This blog we be fun and a good time very everyone thank you for reading!