下面为大家整理一篇优秀的essay代写范文- Are standardized tests good or bad for American students,供大家参考学习,这篇论文讨论了标准化考试对美国学生的影响。标准化考试可能是许多美国学生的噩梦,因为大多数学生在上学期间都应该经历过许多标准化的考试。许多人认为标准化考试是衡量学生能力的有效方法,并且为学生的判断提供了一个公平的标准。但也有许多人却认为标准化考试造成了过多的压力,阻碍了学生的创造力,并将教学的目的转化为在考试中取得高分。
Standardized tests are probably nightmares for many students in the US because most of the students should have gone through many standardized tests during school years. In fact, they have had a long history in the US and they appeared in as early as the 1900s. According to Gershon of Jstor Daily, standardized tests began during World War I, when armies needed a method to judge the soldiers’ abilities. Right now, a typical student takes 112 standardized tests between pre-kindergarten classes and the 12th grade (Layton, Washington Post). Many believed that standardized tests are effective ways in measuring students’ abilities and provided a fair metric for judging students. When trying to decide whether to admit a certain student or whether to give a certain student merit-based scholarship, colleges and schools will benefit from the results of standardized tests so that they can treat every student fairly. However, many people believed otherwise, claiming that standardized tests created excess stress, hindered students’ creativity, and redirected the purpose of teaching into achieving high scores on tests instead of actually learning the material. Therefore, I believe that standardized tests are bad for American students.
Most important of all, standardized tests can affect the quality of teaching. First, the teachers target those students that are in the middle level in the class and try to let them pass the test. So, the purpose of teaching in a classroom is shifted from teaching everyone knowledge into letting the middle level students pass tests. According to Berger from U.S. News, Brookside Elementary School in Norwalk, Connecticut left out the students at the bottom range and the students on the top range and taught the middle range students more so that more students can pass standardized tests. The top students, wanting to learn more advanced and challenging knowledge, were left to boredom and the bottom students were left behind because teachers need to spend a lot of time to tutor them and they still may not be able to pass. To gain a high passing rate, the teachers have chosen to focus on the middle range more. However, this is not what education is supposed to be in the US. For elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools, no child should be left behind. Teachers cannot just abandon those students at the bottom range just because they wanted their school’s statistics to look satisfactory. I argue that it is unethical to leave any student behind. Second, not only is the target group of students shifted, but also the content they teach is different. Berger reported that teachers were teaching with test preparation books with only the English language and maths so that students can pass the tests. This means that other subjects are neglected and students should been spending their time on subjects such as music or physical education. Since those subjects do not have standardized tests, they are considered unimportant and inferior to subjects such as math. However, this is not the appropriate action to take because there will be many students who go onto college wanting a major in arts or music. If they lacked such education right now, how can they succeed in college later on? So I believe that standardized tests destroyed the meaning of teaching and shifted the content of teaching from knowledge to test preparation.
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Second, students receive more pressure from taking various tests so that they may have health issues. Cox, an M.D. that writes for the U.S. News, argued that excess standardized tests can harm the students’ psychology, increase more anxiety, increase the sleeplessness and negative affect a healthy eating habits for students. First, with the current economic situation, the job market is not such so prosperous and students are already faced with the pressure of looking for a job in the future. They are taught that high standardized tests scores means good universities, which will increase chances for find a decent job. Students are pressurized psychologically to perform well on tests, and this thinking will subsequently cause anxiety and nervousness. Second, students trying to perform well on tests go to school even when they are sick. However, when they are sick, they cannot study well and might spread the virus across the classroom. So from a public health perspective, standardized tests are not good for students because they decrease the health level of the entire class. Third, those students who do not do well on tests may exhibit a loss of sleep or a loss of self-esteem. So the vicious cycle starts again and those students who do not perform well on tests may find it very hard to recover. In short, I believe that students’ health is definitely more important than being able to excel in tests. Without a high score on tests, the student can also excel in other places such as sports or interpersonal skills, which are also ways for them to succeed in the future. However, without a good health, it is very hard to succeed because you will be spending much time in the hospital recovering and gaining strength to study or work. Therefore, to achieve high scores at the expense of health is highly discouraged.
Third, standardized tests do not encourage creative thinking. To me, for those math questions that do have a single correct answer, standardized tests are more acceptable. However, for learning procedures that needs creativity, such as writing, there should not be standardized tests. Yet, here in the US, students do take standardized writing tests in the 7th grade, the 10th grade, for the SAT, and even GRE and GMAT in the future. Writing tests are designed such that students need to follow specific formats and cater to the examiners for them to pass. Students lose the opportunity to explain their own opinions or to express their own understanding of topics because writing freely on a test will cause them to fail. The Denver Post reported how parents were dissatisfied at the standardized writing tests at Stedman Elementary School in Denver. The reporter claimed that students “must dance the steps that they have been told are important” (The Denver Post). The parent looked at how his child failed the writing test just because the child did not write according to the standards. If all of the literatures in the world were written according to standards, then the literary pool will be very boring and readers will not get inspired. As a matter of fact, not only writing needs creativity as suggested by the article. In my opinion, there are many other subjects that needs creativity. For example, innovations in physics or chemistry will not be possible if schools focus only on memorizing the material that has already existed. Students should be taught to explore and research about the world themselves instead of memorizing formulas for standardized tests. It is innovations and research for new ideas that propels the society to progress forward, not high scores on standardized tests.
Although there are many drawbacks for standardized tests, there are also some benefits. The main benefit is that schools and institutions can have a fair and easy way to measure how the student is performing in school. The administrators at a school can rank all of the students according to a single test score and it saved a lot of work for them. The admission committee can also look at this certain score and gain a quick understanding of how the student is doing academically. It allowed them to make a decision on whether to admit the student or not without knowing the student in person. At least, a good standardized tests score can earn the student a chance for interview so that the school can know more about the student and increase his or her chances for entering the school. Since better schools usually meant better education and a more prospective future, being able to excel on standardized tests do have some benefit after all. The second benefit for standardized tests is that they gave students without significant backgrounds a chance to enter well-known universities. While those students from wealthy families can enter good high schools and can find famous scholars in their subjects of study to refer them, students with little resources cannot find those famous scholars to ask for referral letters. If they do not have too much money for education, they cannot enter famous private high schools. Even worse, without too much connections and money, they cannot find good community services, extracurricular activities, or internships. How can they attract prestigious universities without those glamorous backgrounds? The answer is by scoring a high score on standardized tests. If they can do well on those tests, they can still have a chance to enter top universities and receive scholarships for their continued education. So standardized tests do provide some chances for those without a strong family background or sufficient resources.
In conclusion, I believe that although there are many standardized tests in the US and most of the students have to go through them to graduate, standardized tests do more harm than good to the American students. While standardized tests made sure that the students were judged fairly, it also have some main drawbacks such as decreasing the quality of teaching, increasing the pressures for students, and hindering the creativity of many students. Therefore, I believe that standardized tests are detrimental to the American educational system and its students.
Reference
Berger, B. (April 11, 2013). Don’t teach to the test. U.S. News. Retrieved December 05, 2016. http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2013/04/11/why-excessive-standardized-testing-is-causing-american-schools-to-fail
U.S. News is a very credible and authoritative source for information on education. Its National University Ranking is also a reference for many students seeking guidance on college entrance. The author Brooke Berger is a writer for U.S. News that focuses especially on political and educational topics. The article, written in 2013, is recent and the issue is still a national concern in 2016. The author first presented facts about how schools are teaching only test preparation books to a target group of students. Then he presented his point of view on the best way of education, the role of parents in education, and the status-quo of elementary education. He attacked how excess standardized tests are decreasing the efficiency of teaching and learning. Anyone who is interested in the educational industry is considered the target audience.
Cox, E. M.D. Standardized tests: making our students and teachers stick? U.S. News. Retrieved December 05, 2016. http://health.usnews.com/health-news/patient-advice/articles/2015/11/16/standardized-tests-making-our-students-and-teachers-sick
On top of the fact that U.S. News is one of the most well-known newspapers in the country, the author Elaine Cox is also very authoritative because she is an M.D. For issues such as health, one really needs to be a professional in order to talk about the subject and be credible. With an M.D. degree, the public can trust her opinions because apparently she knows more about health. Written in 2015, the article is up to date. The article talked about various ways how excess standardized tests can cause harm to a student’s health both biologically and psychologically. Parents, students, teachers, and those working in educational institutions should all pay attention to this article because it is of vital importance.
Gershon, L. (2015). A short history of standardized tests. Jstor Daily. Retrieved December 5, 2016. http://daily.jstor.org/short-history-standardized-tests/
Jstor is one of the most well-known sources for academic journals and papers across the globe. Jstor Daily is their newspaper division and it is aimed to provide accurate news that matches scholarly researches. Therefore, the source is very accurate and credible. Since the article is from 2015, it is very current. The article is a brief history of standardized tests in the US and how it originated from World War I. The author is a freelance writer interested in politics, economics, and a broad range of topics. The article is suitable for giving a brief introduction of the history of standardized tests in the introduction section of the paper. The audience could be anyone who is interested in educational history. I believe that it is a very authoritative source.
Layton L. (2015, October 24) Study says standardized testing is overwhelming nation's public schools. Washington Post. Retrieved December 05, 2016, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/study-says-standardized-testing-is-overwhelming-nations-public-schools/2015/10/24/8a22092c-79ae-11e5-a958-d889faf561dc_story.html
Washington Post is a nation-wide authoritative and credible newspaper. The author Lyndsey Layton writes especially for the education section. She drew data from a Council of the Great City Schools study and it is accurate. The source is used to describe the current status of the issue by providing specific numbers. The article is mainly about how standardized tests are overwhelming students in the country. Specific data were provided regarding how many tests students take in each grade and how many hours students use to study. The author criticized the fact that students are spending too much time on standardized tests. The target audience is anyone interested in the educational field or those who are involved in the educational system in the US.
Standardized tests are killing our students’ creativity, desire to learn. (March 7, 2013). Denver Post. Retrieved December 05, 2016.
http://www.denverpost.com/2013/03/07/standardized-tests-are-killing-our-students-creativity-desire-to-learn/
This piece of news is from a major newspaper called the Denver Post. Although its coverage is not national and only focuses on the news happening in Denver, it is nevertheless credible and representative of a typical American city. The news reported about an elementary school in Denver and how a parent came to school to discover that his child did not pass the standardized writing test because he did not follow specific formats and standards. The reporter argued that such tests do not allow the students to think critically and creatively about issues. Rather, they are just writing according to a pre-specified structure and failing to do so will result in a failing score on the test. The news is from the current year and the source is credible, objective and accurate. The intended audience is for every parent, student, teachers, and educational workers.
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