“Guess what? NOTHING! Your just taking the PSSA’s!” Do you remember the disappointment and how nerve wrecked you were to hear that? I do, they are unfair, they lead to more grade retention and a higher dropout level and they are not accountable. The PSSA’s should not be taken. First of all, the PSSA’s are unfair to lot’s of students.
Some students just do not test well. They get anxiety and do not show learning well on paper. This would lead to inaccurate scores. This shows me that some kids just can not and will not show correct learning on paper.
According to “The Dangerous Consequences of High-Stakes Standardized Testing,” “Many students do not have a fair opportunity to learn the material on the test because they attend poorly funded schools with large class sizes, too many teachers without subject area certification, and inadequate books, libraries, laboratories, computers, and other facilities.” This just goes to show how some kids might not get equal opportunity to learn the same material and it is not their fault. Lastly some kids have learning disabilities and can not understand as well as other kids might. Some kids might not have their first language as English so they do not understand the grammar as well as kids who have lived in America or a place that speaks English.
The PSSA’s are unfair in many ways. Second these tests are not accountable at all. First, multiple choice questions do not provide teachers and evaluators with correct student growth. This does not show problem solving skills in many ways. It can not show if a student can work out multiplication math problems or if they know what the question is asking or know what the question means.
Next some questions might require students to use old methods that are not taught anymore. This shows me that for some questions they really just can not get the right answer unless they are taught both ways which is usually not the case. Lastly according to “How Standardized Testing Damages Education,” “Instead of being accountable to parents, community, teachers and students, schools become “accountable” to an unregulated testing industry.” This shows me that schools do not have the correct industry to be accountable to and they may not be sending tests and scores to the correct place.Lastly standardized testing also can lead to higher grade retention, and dropout levels.
Students may end up getting low self-esteem and dropout with the feeling that they are not smart or they can not do anything good with themselves. As well as dropout, students may get held back for inaccurate reasons. This also allows me to realize that being held back is counter productive and does no good academically for the student.
Lastly students end up losing interest in school and end up not caring about how they do in school. This shows me that all because of a test score that is probably inaccurate they end up doing even worse in school. They would end up not wanting to focus or try their best on their work. According to “11 Facts About High School Dropout Rates” “Every year, over 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the United States alone. That’s a student every 26 seconds – or 7,000 a day.
” PSSA’s can and will end up leading to lot’s of dropout students.Other test supporters may say that this is the best way to evaluate schools. This is not the best way because we have others that could quite possibly be better.
Schools could hire certified classroom observers. Someone who has the capabilities of taking very detailed notes and data. Schools could also use student work and evaluate it instead of using a test method.
Last schools could use how students perform not how they test. (This goes back to reason 1).Now I hope we all know why standardized tests aren’t needed. They are unfair, they lead to a higher grade retention and dropout level, and they are not accountable. So just consider this the next time you change the law about standardized testing.
