View Points on the American Standardized Tests

Introduction

The use of the standardized test is currently widespread in most public schools in the United States. These standardized tests are carried out with an aim to assess the understanding that children have gained and to identify any learning gaps that may exist. Many people including parents, policymakers, and school leaders disagree with the standardized test method, the kind of tests that are administered, how frequently tests should be conducted on children, and how the scores found should be used. Accultured parents agree to the use of standardized tests because they believe among other benefits, the tests create a positive effect on their children's performance. However, the encultured parents have raised a lot of problematic issues that are associated with the American standardized tests.

A significant number of encultured parents are so adamant to allow their children to receive the tests because they believe that it is not the appropriate way of measuring the knowledge that their children have gained. I believe many of the encultured parents share the view that the tests are predictable and that the scores can be high without reflecting correctly on the understanding that the children have gained. I also think that such parents recognize that not all children start from the same point of learning. Different children have a unique way of learning and there exist diverse needs and challenges among children that cannot make them have the same understanding capabilities.

Accultured parents, on the other hand, are in support of giving tests to the children. These parents have even made their children comply with the mandate of the government to take on the tests. Parents in support of Standardization tests hold a strong belief that the tests have a positive impact on the children, it is a reliable and objective method of measurement of the children's success. Also, they argue that standardized tests provide for equal knowledge for all students. The other reason that some parents are in support of standardized tests is that they can be able to track the performance of their children from one test and level to another. The parents use the tests to make a comparison of their children to the others and the performance of one unit to another. Parents believe. Some of these parents believe that the tests are a simplified way to tell if their children are ready to face the next level of education.

Conclusion

As a future parent, I believe the standardized test is a wrong way of measuring the extent of understanding that the children have achieved. The use of high stake scores causes the teachers to adopt lousy teaching methods. The teachers, therefore, do not educate according to their professional knowledge but instead use all it takes including unaccepted methods to be at level with the score. Also, standardized tests do not provide reliable measures of what extent of knowledge the students have and how well a teacher performs their job. I believe that tests do not define students but rather the capability of the student to put thy knowledge they have gained into practice accordingly. I also think that the tests are only used to evaluate the classwork of children through written tests and fail to consider the fact that children learn in many different ways including through creativity and curiosity. In my opinion, the tests are inappropriate and should be banned.