Wednesday, September 12, 2007
standardized testing
In the case of standarized testing, i am appalled that many colleges base admissions and scholarship standards on the SAT's. What do the SAT's show? They do not show study habits, they do not show a student's true brilliance and they do not show a student's ability to participate in a classroom setting. From a personal standpoint, I am a student who did well in high school but did not turn heads on the SAT's. And for this i did not receive a significant scholarship from Emmanuel College. My grades were good enough, but my SAT's weren't to their liking. I do well on tests but a standarized test is like night and day in difference. I believe that is unfair to base a student's entire college finances on one standarized test that will not come in to play while they are in college. From reading Paulo Friere's stance on education i believe he would agree with me. To me, his main belief appeared to be discussion in a classroom setting. As he stated "The teacher is no longer merely the-one-who-teaches, but one who is himself taught in dialogue with the students, who in turn while being taught also teach. They become jointly responsible for a process in which all grow." As a final thought, the government sets standarized testing for political purposes to see where funding will go and where it won't. If the government is going to base its budget on the performance of a school's standarized test than they might as well base the performance of an army recruit mainly on how well he/she does on the military entrance exam. I say this because the military has the largest budget of any program in the United States.
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4 comments:
I definitely agree with you. Standardized testing is one of the most controversial topics about schooling. Some colleges have stopped looking at them and I know a lot of students that didn't get into the school of their dreams because their SAT scores were too low. It's really not fair to look at one Saturday morning test over the four years that someones been working extremely hard. Although I do see the reason for the tests because some high schools are easier than others or grade differently so you need some way of testing peoples knowledge. The SATs are definitely not the best way though.
I agree with these statements on standardized testing. I think its good to have ways to measure what you have learned,and what your school is teaching,but getting into the school of your choice shouldn't depend on it. Personally, I didn't do as well on the SATs as I was hoping although I did earn good grades and try very hard. I also don't think its fair that some people slack off in high school but do well on the SATS and get into a better school. I think standardized testing should be kept in place, but should not be overlooked when evaluating someones performance.
I agree with the statements that you made in your entry. I also agree with you the SATs do not show a students true intelligence. They show how a student tests on one particular day in their life. The SATs cover material that some students may not have covered in their lives which hurts their score on the SAT. The SATs are so long that by certain sections they rush because they just want to leave.
I agree that it is unfair for someone to look at your SAT scores and think they know what academic standards you are capable of achieving. However, I don't think there is any other "fair" way to compare millions of students for the same college seat. Different teachers hold their students to different standards. In every school there is always the easy english teacher and the hard english teacher. Without the SATs the kid in the easy english class could get into school over you just because they got lucky with what teacher they received. I understand that SATs put a lot of pressure on everyone, and they do not show all of your capabilities, but i dont think there is any other way colleges could "compare" students.
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