In this brief essay, I will be discussing a few of my arguments against standardized testing. From experience, I have never found a purpose in these sorts of testing due to the fact that I always found them to be stressful and consist a lack of creativity. Having a test that is given limited time, consists more than 100 questions, and reading to complete will pressure students into not learning anything but rather act like sheep and simply do what they’re told without willing to learn material. This is the type of material that is supposed to prepare a young student for a better future and whether if you’re a male or female, you have roles for the household in the future. In other words, if you start your own family then you should be taught how to protect the family household as either a father or a mother. However, what I failed to understand with these standard tests is that they would teach the same content over and over again which has no usefulness for a student in the future. While there may be some material on it that can be useful for the career path you are heading to, the amount of time given on standardized testing is limited meaning that you have to rush in order to get all of the material in your head. Eventually right after completing the test, all that information given to you would be forgotten making them absolutely useless. All of these above are instances of standardized testing that construct a brick wall in front of students as they are not benefiting from it. I continued to look into this topic deeply and decided to figure out the reasons in depth as to why students continue to suffer from standardized testing. This does not suggest that it should be abolished but rather it should be reformed for better knowledge progress of students. So in order to issue a solution to these standardized tests, here are my propositions.
The first issue is regarding creativity among standardized testing. Creativity by far is the most important trait of a student in order for them to prepare themselves for later on in life. Without it, students would not be innovative designers of something new but rather embrace the lifestyle of a sheep where they do nothing but work according to commands and not their own will. It may seem controversial as this essay is written by the Third Position holding authoritarian values, but education is something that has to treat its students fairly. Instead, education leeched off them like animals and treated them like expenses to make corporate profit off of; in other words it is those in control of the department of education. When the department of education is given full control of students, they find multiple ways to entice them in order to spoon-feed useless information and testing that does not benefit the students but rather the ones giving those standardized test. From a student perspective, standardized tests such as the ACT, SAT, or OSSLT are forcing their students to answer such hard questions within a short amount of time which does nothing but abuse students. In clarification, standardized tests such as the ACT or SAT provide less than a second to complete every question. An example would be the English section of the ACT as you would only get 45 minutes to complete 75 questions. Hence, you only get 36 seconds to complete any question including the time it takes to carefully read the question and read the passage that you are answering for. With only 36 seconds given on a test, your only strategy to answer that question is to directly find which one is correct; this takes a while to do so since you aren’t thinking of a creative way to answer the question thanks to the limited time constraints.
My next argument mentions the corporation factor within the education system of the United States. In some sense it will sound ludicrous to you, but once you understand the concept behind these standardized tests, you will recognize the truth. To demonstrate this, I will be referring to the widely known SAT and ACT testing. For every test you take, you have to pay a fee (around every three months). Depending on where you buy the test from, it may cost from $48 - $58. Now, ask yourself one question; why is it that standardized tests are extremely difficult, yet costly at the same time? To answer this question, the providers of the ACT and SAT are trying to inherit as much profit from the student as much as possible. For instance, let us say that I barely passed the first time I took the ACT, and I take it more than 4 times after about a few months. The student, in which this case would be myself is not benefiting from the retakes but is rather wasting his money. Let us be clear here, I am not saying that the administrators of education should not gain any profit however. I am saying that these administrators should be not possess greed and start luring students into a stressful moment in time where they do nothing but act like factory workers. Remember, the system is required to raise innovative students and not slaves.
Lastly, I would like to argue that standardized testing interferes with a student’s school schedule. When a student already has class exams on the final day of school, it would be pointless to place another exam on top of his schedule as it will pressure or stress the student. In many ways, stress can never be a good result when it comes to learning in school. As a matter of fact, you would learn less in school if standardized tests are placed on top of your head. Normal exams are already stressful enough for students to deal with, so to think that placing another exam on top of their head would benefit their learning environment defines nothing but stupidity. The learning environment is meant for student experience to develop a character that will define who they are in the future. Standardized testing does the complete opposite; it destroys the well being of a student and their mentality. With a massive exam placed on top of their head, it forces students to think that their grades represent their character rather than experience. It’s unfortunate, but the truth still stands and can not be ignored by America. It is at this point in time where the education system is just another measures of worship to market capitalism instead of assisting students with their learning experiences. I am no socialist, but I believe that if anything were to be a social utility then it should only be the use of education assisting students and the use of social media. It baffles my mind that the department of education is just another way to exploit their students through standardized testing as a means to gain corporate profit.
CITATIONS:
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