Standardised Testing Within Australian Education Essays

Standardized tests are unnecessary because they are excruciating to the minds of many innocent students. Each year, the tests get tougher and stricter until the students cannot process their own thoughts. The tests become torturous to the minds of those only starting in the world of tests. The students already battling in the war are continuing to fall deeper and deeper into the world of uncreativity and narrowness. As the walls narrow in on them, they are lost and unable to become innovative thinkers. Moreover, the implementation of standardized tests into the public school systems of the United States of America has controversially raised two different views –the proponents versus the opponents in the battle of the effectiveness of

Today, it can be observed that society has shifted education drastically from the time schools were constituted, to now. Throughout history, schools have gone from private, where only the elite can attend, to public schools where virtually anyone can attend. One of the factors that goes along with education is standardized testing. Frederick J. Kelly, father of the standardized test, once said, “These tests are too crude to be used, and should be abandoned.” Not only has this shift occurred within education itself, but it has occurred within the testing concepts found within standardized testing so much so that the founder of these tests has chosen to give up on it.

To many students standardized testing has become another part of schooling that is dreaded. Standardized testing has been a part of school since the nineteen-thirties; in those days it was used as a way to measure students that had special needs. Since the time that standardized test have been in American schools there has been many programs that have placed an importance on the idea of standardized testing such as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Evans 1). Over the years the importance of standardized testing has increased tremendously and so has the stakes, not only for teachers but also students. All states in the United States of America have state test in order to measure how much students learn, and help tell how well the

The purposes of standardized tests are to instruct decision making, establish program eligibility, evaluate course goals, evaluate program goals, and examine external curriculum. When a teacher gives and assesses a standardized test, they gain information about their students that helps them realize what concepts they have learned according to the agenda for the subject at hand. If the assessment is performed in a sensible amount of time and given according to the directions, this purpose should be fulfilled; however, it is a common belief that standardized tests do not work well in establishing where a student stands in a specific curriculum. The test uses a general curriculum that is the basis for the tests

Some parents have begun to remove their children from standardized testing as a whole because they believe that it is not benefiting their children’s learning. A lot of people are concerned with what their children are losing by focusing so much on learning the materials for the standardized tests. It has become a bulk of the focus throughout the school year, which makes people feel like all their child is going to school for is to past the state standardized tests, and not to learn important knowledge that will be needed throughout their academic careers. (Brown, Emma, B. 2015, March 7) This was just a small piece of information to show the resistance that has been developing towards standardized testing. This leads into my concern of testing bias that is widespread throughout different types of tests. Michelle Philips paper that will be reviewed throughout had a title that really summed up the issues of biases in standardized testing “Standardized Tests Aren’t like T-Shirts: One Size Doesn't Fit All.” “For example language barriers on tests can produce bias. Different children come from different environments, which environment can be a contributing variable to performance on tests alone. People come from an array of different home lives, one example of how this can effect anyone’s performance on tests is their

In classrooms all across America, students sit perched over their desks in the process of taking standardized tests. As the students take the tests, teachers pace nervously up and down the rows of their classroom, hoping and praying that their students can recall the information which they have presented. Some children sit relaxed at their desks, calmly filling in the bubbles and answering essay questions. These children are well prepared and equipped to handle their tests. Other children, however, sit hunched over their desks, pondering over questions, trying to guess an answer. They struggle to recall information that has been covered many times in class, but they can’t.

Australia is entering into a new phase of curriculum whereby there will be no state by state curriculum. It will be a national curriculum that is developed by the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). By introducing a national curriculum, the Australian Government is hoping to unify what is taught throughout the states/territories. It is possible to analyse the Australian Curriculum in terms of the definitions of curriculum it incorporates and how it is structured and how this is similar or different to various curriculum models. By using references from various readings and analysing the National Australian Curriculum, this paper will also address the purpose and goal that is promoted by the Australian

Over the years in Australia, there have become many stakeholders in establishing an education policy in the country. The society, economics, politics and businesses play an integral role in establishing and restructuring the education policies. Neo-Liberal approach to education believes that the value of education lies in how well it enables the country to compete in the global market place. It is believed that this can only be achieved if schools become more like businesses by giving power to parents as consumers and competition between schools to drive up the standards in education. Hence, the

Another victimizing point, fact four, Kohn (2000) points out is that standardized testing will measure superficial thinking of the student. This entails that the students are guessing or skipping hard questions and not engaging in learning to make the connections. These tests require a lot of out of the box thinking and most of the information cannot just be memorized. Due to this critical thinking, schools and specialist condemn giving standardized test to students younger than the age of 8 or 9 (Kohn, 2000, fact five).

Ever since standardized testing started being used as a way to evaluate the intelligence of students and the teachers’ ability to educate, the standard of actual education has been diminished immensely. Standardized testing is used in most public and private schools to analyze students’ knowledge. It has affected the way in which students learn and has corrupted the methods teachers use to educate. In some cases, English-Learning and disabled students face discrimination from teachers since teachers have more responsibility to have a high number of passing students. Some countries around the world don’t use standardized tests to rank their students or schools and yet they have been successful. Standardized tests are not efficient on making students learn, they should not be used to evaluate students’ knowledge.

A very current and ongoing important issue happening within the education system is standardized testing. A standardized test is any examination that's administered and scored in a calculated, standard manner. There are two major kinds of standardized tests: aptitude tests and achievement tests. Standardized aptitude tests predict how well students might perform in some subsequent educational setting. The most common examples are the SAT’s and the ACT’s. The SAT and the ACT attempt to estimate how well high school students will perform in college. But standardized test scores are what citizens and school board members rely on when they evaluate a school's effectiveness. Nationally, five such tests are in use: California Achievement Tests,

Standardized tests can also be biased or unfair because questions on these tests necessitate understanding and abilities that typically children from advantaged families have (Kohn, A, 2000). Children who live in poorer communities have a

The debate on standardized tests and its adequacy in testing a student’s knowledge about a subject has been going on for many years. Tests, in general, has been around for centuries and without them there would not be progress and no gleams of progress. Students ranging from elementary school to high school have experienced standardized testing. Teachers, educators, and parents are also involved in the students’ lives, which revolves around the tests, one way or another. There are many views on standardized test. However, the three most common views are: educators who are for standardized test which benefits students, educators who are at the other extreme of opposing standardized tests, and educators who view tests are a benefit if done in appropriate amounts.

To begin with standardized testing creates several critical problems for students and for the education industry. These tests are created to test over particular things. In the end these types of tests are only limited in the amount of knowledge that can be tested toward students. For example, “Standardized exams offer few opportunities to display the attributes of high-order thinking, such as analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and creativity.” (“Standardized Testing Has Serious Limitations”). Even though these tests are able to attack certain subjects at the core, they still leave out very valuable and critical information that all students should know. In

First, I would like to discuss the standpoint that Bette Blance, veteran educator and expert on Australian school systems, gave on the idea of adopting the standardized testing and curriculum in Australia, “National curriculum is ‘wobbling’ its way in with all states having differing opinions. This has been on the agenda for quite a few years, but the stumbling block is to get all the