Standardized Testing Argument Essay

With college admissions relying so highly on these tests many bright and capable students are getting left with little options (Sternberg 7). These students are facing this because the ACT and SAT primary focus on a narrow segment of skills that are needed to become a person that makes significant differences to the world (Sternberg 7). College’s argue that the admission test give them a quick glimpse of what the students potential is because they do not have to time to individually evaluate each potential student. This may be true but we need a better way to distinguish a person’s abilities than just a simple score on a test.

Anyone who has ever taken the ACT or the SAT knows how stressful and difficult the tests are. Students are forever judged because of the scores the receive by colleges and peers. The ACT/SAT are standardized tests that are meant to calculate what students have learned in previous years of high school. Colleges then use this score to determine whether a student will succeed in college. Specific problems with this process include the fact that high schoolers are extremely busy and may have other things on their minds, the tests require brutal test prep, the test can cause stress and anxiety, and the tests do not accurately gage a student’s college success. For these main reasons, students should not be required to take the ACT/SAT to get into college.

Currently, there are around 37 thousands schools in the United States. Each year, there are more than a million students that applying for college institutions (National Center for Educational Statistics). As an university admission office, it is often difficult to select students based on numbers and words that show up on their application without knowing the applicant. Since there are many factors and can impact a student’s high school experience and performance, it is unfair to be comparing every student in the United States with a same standard. In order to minimize these differences, standardized tests were invented along with the No Child Left Behind act in 2001 which enforced all students to participate. Ideally, standardized tests are objective and graded by computer. The test is expected to be evaluating all students with the same standards. While the educators and designers of the standardized tests focus on generating a test that allows them to compare all students fairly, they abandon the fact that all students’ resources and backgrounds are inevitably different. Assuming that all elements of an educational system serve to benefit students’ learnings, standardized testing is an inadequate method of evaluation due to its negative impact on students and teachers’ mindsets, inaccuracy in evaluation of students’ abilities, and the

A young girl is excited about graduating high school and attending her first year at college. She tries hard at school and receives above-average grades. She is an active student involved in student council, band, the drama team, and peer tutoring, but her ACT scores are extremely low, disqualifying her from many universities. The young girl represents many students who are not successful at taking standardized tests because they have not developed the advanced skills required to take a test like the ACT or SAT. An academically motivated and responsible student should not be prevented from attending college because a "standard" test is not his or her standard. The current methods of testing for the ACT or SAT should be abolished and

Einstein once said, “If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Likewise, if a poor test-taker is judged by their SAT score, they could be forced to attend an inadequate institute of higher education. For decades, the SAT has been “the test” that makes or breaks a student's chances of getting into their top college. Generally, the privileged populace do well, but minorities and women do not come out as strong and are therefore limited to college choice. The SAT has proven to be an unsuitable, biased method for predicting success of students in college.

In this post, I will examine the relationship between SATs scores and student success in college through the lens of criterion validity. Since currently Higher Education institutions are focusing on ranking, now, more than ever, admissions requirements are becoming more strict, and heavier weight is being placed on SAT scores as a way determining “quality” students. Currently, SAT scores are used to determine whether a student will be successful in college. This shift is causing a great push to identify students of risk, and for more elite institutions, who should be admitted (Chronicle of Higher Education, 2017). Do to this shift, there is great emphasis placed on the SATs as an indicator of college success. The question that many student affairs professionals and educational leaders ask are, does this test accurately measure and show a relationship between test scores and outcomes?

Today, colleges are relying more and more on standardized test scores. Schools are using SAT and ACT scores to create a fast and easy way to choose those applicants.

Colleges should rely on ACT and SAT scores to determine a student’s future. Studying for these test will teach a student to become more responsible and self-dependable, just as they are going to be college. Taking these test will help students prepare for the future and will also bring colleges recognize the accomplishment of a student. If a college or university sees that the student has a high score, then they are more likely to give out college acceptances and scholarships. These test are administered to high school students so they can put their good sense of knowledge from high school to good

In recent years colleges have been beginning to disregard the SAT and/or ACT. According to Rooney and Schaeffer, more than two hundred and seventy five colleges have joined this movement as the colleges are arguing that disregarding these standardized tests have allowed for their incoming classes to be more diverse and have a higher standard in regards to academic quality. Through not using these tests while selecting students for their school it allows for more students who are apart of minority groups to have an opportunity at these schools. The main issue with the SAT and/or ACT tests are that colleges that only base their admissions on these tests limit themselves to choosing students based off a multiple choice exam instead of looking into the background participation the student had in previous high

Although standardized tests aid in providing students, teachers, and even school board members with a guideline for the learning process, in the end the overall effects of such tests become questionable as they deter student’s potential growth. The list of standardized tests has grown tremendously throughout the years, originally beginning with the SAT and the ACT. These two tests alone have become a small part of this checklist of tests every student must face before reaching college. In today’s society it’s difficult to locate a student in a household who hasn’t experienced a standardized test. Initially administered to evaluate and compare student performance throughout the rest of the state, the

Standardized testing scores proficiencies in most generally accepted curricular areas. The margin of error is too great to call this method effective. “High test scores are generally related to things other than the actual quality of education students are receiving” (Kohn 7). “Only recently have test scores been published in the news-paper and used as the primary criteria for judging children, teachers, and schools.”(2) Standardized testing is a great travesty imposed upon the American Public School system.

Standardized test scores in college admissions process do not accurately represent my academic potential. Throughout my life as a student in the Sutton public school system, conceding to defeat has never been an option. While intelligence can give students a head start over others, this is where it ends. In the long run those getting the results they desire will ultimately be those who will accept little less than perfect, like me. Even though the education system prepares the average student to take a standardized test, I was still uncomfortable when taking it. I conclude that when assessing a student for academic excellence four years should not be hidden due to a mediocre test grade taken in less than a day. Core subjects can represent

In addition, for many years, standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT have been known for their ability to measure and assess how well a student will do in his or her college life; however, in recent years, studies

You are sitting in the testing room, anxiety rushing down your body. The smell of the freshly printed scantrons consumes your nose. The fears of forgetting the math formulas, running out of time, and not knowing the answer distract you from focusing on the test. The SAT, in other words, the scholastic aptitude test, also known as the test that destroys the lives of millions of high school students, is about to take place and determine your intelligence in the perspective of the various colleges you are about to apply to. The SAT is a collection of multiple-choice sections that unreliably measure a student performance through critical reading, math, and writing sections, asking questions intended to trick the test taker and convince them into picking the wrong answer choice. A majority of colleges and universities require students to take the SAT in addition to submitting their transcripts and college applications, however they have a standard as to what score a student must receive in order to be accepted. Thousands of students have their dreams crushed and are rejected from their ideal school because of the inability to score high on the test out of 2400. Students with limitless amounts of talent never get the opportunity to nurture their unique skills because the schools focus more on the student’s SAT score, instead of their overall strengths and expertise. SAT scores should not have a prominent role in college acceptance in that the test is socioeconomically biased to

The SAT’s prove to be a harmful to a student’s future, especially when they start looking for jobs. The SAT’s do not teach the skills needed to function on the job, and hinder the creativity needed on the job. The SAT’s also divide people into “high-scored” and “low-scored”, which excludes people from certain jobs, even though they might have the qualifications for that job. Both these reasons cause a student to not receive the job they may deserve. But there are ways to reverse this epidemic. Colleges may implement a different admissions process; one that judges a student on more than their academic power.