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Standardized Testing Ideology

Decent Essays

An ideology is a network of beliefs or opinions about a topic. A structure is a road block that stands in the way and prevents injustices from changing and improving. There are many different ideologies and structures that sustain the injustice of standardized testing. The primary ideology regarding standardized testing is that a student’s test scores reflect a student’s intelligence and their ability to succeed. The primary structure affecting standardized testing is social inequality. The most common ideology that people have about students who perform poorly on standardized tests is that they lack a level of comprehension and are incapable of succeeding in the educational system. This belief is especially prevalent in regards to high stakes tests such as college entrance and high school graduation exams because the focus is on the test score. The perception is that these scores are the sole indicator of the student’s knowledge of a subject and their ability to succeed at a higher level of education. Therefore, …show more content…

People who follow this ideology are unaware that standardized tests may not accurately measure a student’s knowledge and that these tests fail to assess the full potential of the student (Evans, Ashman). The structure that most significantly sustains the injustice of standardized testing is social inequality. Students from different socioeconomic backgrounds are evaluated by the same set of criteria and are held to the same standards. Unfortunately, the students who live in and attend a school in poor communities are already behind when they start school and are immediately set up for failure. Most of the students in these schools come from households that have lower incomes and they do not have the opportunities and or the money to provide additional educational support in the home, or access to a private education or tutors. The schools districts and the schools themselves tend to have less money. Therefore, they lack the resources

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