The Effect Of Standardized Testing On The Common School Movement

In 1845, educational pioneer Horace Mann proposed that Boston Public School children should be tested through written examination. At the time, Mann had not only envisioned that this would provide a more efficient method of measuring schools' effectiveness, but he also saw this as a mechanism for schools to "become vehicles for social advancement” for citizens (Gallagher, 84). His assessment model ultimately proved to be so successful that it was adopted by school systems in nearly all U.S. cities in the years following its initial implementation. In particular, New York State used it as a basis for its Regents Examination. Furthermore, although there were many developments in standardized testing during the next

“Mostly, they worry that common standards would reduce teaching to only a small range of testable information and would not produce the knowledge, flexibility and creativity needed. Buttressing this concern, the Center on Education Policy found that the emphasis on test-based accountability has indeed already narrowed the curriculum” (Mathis). Standardized testing has become a controversial topic recently throughout the nation because of the harsh, confined lessons teachers are being forced to give. According to a news article written by the New York Times, teenagers nationwide are taking anti-depressants to cope with test-related stress and teachers would rather retire than teach when the government seems to value testing over learning. Teachers

Standardized testing has been around for centuries. It has been a part of America’s education since mid 1800’s. Ever since the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, tests are now required and mandated in every state. But has their use improved America’s education?

While many different types of schools and educational movements have influenced the American education system that we have today, two primary influences are the American common school movement and the Latin grammar school movement. Common schools were first started in the 1830’s and 1840’s and consisted of a universal curriculum with multiple types of schools. They were also provided by the government. The Latin grammar schools came into being around the 1870’s to 1900’s and were used as secondary education to prepare young men for college. While both schools have different characteristics that contribute to the differences of them, they also have similarities such as their curriculum that make them alike.

Standardized testing had only been added to America’s public education curriculum when “the common school movement began in earnest in the 1830s in New England as reformers… began to argue successfully for a greater government role in the schooling of all children” (“Common School”). “By 1845 in the United States, public education advocate Horace Mann was calling for standardized essay testing” (Mathews), because he believed that “political stability and social harmony depended on universal education” (“Common School”), and that these tests would help teachers “find and replicate the best teaching methods so that all children could have equal opportunities” (Gershon). There weren’t any other well known attempts at standardized testing until “the College Entrance Examination Board—… or SAT—began in the 1920s” (Gershon). Later “in the 1960s, the federal government started pushing new achievement tests designed to evaluate instructional methods and schools” (Gershon), because the Cold War “fueled a space race and increased pressure on U.S. schools to show improvement” (Mathews). However, it wasn’t “until the mid-1970s, when the College Board revealed that average SAT scores had been falling since 1963” (Mathews), that the country realized “public school standards were too low” (Mathews). This is the reason why “Congress created the National Assessment Governing Board” (Mathews), an organization which ”established new standards for the National Assessment of Educational

Students are overwhelmed with school, work, extra-curricular activities, family, etc. Perhaps standardized tests are a major contributor to students’ stress. A standardized test is any test scored in a consistent manner and requires test-takers to answer identical questions. Among the most common include the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the American College Test (ACT). According to the article “Standardized Testing Has Negatively Impacted Public Schools” from Opposing Viewpoints in Context, the beginnings of standardized tests occurred during World War I when the American Psychological Association developed a “ground-administered test” to eliminate inefficient recruits (Solley 3). Today, standardized tests are necessary for college admission. Just last month, in March of 2016, College Board, the non-profit organization responsible for administering the SAT, altered the format of the test. It is now formatted more similar to the ACT and includes an optional essay reducing the score from 2400 to 1600. Many advocates argue standardized tests accurately measure academic intelligence and hold teachers and schools accountable. In today’s society, standardized tests have become the norm, and unfortunately, people overlook their negative effects despite research substantiating arguments about their disadvantages. Standardized tests are disadvantageous because they hinder education and contain bias.

Standardized tests are a requirement for students to pass in order to graduate high school and attend college. The hope behind standardized tests is that they cover a number of rudimentary concepts and processes, and reflect what students have learned in their classes under a strict evaluation scale. However, in reality, standardized testing is offering very finite and ineffective learning skills, which don’t prepare students for college. The result: high dropout rates and high remedial enrollment in colleges. These tests aren’t effective enough for students entering college, and consequently, have a negative impact on learning. Although standardized testing is woven into public schools, the tests do not demonstrate a student’s true learning, do not prepare them for college, and are racially biased. The content of these exams needs to be changed so that they cover important subject material, such as reading, writing, and mathematics, in a proper manner that is geared to level students with college curriculum. This way, students can truly be ready for college, the dropout rate can lower exponentially, and students can ensure success in college to make an impression in the most crucial years of their education.

On most normal mournings, students can be found showering and eating breakfast before school. This is the normal routine. However, students in Ohio who wake up in March or April find another item added to their routine, stress. These two months are testing months. Tests like the Air, SAT or ACT help determine if a student passes jr. high or high school or gets into college. On these mornings, students worry on their way to school. Most even worry when it comes time to take the test. Stress is just one of the unintended consequences of standardized tests. Even though Standardized tests were made to help keep the classroom teacher and schools accountable, the unintended consequences of them have been hurtful to teacher and students.

Standardized testing began back in the mid-nineteenth century, when a man Horace Mann introduced the idea of using standardized testing in Boston schools to gain, “objective information about the quality of teaching and learning in urban schools, monitor the quality of instruction, and compare schools and teachers within each school” (Gallagher, p.85). The tests showcased the differences in student’s knowledge and in turn, more testing was put into effect to make reliable conclusions to a students progress. Since Mann’s exams were so positively

It's 8 A.M. on a Saturday, and masses of students around the United States wake up and head to their testing sites in order to take the SAT. This is a common occurrence that happens multiple times a year, but it raises the question as to how seriously should society take these tests and other standardized testing, such as the Regents examinations in New York State. The answer to this is obvious, clearly these exams, and all standardized tests, must be taken seriously, due to the fact they provide vital information for colleges such as which students are the best, they provide ample data for high schools and state governments to prove that the academic standards are being upheld, and they also provide useful information to various institutions

Introduction: Standardized testing is used to hold schools accountable. The pressure to have students pass the STAAR test has negatively impacted education, because teachers to narrow curriculum in order to focus on material on the test. Standardized testing is causing the deterioration of a meaningful curriculum in the Texas Education System

When I was in grade school there was a large push for us students to excel in standardize testing. In recent years I have been more and more aware that these tests are not so much about us as students. What it is about is the school proving that their little education community is superior to others in a fight for funding. That’s not to say that the public school system is poor, or that I feel I have been done a disservice by attending public school. I loved my high school, I am just simply concerned with how much conformity was encouraged in that community. I remember, vividly, being told by one of my English teachers that my opinion was wrong because it did not match the opinions expressed in the text book. This was one of the most extreme

Many schools statewide are facing the contradictory topic of the exemption of standardized testing amongst their students. This format of assessing with American Education began in the middle 1800’s and grew when the NO Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) mandated testing in the US in 2002. These actions taken were said to mainly have been put in place to keep teachers and schools accountable for the assurance of those paying taxes and what government money is being spent on. Despite these comments, the vast majority of people would say that the proficiency level aligned with the state’s reading and math, find it to be an impossible goal to aim for. And throughout the course of time, multiple days in the school year have been eradicated with test

In the mid 1800’s, two men by the name of Samuel Howe and Horace Mann introduced the first standardized tests into the Boston school system. They believed it was a way to evaluate the students all over Boston in a fair and efficient way. The other reason for coming up with this was for the purpose of evaluating teachers and how well they were teaching their students. After a few years, thousands of schools all over the US started adopting the program. According to the Richard P. Phelps Standardized Testing Primer, Oct. 2007, Standardized Tests were a "single standard by which to judge and compare the output of each school." Major questions about the program didn’t start to arise until after 2002 when the No Child Left Behind Act passed under George W. Bush. The program got put into place when teachers found many children who weren’t able to read or write. They found students behind in the knowledge that they were supposed to know at their grade level. President Bush believed that by having every state take standardized test, more students would do good in the education system. In his

Since Horace Mann’s campaign for common school and free public education, the ideas and procedures for education in the United States have been debated. Traditionally, from