background research
Although I didn’t find information about studies similar to mine, I found a lot of information about standardized testing. The accuracy of standardized testing has been a widely debated issue. People are trying to determine whether or not these tests give an accurate representation of a student’s academic skills. Through my background research, I have discovered that there are many advantages and disadvantages to these tests.
While test scores give some indication of performance at school, a lot of information is missing and not taken into consideration. Stress and anxiety that come with taking a big exam could cause a student to get a low score. Testing can’t show that a student is expressing creativity, learning critical thinking, or engaging in what they are being taught. Further, no improvement in student achievement has been recorded over the years by using these tests. By these tests all being equal, it puts special needs children and non-English speakers at a serious disadvantage. Also, test preparation in the classroom is taking over time used for real teaching and learning. Many students only use this material for the test and then after it they forget all the information they learned. So in the end nothing has been achieved. Testing is also very expensive. In general, nothing significant is learned from taking and preparing for these tests.
On the other hand, standardized testing is beneficial. Some studies show that testing has improved student achievement in education. It provides an easy way to compare all students educational ability by giving them the same test and seeing how they perform. The content is equivalent for all students. Race or gender, for example, don’t have any effect on what test you take. Additionally, China leads the world in educational achievement and has believed in standardized testing for a long time. It can also be thought that preparing specifically for the test is beneficial because it forces teachers to focus specifically on important basic skills that need to be mastered. Through studies, it has been shown that the majority of students, teachers, and parents approve of these tests. Many people believe that taking tests and the strict standards some of them have help to better prepare students for college. Important careers, such as lawyers, doctors, and pilots, require a large examination in order to ensure they have the necessary knowledge for their job. It’s believed that standardized testing prepares students for exams like these. There was a study done in Oklahoma using information from before and after implementing the ACT and it showed that there have been large improvements in the schools by using the ACT.
Since this is such a split issue, it leads me to believe that my data will be split as well. Meaning that some students will have studied a lot and received low scores and some will not have studied at all and received high scores. There is no clear answer to the question of whether or not these tests are fair. Therefore, I don’t think my data will provide a clear answer to whether or not studying will give you a better score because every student is different. My research truly shows how many other factors are involved in test taking other than just studying or not studying.
Works Cited
http://www.act.org/research/policymakers/pdf/oklahoma.pdf
http://www.act.org/newsroom/data/2013/states/pdf/Ohio.pdf
http://standardizedtests.procon.org/#did_you_know