SUCCESS

Maybe a student struggles with an attention disorder and forgot to take their medicine one morning; a student’s performance on the test will not be an accurate representation. Involvement is another key aspect of a successful student. In the real world, businesses are going to look for people who have leadership abilities and spend extra time pouring their hard work into an organization. This can be equivalent to involvement in high school activities.

Some students and teachers believe that standardized testing is the most effective and accurate way to equally measure the success of every student. Some teachers prefer standardized testing over any other method because they give back the quickest results and are the easiest to grade. Some students prefer standardized testing because they are naturally good test takers. This means that they have the ability to focus and think quickly as well as recall information easily.

Contributions to this story came from 21C Journalism students

Caroline McGrath and Ellie Vaughn.

Certain families have access to tools such as tutors and special classes. Other student families may not have that same advantage, or the student simply doesn’t have the ability to process information or comprehend as quickly. Not everyone has control over their ability to test well but as students make the decision to get involved and to work hard, that is by far a more reliable source for measurements of success.

Standardized testing holds an important place in today’s educational system, and will continue to do so unless changed by those in authority. Simple things that can be done to eliminate the issue of the pressures of standardized testing is that the test optional college application decision should be more publicized. Better scholarships should be offered for students that have proven themselves by maintaining a high GPA. Although standardized testing is a valuable component in today’s educational system, these tests are not a complete or fair assessment of student achievement.