Running Head: GLOBAL ISSUES 1

Global Issues:

Standardized Testing Issues

Roberto Zamora

The University of Texas at El Paso

RWS 1301

Dr. Vierra

April 8, 2019
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Abstract

How does lack of training to standardized testing affect students?

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Global Issues:

Standardized Testing Issues

Due to the U.S. rule on “leave no child left behind” the educational system on

standardized testing has had a fault. The leave no child left behind act has focused more on the

test and not so much on how to teach the teachers, or evaluate them on the testing criteria given

by the Government or State. Kids are not exposed to learning but more to be able to test and

memorize what they have learned in class and hope to pass. Standardized Testing is a rigged

game that has affected many people from different places taking these standardized testing.

Discussion

Have many school districts are strangling financially due to the Standardized Testing for

example in the state of Texas has an economic trouble, and corruption in its Education system. In

the great state of Texas where there’s people from around the world from different ethnic

backgrounds are been effected. According to Strongarm (2013) many companies and individuals

that make the Texas Standardized Testing in specific 13,000 of them (p.1). Standardized testing

favors those school that have founding in comparison to the lower income schools. That way the

testing companies manufacture courses to “help you take a test” and get special tutors, but this is

only offered to schools that get more funds (p.6). Test companies (which are multi-billionaire

companies) would prefer to assist schools that are in the suburban areas rather than the rural

schools, and yet it’s expected that all students pass (p. 6). As shown the state of Texas has an

issue with having the same equality among all Texas schools, and prefer helping schools with

more funding rather than those that are not as fortunate

Following the No Child Left Behind Act has not been as successful. According to the No

child left behind debate the no child left behind act has impacted greatly on the lives of those
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who are meeting the requirements in which its stands on. There has been a 23.5 percent passing

rate since the passing of this act in 2001 by George Bush Jr. presidency (p.3). The act has

allowed independent states to not follow the no child left behind act and do its own educational

problem. As a result of this half the states in the U.S. did not follow through the act and made

their own educational plan. The District of Colombia released that the states that did not want to

follow the No Child Left Behind act had the highest number of passing grades, and testing

material in the nation in comparison to those that followed the act (p.7)

That the educational system lets kids think that if they don’t meet an academic standard

they are set up for failure. Many students are looked down at, do to their test results. Many kids

grow into a state of believing they are not smart, because a piece of paper said so. According to

the Educational Testing and Evaluation Studies Quellmalz, B., (1978). Education Testing and

Evaluation. Educational test and measurements- congress. University California Los

Angeles have shown that many kids in America have put themselves down due

to a standardized testing material. It is to show that students who end up having a low grade

according to a standardized test end up achieving more than the student who was average, or

smart. Why should someone else be at fault of a student's academic test results, when they

should look at what is the issue with the testing method. You can't expect for a good result from

a student if the way the test layout is done wrong or is done that more than half of the students

gets that question wrong.

The U.S. educational system should better by analyze the students, and teacher’s

performance. A teacher in any educational filed gets an evaluation roughly around three times a

year depending on the grade level they teach. According to Dizney (1971) a teacher of any sort

must be evaluated according to its state, or district (p.16). Since the earliest days of the
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educational system in the United States there's always been a problem with how a student should

be tested, and what each grade or class should cover for the semester, or year (p. 17). At first

exams were verbal then that all changed when Dr. Thorndike came out with an ideology that

paper and pencil exams were better, because it gave the student more options to choose from and

a better way to have a hand on and to express themselves through writing (p.17). Many exams

have been messed with and many corrections have been done, including on big exams like the

ACT, and SAT. But in a smaller scale in the high school system teachers are evaluated

depending how well the students perform, and it's not fair if the exams that are put out are made

incorrectly in which it could damage the future of a school teacher and all because of the exam

error (p.19). Dizney later concludes that there should be a better way to make sure teachers are

evaluated, or to better the test.

Training for exams can be reached with proper training. An exam must be taken for all

students to determine their capability, and potential in that specific subject. The exam would

grade their potential for whoever the test was for. But nothing tells an instructor on how to teach

a test to a student and experimenting a design is not a useful technique to grade a student

According to Clanbach (1971). Researches on how test can be put out to students tent to fail, the

reason is due to a political push on school administrators to have planning periods with no proper

training, on how to teach to meet the standards (p. 37). Many of the studies conducted by the

school officials concluded that the training on both ends of the test lack an important thing, and

that is training on how to approach, teach, and test the student. A true complete test should

determine one's capability and understanding on the subject been tested on (p. 39). Over all a test

of any sort should be scrutinized from the one taking the test, and who teaches how to test.
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Campus can motivate students to peruse an achievement. According to the Prospector

University of Texas at El Paso (2007) to Having a goal is just the start to accomplishment, the

hardest part about it is how persistent is the individual to peruse the goal. The Director of the

University of Texas at El Paso Diana Natalicio sees that UTEP should enforce a goal, and

achievements in the campus (p. 5). She acknowledges that been a College student may be hard at

times and may slow down and to feel discourage and drop out, which is commonly seen in

freshmen, and sophomore students. Her goal for the students at UTEP is to have the ability to

create opportunities for talented people so they can achieve. Second to focus on the development

of the students and the campus. Third is to create confidence and perseverance (p. 5). Dr.

Diana Natalacio has pushed forward with her goals to make this a better campus, and for

everyone in the University achieve no matter what stops them.

Schools can become better at teaching students. What can schools do to better improve

on exams and get better feedback for research for future exams? According to Bull (2016) a good

way for an entire campus, or district to be successful is to embrace a vision to the students (p.9).

In the Acton Academy in Austin Texas, students are in a personalized learning environment to

better the students. Interdisciplinary has helped the students to better their learning, creativity,

humility, and simplicity (p.7). When other schools were tested on what type of learning

environment are thought in the state of Texas reports comeback that most schools that don’t

practice interdisciplinary the students are more likely to face uncertainty, and false starts in their

educational system (p. 9). We've seen that interdisciplinary has worked in this school, and how

in other schools in the state of Texas lack this principle. The results in the Acton Academy in

Austin Texas shows the success it's had in their school, and how scholars can better study this

and influence other schools to better educate their students.

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That a test does not determine one capability. Standardized Testing is a testing method

used by a state, or country to determine a student's academic achievement to evaluate and

compare. According to Educational Testing and Evaluation (1978), a Standardized test is based

on a certain subject(s), to evaluate a specific student on his/hers learning capability, and

comprehension on the subject(s). According to Quellmalz (1978) with these results that a state or

a country get, they get compared to other states, cities, or countries to compare results (p. 16). Or

these tests are also used for a Higher Education purposes. Without comparing other places results

to one's own results how can one improve to better future results?

Test evaluation is not accurate. It’s hard to measure modern work as exam makers have a

hard time making the exams on work, they themselves don’t understand. According to Ludlow

(1953), Prominent educators are having trouble gather the information been thought, and even

questioning the validity of the work been performed (p. 280). An improvement was seen in the

upcoming test evaluations by motivating students into taking an exam. Motivation inventory and

various other measures increased the test scores (p. 282). During WW2 there was a study been

conducted on students, and the result would be graded by three different categories immediate,

intermediate, and ultimate. In these categories they would be divided and focus on the struggles

in each category, and eventually master the subject (p. 282). Giving a specific group of people

with the same struggle over time working together with the mentor they would master the

criteria, because they received specific attention on their issues in the test, and the outcome test

evaluators were able to determine how the test criteria do better.

UTEP should Test and evaluate the professors test before handing them out to students

properly before handing it out to students. Exam taking has been a big hassle to every grade and

every student, especially around the UTEP miners. According to the Prospector University of
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Texas at El Paso (2000) many students take a lot of time to cramp a full semester work into a

couple of hours and expects them to achieve on the finals (p. 1). The UTEP President Diana

Natalicio finds it discussing to see flaws in her University and that there’s no action been put to

this. Many professors have not properly gotten their own exams ready or revised by the UTEP

committee and students seek answers (p.6). Many students complain of professors making

mistakes on their exams, and the student having to confront the professor, so they can get a better

chance and not be at risk of lowering their GPA (p.6). Now the President of UTEP has taken this

matter into her own hands to find out what’s going on, and to get to the bottom of this.

Conclusion

As can been seen by the studies, and research about how the educational system can be a

big issue to those that want or have to take standardized testing in order to be evaluated. There

problems in the way programs, or ways school system deals with educational testing. Not only in

evaluation but also in the financial aspects. Test don’t really show the individuals capability to

know a subject, but rather see how much they remember. Standardized testing does not

determine one capability. Standardized Testing is a testing method used by a state, or country to

determine a student's academic achievement to evaluate and compare to other data and not focus

on student learning.
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References

Annamaria Longo. (2000, October 11, 2000). Exams. Prospector, pp. 1-2-40. Retrieved

from https://theprospector.newspaperarchive.com/el-paso-prospector/2000-10-11/page-

5/

Aronson, J., & Ginsburg, J. (2018). No Child Left Behind debate. Salem Press Encyclopedia.

Retrieved from

https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=89158262&site=eds-

live&scope=site

Bull, B. D. (2016). What really matters?: ten critical issues in contemporary education.

Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2016

Dizney, H. (1971). Classroom evaluation for teachers. Dubuque, Iowa, W. C. Brown Co. [1971]

Herbert Glenn Ludlow. (1953). Trends and Issues in Standardized Testing. The Journal of

Educational Research, (4), 279-284

Nancy Burns. (1947, September 11, 2007). Ho-hum. Prospector, pp. 1-2-6. Retrieved

from https://theprospector.newspaperarchive.com/el-paso-prospector/1947-04-19/

Thomas Armstrong. (Feb 28, 2013). 15 reasons why standardized test are worthless. 1-2-

15. doi:http://www.institute4learning.com/2013/02/28/15-reasons-why-standardized-

tests-are-worthless-2/

Quellmalz, B., (1978). Education Testing and Evaluation. Educational test and measurements-

congress.  University California Los Angeles

Worthen, B. R., & Sanders, J. R. (1973). Educational evaluation: theory and practice.

Worthington, Ohio, C. A. Jones Pub. Co. [1973]

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Figures

Figure 1. Shrinking rate on Texas state help on Education

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investigations/article/Broken-Trust-Texas-huge-school-
endowment-pays-13631937.php

Figure 2. After the No Child Left behind Act the Standardized testing comity has seen a increase

on students not passing exams or assignments after The act was passed.

http://harvardpolitics.com/united-states/case-standardized-testing/
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Figure 3. That the educational system lets kids think that if they don’t meet an academic standard

they are set up for failure.

https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/01/ask-teacher-playing-favorites-teachers-pet.html

Figure 4. The U.S. educational system should better by analyze the students, and teacher’s

performance.

https://stateimpact.npr.org/florida/2014/10/30/broward-schools-want-changes-to-evaluations-
and-high-school-schedules/

Figure 5. Campus can motivate students to peruse an achievement.

file:///Users/studentlogin/Downloads/UTEP_Edge_Edited%20(2).pdf
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Cloud-Based Formative Assessment

Instructor Comments

CBFA #3 4/20/19 +2
• One revision session since last CBFA; missed classes
• Be aware of the page length requirement
• Include a discussion of your figures in the body of the paper
• Thesis and first topic sentence claim need to address a global issue

CBFA 4/14/19 +2