Standardized Test

As seen in the youtube videos that Dr. Luongo provided, the teachers have lost their creativity in their classroom, because they can only really teach the material that the students will see on the test. As a child I hated standardized test, because your teachers were always putting pressure on you saying how important it was to do well on the test and that you need to pass it to be successful. I always was a very poor test taker, but even more so on standardized test. I have recently learned to be calm before test and just to do the best that I can, but when I was young I felt like I had no control over my anxiety of tests. Standardized test in particular I felt were not a fair evaluation on how I was as a student, because a standardized test couldn't tell anyone if I was a hardworker or a poor test taker or an average or above average student, it only evaluated if the student(s) knew the material or didn't. For someone like me I knew the material, I practiced in class and at home time in time again, because it was repetitive, but that didn't mean come test day that I was going to do well with it. I felt like it wasn't a fair evaluation of me or of my teacher.

Now, I see that as a teacher it's not any easy then it was for me. Teachers are accessed on how well their students do on these standardized test, but what if there are students like me and my friends who knew the material in class, but were horrible test takers, how is that a fair evaluation on if the student really knows the material. My 7th grade teacher for language arts, made our class practice for the second half of the semester looking at a picture and writing a story of what each individual saw in the picture and exercises like that for the GEPA, which I would take in 8th grade. I practiced over a year for the GEPA, but my evaluation on the GEPA still wasn't equivalent to the evaluation that I was getting in the classroom on the same material. I believe that it's not fair for either teachers or students to have to be graded on this, but it's what the teacher and the students take out of it that will prepare them for years of standardized test to follow.

Report

Personally I believe report cards are a good way of accessing students' overall achievement in each class or subject. I believe it shows a student how he/she did throughout the marking period and/or semester. There is a lot of factors that go into a report card grade such as the classwork, participation, homework, projects, tests etc... and this grade takes into calculation the average grades for each category adding it up to the final grade, which is shown on the report card. A report card is not just based on one test or one assignment it's fair in the sense that its really how well the student performed. Each student can have a good marking period or a bad one, but that always leaves room for improvement and success in the future.

As far back as I can remember I had good report cards, there were some times that I remember not having a good grade on report card, but it was because I was struggling in a certain area. Even, with those grades I was upset, because it's was frustrating not seeing the grade my parents or I wanted. However, it always pushed me to do a little better the next marking period to prove that I can be successful, maybe with just a little more practice and/or time in one subject more than the others.