After reading this article, I began to wonder what the long term effect of this decision will be? Between this and the fact that SAT scores dropped an average 10 points, is the world coming to an end??
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Two Setbacks for Exit Exams Taken by High School Seniors
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Teachers beat the Terminator
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27 comments:
Testing students with a "one size fits all" standardized test is what has been occurring for years now. This test is no different than the NYS Regents exams that I have taken since the 9th grade. However, I do think that instead of testing during the 4th year, it should be annual; every year. I think that this situation could be handled better, not abolished, but changed. If a student is tested on their ability in one subject every year, the chances of them passing a standardized test is greater.
-High School Senior
I disagree with this because i don't think it is fair to make everyone take an exit exam. Some students are bad test takers and it isn't their fault. It is also a bad idea because no one can remember everything they learned from the last four years.
-high school senior
I feel that the idea of basing everything on a test is worthless because you can't base everything learned all into one test that determines if you graduate or not, and its not fair to students as individuals.
-A 2006 Graduating Senior
i think it is extremly wrong to test students, which determine whether or not they graduate high school or not. This is very unfair and unjust. This should not be done. It is not fair to the students of California and Massachuttes who are forced to take this test.This should not continue to happen.
By declaring that a student can not pass high school if they do not pass an exam, government officials are being unfair because tests are not the only way to assess a student’s intelligence and ability to succeed in the future. Some people do great on tests while others do not and this is something that can not necessarily be helped. I believe the main thing that should count is whether the student passes their classes or not. With testing, there is always the danger that a student may never pass. - High School Senior
I believe that not allowing students to graduate for failing a test that measures your intelligence at the end of your high school is unnecessary. Students should not have to just worry about this one test that is taken once in their life time and is forgotten about once we head off to college. We should worry about the life values we learn about and if we pass all of our classes. – High School Senior
As far as standardized testing goes, I'm not a fan, but I can live with it. These exit exams in California and Massachusetts, however, are something I cannot. To completely disregard the four years, and countless hours of writing essays, homework assignments, classwork, and (in some schools) portfolio projects, just because a student - for whatever reason - didn't pass ONE test, is an outrage, and does nothing but cheat the student. If the only thing holding you back from graduating is one test, why even go to school? Why not just stay home and study for those four years, get a lot more sleep, and show up that day for the test and pass with flying colors?
-Jon Hand, HS Senior
I believe that by taking tests are not the only way to pass high school. Some people learn differently from others; some might be incredible on takings exams and other dont seem to have the capability to do it. It shoudl be based on your progress throughout your high school years.
High school senior
I believe that tests are not the only way to accurately measure a student’s intelligence. Also it does not show whether a student should or should not graduate high school. There are other factors that can also be taken into account when looking at graduating seniors. Theses other factors can only be determined by the staff of the school at which the teacher attends.
- High school Senior
I disagree with what the atricle is saying. I don't think it's right that students have to take a test at the end of the year to see if they graduate on time or not. I believe that maybe it would be better if the education system in Califorina and Massachusetts just had regentes insted of such a big test at the end of the year on everything that you have learned over the 4 years.
-High School Senoir
The question of whether or not standardized testing should be neccissary or not has long been debated. Altough i agree that some test can be jaded, the overall idea of administering tests is one that should stay in place. How can a teacher be expected to give a student a deploma based soley on opinion.
Moreover, the notion that breaking up the country into regions and administering different tests to each specific region is faulted only because a grade on a test carries no wieght unless it is compared to what students in other regions can achieve.
I think that taking a test at the end of your senior year to determine if you graduate from the school is wrong because if the student work hard the whole year to leave the school and fail the test and can't graudate tells the student he wasted his time to just stay another year due to a test.
-high school senior-
I disagree with the idea of having high school seniors taking a standardized test that decides if they graduate high school or not. These tests discriminate against impoverished students. Also your whole high school career should not be accumulated by one test.- High School Senior
I think that taking a test at the end of senior year to determine whether you graduate or not is a very illogical way of thinking. The kind of pressure the student would have to endure would be so large because of how important this test is, and there are many students who crumble easy under pressure. They sit down to take the test and become so nervous they forget most of the information they had learned throughout the year. One test cannot possibly judge the education the student has recieved during their highschool years. There are so many things you learn in school that cannot be put into a standardized test, and for students that go to a school such as ours where we are not taught traditionally taking a test like this would be a huge challenge. Here we are taught leadership skills and life lessons in addition to mathematics and english, these things cannot be placed on a standardized test.
As a high school senior, I think that it is unfair when the politians are the ones who are in control of distributing the types of test we are taking. I think the educators should have more of a say on the types of test we should take, and whether we should be allowed to graduate or if we should be left behind.
-HIgh School Senior
I think that taking a standardized test at the end of your senior year of high school in order to graduate is not something i agree with. Because New York schools are of so much diversity having a standardized test only benefits the upper middle class people. So i am against it.
- High School Senior-
I think that this whole standardized testing idea is a bung of BS. Tests don’t measure how much you learn. They test how well you do under pressure and how good you are at memorizing facts, information and stats. If they do want a test at the end of the year the high schools should devise one based on the area they are located in. this way it is less discriminating. The “One Size Fits All” thing just isn’t going to cut it.
- High School senior.
Tests do not measure student’s intelligence. In fact, I think it’s unfair how high school seniors are required to take an exit exam to determine who graduates or not. I admit I’m not the best test taker and prefer a project rather than to take a test. What the government should do is give students an option to decide what they prefer to take before they graduate- a project or an exam. - High School Senior
I believe it is not fair for highschool students to get their diploma based on a test at the end of their highschool education career. What about the people who have trouble taking exams or the ones that cheat. Who says its fair to them.
I think that one test cannot prove one student's capacity.
-High School Senior
After reading this article, I feel that it is unfair for that the government has a larger say on the standards students need to have. I feel that the educators should have more say on the standards which students need to graduate.
-High School Senior
There are other methods to determine eligibility for graduation besides exams. Exams only measure how well you can study for them not how much you know. Through projects and presentations students will learn more than they would if they just took tests. - Fahad Khan
I think that having to pass a standardized test to graduate high school is a horrible idea, because they are not a good of testing students knowledge. plus if you fail it shows that you've failed to learn in high school and you dont deserve to graduate. Graduation should be based on the work you have been doing throughout your high school career, not some test given on the last month of school.
High shcool senior
I feel as though basing ONE BIG TEST on your four years of your high school edcation to graduate
is rediculus whos to say what you learned is what you need for the world after high school is on this test. So we wshould ban this!!!!
-High school senior
I don’t think seniors should have to take an exam to graduate. One test shouldn’t be the deciding factor for someone to graduate because they could be having a bad day that will hurt their test grade. When all their test grades are averaged together the not so grade test grades get averaged in with the better test grades and their average isn’t hurt as badly as with one test grade alone.
high school senior
My point of view towards this article is that i am not happy what California and Massachusetts are doing with the exam. Students are doing what they have to do through out the whole four years of highschool and in their senior year everything they ever did is just based on one test. I think this is really uncalled for what the two states are doing,for example, Me as student i really dont have good grades but if everything for me was just based on one test for the whole 4 years of my high school i would just honestly never come to school and then at the end i just have to come to school just for one day and take some test thats going to judge whether or not im going to graduate. I rather just take the test and easily cheat of it, theres so many ways to cheat on a test cell phones number priority and many other ways.
High School Senior 22
I am a middle school teacher in Phoneix Arizona. They have the AIMS test that students need to pass to graduate. The problem is, so many students couldn't pass the test, so they had to keep lowering the standard. The last I heard, to graduate high school students had to get at 56% or better. In my world a 56% has always been an F.
Furthermore, the first thing we learned in assessment in college is that many kids can't take tests and to find a better, more authentic way to assess learning. (there's also a comment here about how much they test teachers before letting them teach, but I'll leave that for another day) I don't know what the solution is, but I don't think what we are doing right now is working.
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