Any of us who grew up in Florida are familiar with the FCAT and the arguments that it brings to the table. The only two sides in the argument are either to keep it or get rid of it. Those who want the test to stay say that its a good measure of where the students are at in their educational stand point and say its unfair to others who pass the test to allow students who didnt to move on. Those against it say that not all students are test takers and that the test doesnt portray the students actually learning ability.
But what these two sides over look is the fact that there are other sides looking in that could help get rid of these test and keep them at the same time. One of the biggest unlooked arguments would be to keep the test but not have it count toward such serious outcomes. For example, dont make it count towards graduation. There are a ton of students who had their college careers set out for them through sports scholarships and ended up having these scholarships removed because of a single test. Many people believe we should only use these tests as a bookmark to see where our students stand. Another popular view would be to have the test and the students GPA weigh out. Many colleges use this system with the SAT and ACT when students apply to college. This allows bad test takers to show that they still do good in school and maybe they had a bad day taking the test.
So as students, ask yourself , should these test stay as is? If not what changes would suggest? Or should they just be removed altogether?
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At my school in NH we had these tests and they didnt count towards anything. This made the students not try at all on them and the whole school did bad on them and it made our school look bad throughout the state. It shouldnt count towards your GPA but it should count for something otherwise students wont take it seriously and it would be a wast of time and money.
ReplyDeleteI think that standardized test are a good way to measure where a student stands academically. I think the tests are especially good to predict what kind of classes that student should take the following year. But I think that if a students doesn't do well on these tests they should not be held back or if they do bad and are put into a lower class level because of it they should be allowed to test out of it. In my opinion states depend on these tests a little too much and it puts too much pressure on the children. I don't think we should get rid of them but instead figure out someway to have them weighed differently.
ReplyDeleteIn high school, we took PSAT as well as the SAT and the PSAT was practice so no one really cared or attempted to do well. But, a lot of people took nothing but classes to help them study for the SAT. I agree on the statement that the SAT and ACT can help students who do not have the best grades and need help to graduate. But for tests like the FCAT that are based on passing a grade or failing, I think that might be too drastic.
ReplyDeleteI am personally a bad test taker. I had to take the FCAT multiple times in high school as well as the SAT and ACT. Even after taking them several times I still did not pass them with high grades and the school wanted me to take extra classes on top of my honor classes. I had a 3.2 GPA but because my test scores were not high I was veiwed as a bad student. I always had to have teachers tell guidence counselors to switch me out of the remedial and regular classes. I think the standardized test like the FCAT should not count towards the students graduating because students like me, who are bad test takers, get viewed differently and punished academically.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with Katie. I am a bad test taker myself too and I had to take the SAT twice and I didn't do as well as I expected. I don't think these tests are designed in a matter that will let universities know how smart you are, because then there would be an explanation why a student with a 3.9 GPA barely passed the exam. I think these exams shouldn't be so important for your college application, and Universities shouldn't lean on them so much. Ten, twelve years of school preparing yourself for college should be more important than a five hour exam.
ReplyDeletei think that the FCAT is a good test to see how well students are learning, but i don't think it should count so harshly on whether you get to go to college or not. i personally am a very bad test taker and although i got straight As through high school and graduated cum laude i still failed the FCAT and SAT and its not fair to me because i know the material, but with all the stress it makes me not do as well. so with that being said i think that the FCAT should count just as a regular test grade or something instead of a do or die grade.
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