Has Standardize Testing Impacted Education in a Positive or Negative Fashion for Grades 9th -12th?

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ABSTRACT

The education system in the state of Georgia has placed a lot of undue emphasis on standardized testing on learning and teaching. What has been the impact of this emphasis on the overall education system? And has it improved the quality of learning or not. And if not, then what requires to be done by the policy makers in addressing the anomaly. As Kaiser, P. (2011) writes about a recent analysis of state data which found out that a good number of high school graduates take remedial courses after enrolling in the university system after realizing that they were not properly prepared for the rigors of college coursework. Then with this observation in mind, and considering the wastage of money on remedial classes which could be used elsewhere, the problem of quality needs an in-depth surgery and critical Analysis. According to McDonnell (1994), negative consequences also include a widening gap in opportunities to different students and narrowing in skills taught, there are several strategies the policy makers need focus on to deal with the situation.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACTII

LIST OF TABLESIV

CHAPTER 01: INTRODUCTION1

1.1. Background of the Study1

1.1.1. Understanding Standardized Testing2

1.1.2. Why Haven't Standardize Testing Positively Impacted Education?2

1.2. The Problem Statement4

1.3. Research Questions4

1.4. Purpose of the Study6

1.5. Significance of the Study6

CHAPTER 02: LITERATURE REVIEW8

2.2. Standardized Testing8

2.3. History of Standardized Testing9

2.4. Historical Events Impacting the Testing Movement11

2.5. The Impact of Testing on Teaching and Learning14

2.6. Theoretical Framework of Learning15

2.6.1. Emotional Connection to Learning17

2.6.2. Neurological Brain Studies18

2.7. Use of Standardized Testing20

2.8. Adaptations by Universities21

2.9. Summary22

CHAPTER 03: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY23

3.1. Introduction23

3.2. Research Approach23

3.3. Research Method24

3.4. Phenomenology25

3.5. Theoretical Framework for the Phenomenology Method27

CHAPTER 04: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION29

4.1. Results29

4.2. Discussion30

CHAPTER 05: CONCLUSION36

5.1. Recommendations for Practice36

5.2. Recommendations for Future39

REFERENCES41

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Percentage of Students Scoring at Proficient and Above*29

Table 2: Percentage of Students Scoring at Below Basic and Far Below Basic29

CHAPTER 01: INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background of the Study

The Georgia High School Graduation Test and End of Corse Test (EOCT) have helped improve learning and teaching in Georgia's education system amongst 9th-12th graders. The EOCT coupled with other assessments like the GHSGT has helped in improving achievement and performance in all courses offered at the high school level. In addition, the EOCT provides meaningful data to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of classroom lessons at the system and school levels (Georgia Department of Education, 2011). It has been established that a well structured standardized test offers an evaluation of a person's mastery of knowledge in a domain which at a certain aggregation level will offer important information (Cangelosi, 1990). This means, while personal evaluations could not be precise enough for practical application, the average scores of students at Georgia High School have been useful in offering meaningful information owing to the error reduction accomplished by the size of the sample (Odland, 2006).

Those who argue in favor of the standardized tests assert that there is no empirical evidence to nullify the effectiveness of standardized tests in the learning ...