Tests like the ACT or the SAT are known for their length and difficulty world-wide. The main purpose of these tests are to show colleges your academic capabilities in the form of a numeric value. These tests force you to think about more abstract math problems and how to solve them. Students need to think outside the box to find a solution to complex questions, however, there are problems that many struggle to solve, which cause them to miss out on their dream school. The testing may force a change, but not everyone can adapt.
The standardized testing has greatly been heightened to new level. The introduction to common core has forced students to go beyond their own limits. Some have risen to the challenge but many are suffering. Brandon Bach, a student from Thomas Edison High School, said “the common core is just a bunch of extra things that no one is going to use ever again.”
It’s statements like these that forced many educational facilities to change their standards. In fact many states have taken the liberty of re-evaluating their own education standards. Indiana has gone the furthest down this road, adopting a law that stops implementation of the standards entirely until further review. “This voids Common Core, and we are starting the process of writing new standards,” said state Sen. Scott Schneider, the author of Indiana’s law.
The National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union and, until this point, an ally of the Common Core movement, said that the rollout of the standards has been “completely botched.”
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, has called for a three-year moratorium on sanctions tied to Common Core testing, saying, “You see if the whole shebang works, before you say it’s ready for prime time. … But that’s not what’s happening.”
The testing procedure needs to be re evaluated to better fit the students abilities. Despite what some testing critics have said, colleges still depend on college entrance exams as part of the admission process. According to a 2010 survey published by the National Association of College Admission Counseling, admissions officers ranked college entrance exam scores as the third-most important factor in the admission process – behind only grades in college prep courses and the strength of the student’s high school curriculum. The SAT actually shines a spotlight on the inequities in education by putting every student on equal footing. The notion that the differences in test scores among different groups of students is somehow the result of testing bias is an idea that is “universally rejected within mainstream psychology,” according to University of Minnesota researchers.
