students of public high-schools ought not be required to pass standardized exit exams

Because I believe that students should have equal opportunity, I stand to affirm the resolution that Public high school students in the United States ought not be required to pass standardized exit exams to graduate. Before we begin I would like to offer the following definitions: Standardized exit exam- (by the free online dictionary) is any empirically developed examination with established reliability and validity as determined by repeated evaluation of the method and results. My value for this round will be that of equal opportunity. This is defined as Policies and practices in employment and education that promote full participation and do not discriminate against persons on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, national origin, veteran status or sexual orientation. So this must be the value because it is the only way to promote full participation within schools. My Standard for this round will be that of fairness. In order to achieve equal opportunity, one must look to be fair. This should be the standard for a few reasons. First standardized tests do more harm than good. Next, they lead to more biased decisions by schools. And, finally, they do not show a students true intellectual capability. I contend that: a standard based assessment leads to major negative consequences By imposing standards on students' minds we are, in effect, depriving them of their fundamental intellectual freedom by applying one standard set of knowledge. Standardized tests oversimplify knowledge and do not test higher-order thinking skills. State standards are externally imposed on local teachers.  These mandatory assessments cannot work unless teachers understand and accept the philosophical underpinnings of standards. One-size-fits-all standards either dumb down instruction to the lowest common denominator or condemn low-ability students to frequent failure So being that these extremes exist hand in hand with standardized testing, we must assume that they occur. And since these extremes occur, they can negatively affect teachers teaching abilities and over all students' ability to learn from said teachers. Ormrod, J. E. (2003). Educational Psychology. Developing Learners. (4th ed.). Columbus, OH: Merrill Prentice Hall. A lot of school systems hold their schools accountable when test scores do not continually improve. They place an inordinate amount of pressure on teachers to raise students' test scores. They are not only pressured to raise student test scores, but to also raise the school average. Unfortunately, this can lead to dishonesty on the part of teachers and principals. They have no reason to include the scores of students with special needs and often try to find reasons why a student with special needs shouln't even take the test. This does nothing but harm the students who need special help. We cannot determine what kind of help they need if we do not know what level they are currently performing at. Dishonesty in schools is NEVER a good thing. We must conclude that if schools are to be dishonest and lie about test scores, then they might be compelled to lie about other things. Also, standardized test averages need to include everyone. Leaving out any kind of special needs kids is a bias that is again linked to dishonesty. If there were to be standardized testing, everyone must be included. So to prevent any kind of dishonesty abandoning the standardized exit exam is the best choice. One of the most devastating effects of high-stakes standardized testing is the emotional effect on students and teachers. Haladyna, T. M. (2002). Essentials of Standardized Achievement Testing. Validity and Accountability. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. After doing poorly on a test, low-achieving students become disillusioned and less motivated which leads to less effort to learn, starting a downward spiral that is very hard to break out of. Once they perform poorly on a test, they have no motivation to work hard for the next one and do poorly on that one once again, which in turn evokes more negative emotion towards learning. Teachers have even admitted that they begin to develop negative attitudes towards students that do not perform at an acceptable level. Not only do the students get depressed after poor results on a standardized test, but teacher morale is lowered. If we expect quality education to continue, we cannot keep an atmosphere that drives out more teachers than we can afford to lose. Lastly I contend that: standardized tests become a major problem when they are biased against students taking it. One of the biggest faults of standardized tests is that they often do not take diversity into account. Too many of today's tests are written so that only white, middle-class, English-speaking Americans can succeed. Other aspects of diversity that tests often times don't take into account include: Disabilities-These include physical disabilities, language delays, ADHD, visual impairments, and mental retardation. Test Anxiety-It is not an uncommon thing for students to get debilitating test anxiety. Debilitating test anxiety does not refer to the butterflies in the stomach or that moment of panic when the test is passed out. Instead it refers to the students who may freeze and cannot perform at all when faced with a test. Often times, this phenomenon is made worse when students think they will be punished in some way for a low score. High-stakes testing exacerbates test anxiety. (Haladyna, 160) Cultural Bias-It is only common sense to assume that a test item including information specific to the American culture (as some items do on some standardized tests) will be harder to answer for a student not familiar with that part of American culture. Language Differences-Often students, who are not native English speakers, have trouble on timed exams because they need more time to interpret the English language. Most standardized tests are timed and do not give students who have difficulty with the English language the extra time they need. Gender-There is probably not so much an inherent bias within the test, but the expectations held for each sex is vastly different. In addition, students who perform well in a non gender-appropriate subject are likely to be treated differently than a member of the opposite sex and conversely, a student who performs poorly in a subject they are expected to do well in will also be treated differently then a student of the same sex who performs poorly in a non gender-appropriate subject. So, among all the examples of bias that could happen, a standardized test can produce major problem within a testing environment. So it makes sense that to avoid any chance of bias abandoning standardized exams seems to be a logical conclusion.