Public High schools

It should be good practice for NFL. I will start by countering my opponents arguments then moving on my own contentions. -------------- "Valued Premise: Quality Education" You have claimed the high schools do not teach properly then proceed to make up numbers out of thin air. See I can do that too: In 2000, studies proved that I am 10% more right then you are. You have not cited any of your sources and need to do so. I will respond to my opponents second valued premise and contention 1 (they're the same) in my contentions. ---------- What is the point of school? To learn the last time I check. Learning is defined as: acquiring new knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, preferences or understanding, and may involve synthesizing different types of information. [1] Schools seek to achieve this through the classroom; however, possible. I believe standardized testing impedes on a schools ability to to just that: help students learn. ---------- [A] It's not fair to judge the ability of someone's entire academic career on whether or not they answer A, B, C or D on a test at one time. There is so much more to learning then that! What if you're a bad test taker? What if you got sick during the test? What if I have to go to the bathroom during the test? What if I'm just plain nervous? To know if you could pass or fail high school on the basis of 1 test it very intimidating to most students. To truly gauge a what a person has learned you must look at what they have achieved over the period of a course, not just 1 test. [B] Standardized testing funnels money from other subjects. If we look to No Child Left behind as an example, like my opponent mentioned, we can see that since it's passage 22 percent of elementary school leaders surveyed reported a decline in their art and music instruction. [2] If I want to be a artist when I grow up I won't have the skills I need because it was cut from my school to increase math which I'd have little use for. This is not to say math is not important, but standardized testing that requires it to pass high school puts an overemphasis on it. [C] High school exit exams have proven not to be any more beneficial then those not taking them in job readiness. Here are some highlights for a massive study done: "Young high school graduates who obtained their diplomas in exit exam states fared no better in the labor market than their peers who obtained their diplomas in other states. These findings held in states with minimum competency exit exams and in states with higher competency exit exams. They also held for students from different racial/ethnic backgrounds. " If exit exams have no bearing a a student ability to succeed in a job, then why are we wasting time and money on them? [D] We are wasting time and money on exit exams. Not only would we waste teaching time on taking a standardized test, but money as well. Consider the things that go preparing for a test and costs : Making the test (already costs thousands for many states), preparing for it (teachers must take time to be briefed on it, students also have to study (see point E for more info on that)), administering the test, (usually takes up a day), grading it (think about having to grade MILLIONS OF TESTS, we do have electronic machines, but almost always someone has to go over it for mistakes. I also takes away time that could be used for teaching. )) Here is a breakdown of 1 persons experience taking the SAT(s). " * 10th grade: PSAT: Cost to take: $10-$14 * 10th-12th grade: Advanced Placement Tests (5 total) Cost to take: $135 each = $675 total * 11th grade: SAT I (taken twice – I might be showing my age, but when I took it the full score was 1600, not 2400) Cost to take: $25 each = $50 total Cost to send top score to colleges (12 colleges) = $8 each = $96 total Test-Prep: $0 – my high-school counselor somehow got me into a class that a prep organization was doing as a pro-bono project. * 11th grade: SAT II (3 tests, each taken twice) Cost to take: $25 each = $150 total Cost to send 3 top scores to schools: $8 each = $18 total Test Prep: $500-$1,000? I was sent to tutoring every day after school for a couple of months. * Post-college: GMAT (taken twice) Cost to take: $250 each = $500 total Test Prep: ~$1,800 – this includes a formal 9 week prep class and a couple of additional workshops. Adding up all the numbers… comes to out to around $4,000. Just on testing and test-prep alone. " [4] While this person clearly went above and beyond I think it give you a ball park of how much costs can add up. .. . And that's just on the student side [E] Teachers and students teach and study to the test. This creates a tunnel vision mentality where only the info that's going to be on the test is important. When you teach to the test you leave behind critical thinking skills. Just asking someone to answer A, B, C, or D does require one to look at a piece of information critically, instead their thinking only need to graze the surface. [F] There's a luck component. If I only have to answer A, B, C, or D and I fail by one question, but the guys next to me passes by one question because he "guessed right" is that really fair how does that demonstrate learning? This also helps refute your earlier point of grading teachers on the results of the test. Why should even some of how their grades be tied to luck? [G] If we wish to catch to other nations in the international ranking then we need to ditch standardized tests. Many other nations such as Ireland and Iceland do not use standardized testing as a means of grading students, instead electing to use performance based criteria to grade students. The ironic part of the whole situation is that they still score higher then us on international exams. Combine this with the fact we spend $9,666 a pupil [5] which is less then Ireland, Iceland, and New Zealand, but still got outperformed on international standardized test. [6] --------- Seeing and I only have 5 minutes left I will have to cut my contentions short. -------- Standardized testing does nothing but hinder learning. Forcing students to pass one to graduate high school would be a disaster. The resolution is affirmed. ------ Sources: [1] . http://en.wikipedia.org... [2] . http://www.washingtonpost.com... [3] . http://hsee.umn.edu... [4] . http://www.wellheeledblog.com... [5] . http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com... [6] . http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache%3A-W3hHAMGAL8J%3Awww.ciaonet.org%2Fpbei%2Faei%2Foti%2Fhef02%2Fhef02.pdf+belgium+per+student+spending&hl=en&gl=us