Public High schools

First I will counter my rebuttals and contentions then move on to my closing statements for the round. "VP: . http://www.libertarianrock.com...... This is were I get my information from. You can extend my value premise. My opponent makes up a statistic that has no evidence. My opponent makes no rebuttal so my value premise must be looked to in the round. " My opponent takes his evidence from a website called libertarianrock. com. First of all, I cast doubt on the factuality of anything from a website with a clear slant to appeal to one type of party. Second of all, the evidence he sites is outdated and goes as far back as to 1960. Third, the website wants less government involved in schooling not more! Standardized testing for every high school would increase the size of the government. I made up the statistic: "In 2000, studies proved that I am 10% more right then you are. " as a means of humor. I don't think you got the joke. "I would ask my opponent that he would signpost where is was making arguments in his case. " I do. I use letters to separate my contentions throughout my arguments. "Let me just say this, if a student can not handle a test, how are they going to handle life? Secondly the key is to allow retakes and to re mediate, to help students who struggle to succeed. Failure is a speed bump to success. This test ensures that the students have a quality education and they do not pass high school without the proper tools. If they are bad test takers, how will they take SAT's, if they can't handle the tests they wont be able to handle everyday situations. " That's the point. Life isn't a standardized test. There is no A,B,C, or D answer. How does a standardized test ENSURE that students have a quality education? "If they are bad test takers, how will they take SAT's, if they can't handle the tests they wont be able to handle everyday situations. " Simply not true. How does my opponent respond to the fact that there have been MANY successful people that have dropped out of high school and went on to succeed in life? Andrew Jackson, considered to be one of greatest presidents dropped out of high school. J. R Simplot is a self-made agriculture billionaire and dropped out as well. Carl Linder? Marcus Loew? All dropouts that couldn't "handle" tests. [1] "He states that the tests take away from programs such as arts, well even this is bad, it does not matter. A real basic education is more important than just extra curricular activities. Point 2: If a kid really wanted to be an artist he would enroll in classes not involved with school, and would practice on his own. " My opponent has admitted that standardized testing takes away from the arts and that this is bad. First off my opponent has called these " extra curricular activities" which is beyond wrong. "Arts and cultural industries generate $1 .2 billion in revenues, $413 million in wages, and 19,500 jobs, totaling 6% of all employment in the County" [2] Does that sound like a "extra curricular activity" to you? In today's economy kids need to build the skills for these jobs in high school and with standardized testing being a requirement this is going to be servilely limited. ""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? Because they make sure that they have a quality education before the graduate. "" Having a quality education means preparing for you the workforce! "My opponent states that the exams waste money, IT IS NOT A WASTE OF MONEY, it makes sure that the students have basic knowledge before they graduate. Look to my VP, those facts are appalling. Teaching the test is only a bad if there is a bad test. I'm arguing for a good test, not a bad one. " There are other ways to see if someone has what you consider "the basic knowledge" before they graduate. Standardized testing is a poor way to measure someone's ability as I've stated and backed up with evidence throughout my entire argument. You claim you argue for a good standardized test, but that's the point, there is none. "I'm arguing for a critical thinking test. " If you are then, I challenge you to find a standardized test that shows critical thinking skills. Critical thinking is defined as: exploring questions about and solutions for issues which are not clearly defined and for which there are no clear-cut answers. [3] "I use critical thinking. We can never stop luck, but it is a better method of our current public school system. " First off, congratulations on using critical thinking. I agree we can never stop luck, but we should seek to limit it. In most standardized testing there's a 25% chance you'll get it right, without even knowing any of the information. You claim that this is better then the current public school system, but that is false. In fact every state requires that you pass a standardized test to graduate. If you think our school system is so bad, then isn't standardized testing part of it? Here is the list of tests for each state: . http://en.wikipedia.org... "This is a copy and paste, I also read this article. So what, there is also countries that use standardized exams such as Finland, and they rank near the top of high students in the world. " It was not copy and paste first of all. I took information from the article and summarized it in addition to citing the original article. "So what, there is also countries that use standardized exams such as Finland, and they rank near the top of high students in the world. " So what? That point was they DIDN'T use standardized testing and still when it came to an international standardized test they ranked higher then us! This was because they used performance based evaluations! Not to mention they spend less they we do on each student. We should seek to learn from these countries and implant a similar system. "Standardized exit exams are able to level the playing field of competing school systems. Although there will always be some sort of unfairness in these exams, they still provide the opportunity for different institutions to prepare students for the exam and the future as well. " Since when are public schools competing? Not mention that fact you admit that standardized testing is unfair! "My opponent does not state how he would change the public school system, and we can not leave it this way. " It's not my job to offer an alternative, but nevertheless I have. Using student portfolio reviews, end of course interviews, and projects are just some of the ways we can judge how much someone has learned. Dropped: My opponent dropped my point about the cost of standardized testing. My opponent dropped my point about the fairness of judging someone on just 1 test. My opponent dropped my point of teaching to the test. My opponent dropped my point [G] entirely. Closing Statement The point of a school is to help students learn! Many schools have mission statements emphasizing this. My school has the mission statement: "Green Hope High School is a community that provides a quality education and inspires every student to soar to success. " Standardized testing creates a false sense of quality education in the fact that it doesn't prepare you for the job market. [4] Success can't be judged on A, B, C, or D answer. Teachers need to individually evaluate students based on the criteria I've presented. Only then will students truly soar to success. [1] . http://www.education-reform.net... [2] . http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:UaHmTPZF3EoJ:bber.unm.edu/pubs/UNM_BBER_AbqBCo_A%26CIs_ES_Booklet.pdf+importance+of+arts&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us [3] . http://aaahq.org... [4] . http://hsee.umn.edu...