PHIL210 CRITICAL THINKING ASSIGNMENT 1.2 CONFLICTING VIEWPOINTS part II

CONFLICTING VIEWPOINTS ESSAY
ASSIGNMENT 1.2



Conflicting Viewpoints Essay – Part II
Strayer University
Felicia McCaw
Professor Muhammad Mustafa Sohna, Ph.D.
PHIL 210
Online Summer 2017
July 28, 2017

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Is the use of Standardized Tests Improving Education in America? One of the concerns of evaluative testing is its true purpose and what aspect does it truly fulfill. In a nation of cumulative scrutiny and evaluation the purpose of testing is first to measure a student’s progress and assimilation of given material and as well as ability to evolve. As tests are prepared to reflect an analysis of overall progress of students area by area so does the need to ensure fairness, equality and equivancy with a look of guidance to ensure a viewpoint to measure the mental acuity of each student. But in effect standardized tests cannot measure the curriculum but it more or less serves as a guideline to ensure that the basic skills are being assimilated. Therefore, actively standardized tests are limited in its ability to gauge what is needed to generate whether it can state that fairness exists in these tests.

Affective bias is a level that all standardized test have because of cultural differences, levels of supportive family education, interactive ability, social consensus, peer association and pressure, English level of English spoken and read, mental acuity and awareness, level of understanding and ability to process and other factors.

Therefore, in effect the scorage is not a true representation but is rendered in progressive bias when comparisons are done between races due to a lack of communication equivalency and a lack of educational ability to progress due to a lack of exposure and narrowed unexpanded life. Unfortunately, when a rendering of a decision of ability, talent and mental acuity the depressed segments of the populace reflect inability, not capable of assimilation and looked as dismal people incapable of absorbing any type of knowledge but the basic of the basic.

Summarily, standardized tests are limited evaluations but serve as tested, accumulated data to reflect that in the impoverished communities a similar curriculum is not being taught and that the terminology, written cases are like a foreign language and cause extreme difficulty due
to ignorance and not mental acuity. Without exposure to widen the horizons with more written

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details this in itself causes an inability to progress or accumulate a more logical approach and ableness to become more competitive on tests as more knowledge is gained and absorbed.

Therefore, the testing of students will always have an inherency of unfairness, bias and flaw in the ability to test and make a true summation that basic skills are being taught properly, as well as that it reveals a seemingly hidden mockery of the education system when the reflections or consequences found are known that Black students are not being taught the same as White students. Further, the systematic oppression is buried in the form and presentation of education and the standardized test is proof needed that these tests are based upon willing oppression and regulatory position in a country of suppression.

The cumulative ability of these students are hindered and hampered and that the stereotypes are reinforced by the scorage on test and reflective reception. As such the change has to be done to change the act and presentation of education to an equal level to ensure exposure to terminology, language development, reading comprehension, math, and sciences are done to be used as a focal point in daily life. By doing this all will be able to have better scores and avenues of success.
Once again the question is posed does the use of Standardized Tests Improve Education in America? In the evaluating of this question are three pros and one con: Pro 2 - Standardized tests are reliable and objective measures of student achievement, Pro 4 - Standardized tests are inclusive and non-discriminatory because they ensure content is equivalent for all, Pro 7 - Standardized tests are narrowing the curriculum, rather they are focusing it on important basic skills all students need to master, Con 8 - Standardized tests are not objective.

In the evaluating of Pro 2, although used as a reliable source with objective measures to evaluate progress and student’s achievement. The cumulative pool of statistical data is biased,
racist with deliberate acts to reflect incapability and a huge gap in the assimilation

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capability between the Black race, Caucasian race, Latino, Hispanic, Chinese and any other minority race. But as a reflective and evaluative tool it is not a fair estimation or an equal measure of mental acuity. Further bias is reflective because of cultural differences and it cannot reflect that supportive family education is a factor in a student’s ability or that a need for interactive content is necessary in the process of assisting assimilation. Also, the cultural differences reflect norms in speaking, terminology with logical sequence to assist in the process of mental processing and analysis.

Although a multiple-choice test these tests are geared and compiled with not the Black students whose cultural inherency is absent of formulated English which makes a consensus of inability to gauge ability, aptitude and level of reasoning ability. Because a huge disparity exist between the scorages this reflects a severe underestimation of reasoning knowledge, mental acuity and possible logistics. These affective states of severe differences reflects an inherency of deliberate unfairness and systematic oppression and racism buried in the form and presentation of education and standardized tests to retain oppression and a regulatory position in a country of suppression.

In the evaluating of Pro 4, in relation to the position held by Michelle Rhee, former Washington, DC, school chancellor, that alternate tests for minorities or exempting children with disabilities would be unfair. A test that has deliberate racism associated with it is not fidelitous to any methodology or purpose to estimate a consistent pattern of education is being relayed. What it will do is gain a position of estimation that approximates whether Black people are being deliberately hampered to sneer at and keep them in a position in this country to be viewed as superlative illiterate.

Further this is not a civil rights issue it is a criminal act against a populace of the Black people deliberately short changed by hatred, meaness and willingness to use and exploit a race

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with no home to call their own. A system of inequality is a blasé attempt to spread a blinder to the world that attempts were made to teach but receptiveness is not enabled but a violent and animalistic mannerism that repels all “civilized people”.

In the evaluating of Pro 7, the curriculum as given is reposit in that it is an insufficient challenge that focus on the bare bones of the basic bones of education with that in mind any impact is near mute because the concept becomes a serious, hilarious amusement. But with expanded exploratory educational ventures it becomes a more intensified testing to raise internal pride, as well as develop expanded student achievement.

In the evaluating of Con 8, in the case of standardized test not being objective the analysis as conclusive clearly reflects a racist approach and cause a flag to raise because it can be considered a civil matter and therefore a supportive in a case of intentional suppression, hate and oppression and intentional servitude. Further the testing proves that students whether Black or minority have not been exposed to certain reading comprehension, math of a higher level, sciences that exceed the basic because knowledge is known of the inability because of the lack in structuralized learning to absorb and assimilate the material.

In relation, these tests range in ability to be used for child and adolescent evaluations that cover not only assimilated educational information but also establish guidelines to analysis of possible autism, mental thinking incapacity, intellectual ability, developmental, adaptive
behavior, achievement levels, language fluency and knowledge, social capacity, neuro-psychological functioning, parallel behavioral and emotional functioning. As such these tests hope to give a measure of validity, efficacy and predictive power. Because these tests are more or less heavily relied upon and affect the curriculum taught these summarizations of scorage is
effective in denying the need for accountability because they are geared to teach to the test which enables ability to pass the test but does not guarantee conductive learning or ability to

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comprehensively evolve further due to a lack of critical thinking skills that are absent as well as logistics.

Further the tests are reflective of three things as follows: What is learned in school, outside of school and innate intellectual ability. Therefore, the scorage is reflective only of what is learned in schools due to controlled and structured curriculum. If the curriculum is narrowed then also is the accountability which also reflects a huge disparity that will continue to grow until the marginalized groups are reduced to incapacity and subsequent view of incapability in achievement disparity.

Consequently, the standardized tests are supposed to work in complement to increase a student’s growth and achievement not use it to narrow the curriculum. Also, as a tool it can be used to ascertain what is needed to allow growth, how to retain and assimilate learning and obtain the approximate content knowledge to increase students’ achievement on these tests. Without effort these standardized tests although controversial are “high-stakes” for students because the American education system is still a failing entity for mostly the impoverish students which is seen as normal but not necessarily so for students of middle class and the upper classes.
Further, “… the Great Recession wreaked havoc among working-class families’ employment. This has led to greater residential segregation and homogenously poor neighborhoods, leading to a higher concentration of poor students in certain schools” (Neuman,2013, p.18). Because this also affects the taught curriculum due to overcrowding with a resulting factor of questionable scores on standardized testing that are clearly not a credible source. A reduced curriculum also results in inability to participate with full coherency and as such “Correlational studies show a strong relationship between high poverty and poor academic performance (Sirin, 2005; White, 1988; White et al., 1993). As such a “one-size fits all” curriculum is counterintuitive and counterproductive in a society that values individualization,

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differentiation, and customization and that it may place too much emphasis on standardized testing while discouraging teacher autonomy (Stancill, 2013; Westervelt, 2014; Tienken & Zhao, 2010).

Because of this in theory the costs are high to all involved in the educational process because poverty equates to failure and in its own state oppression and suppression. Therefore, the bias are conclusive of a hidden agenda to keep a regulated people suppressed, unknown and looked at as discard. In its own purpose standardized tests does achieves some of its goals but it is written and geared to continue oppression for without thought mankind is nothing but pure animal instinct.
Lastly, enculturation or group identification as with the theory of intentional suppression and oppression allows clarity and vision of what the missing link is? The missing link is equated to fairness, equality in regard to freedom and educational rights to challenge the stereotype and best it and build a bridge for all to evolve to higher thought with all critical purpose, logistics and educated refined thought.







REFERENCES

FairTest. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.fairtest.org/standardized-testing-and-students-
disabilities

Standardization - Wikipedia. (n.d.). Retrieved July 14, 2017,
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/standardized

(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.procon.org/sourcefiles/believinggame.pdf

Is the Use of Standardized Tests Improving Education in America? - Standardized Tests - ProCon.org. (n.d.). Retrieved July 14, 2017, from http://standardizedtests.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=001747

Mitra, D. B. (2016, March 07). Opting Out: Parents Creating Contested Spaces to Challenge Standardized Tests. Retrieved July 27, 2017, from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1100171

Hoskins Lloyd, M. (2016). Achievement and Growth on Standardized Tests: Commonalities Among Exemplary Teachers’ Practices. Literacy Practice & Research, 41(3), 17-22.

Schneider, J., Feldman, J., & French, D. (2016). The best of both worlds. Phi Delta Kappan, 98(3), 60-67. doi:10.1177/0031721716677264

Dotson, L. & Foley, V. (2016). Middle Grades Student Achievement and Poverty Levels: Implications for Teacher Preparation. Journal Of Learning in Higher Education, 12(2), 33-44

Wasserberg, M. w. (2017). High-Achieving African American Elementary Students’ Perspecives on Standardized Testing and Stereotypes. Journal Of Negro Education, 86(1), 40-51. doi:10.7709/jnegroeducation.86.1.0040