Why take standardaized tests... what do they prove? do they prove how much they can trample us? how easy they manipulate us? If they had their way we would all funtion off one brain!!!! I hate it... So tell me guys... your the smart ones.. so enlighten me... what is the true meaning of standardized testing...? ... Please respond.. I will be visiting thios and the priviouse anarchy forum sparadicly throughout the future... probobly mostly during school hours, (CAUSE i figured how to get around their site monitering systenm) Well... respond soon cause testing is over at 10:40 and ill be gone for the weeknend... so later... PEACE TO ALL ... smoke cannabis for your health...

-- StonerTeen (n@N.net), November 30, 2001

Answers

The tests are to be the minimum that you know. You have flexability. You can learn more. Or you can be at the Minimal Level and still pass. Or you can fail and have to do it over again. I didnt Graduate. I didnt quit. I was kicked out. The real world has made me realise something. I should have learned more.

-- Tator (you@cant.resist), November 30, 2001.

Standardized testing is yet another way for Amerika to categorize its citizens. Other countries do similar things, but they take the top, like, 30%, and prepare them for college. The bottom half gets sent to apprenticeships for the working class. Personally, I see little point in high school. High school prepares you for college, but about half the students either never set foot on a college campus or dropout within a year. In other words, Students should be given a choice: to prepare for college, or prepare for work. This way, the curriculum is better fitted to the students' needs.

-- tamara (twilborn@earthlink.net), November 30, 2001.

I HATE high school. First off, its COMPLETELY standardized, sterilized, completely DEVOID of any indivisuality. they assign classes bases on age, instead of intellegence, and they teach the SAME THINGS the SAME WAY to EVERYONE.

All cliques are alike. In every school, youve got the jocks, the teeny-bopper cheerleaders (who hang out with the jocks), the Nerds, the potheads, the drunks, and the handsome guys (who I HATE, by the way). Teachers all look and act alike.

The only funny thing about this is that from an omnesscent point of view, if you were to observe what goes on in between classes, it is HYSTERICAL. Everyone gets into their "little groups" and take the same route to the next class, again and again, everyday for the entire year. not once do they stop to think about what might happen if they went the OTHER WAY for a change.

"When I came to the crossroads, I took the road less travelled by. that has made all the difference." ~Whitman

Oh, yeah, this is AA's 100th post. Yay.

-- Davey Rootbeer (yankeefans2@juno.com), November 30, 2001.

Man, don't you know that high schools are actually training grounds for the production of "coperate drones" with no capacity for free- thought, individuality, or diversity. They are conformity schools. They are designed not to give you the basic knowledge of life, but to mold you into the submissive slave that the government needs to survive.

And universities, the once incorruptable store-houses of knowledge are going the same way too.

-- Okie Dan (okiedan@oklahoma.net), November 30, 2001.

True....so, SO true....*snif*

-- Davey Rootbeer (yankeefans2@juno.com), November 30, 2001.

I ask you this, what kind of idiot would put a clostrophobic in charge of a nuclear engine on a sub? That's what the Navy wanted me for after we took the ASFAB or whatever the hell it was our Junior year of High School. Let's totally ignore the fact that I have a criminal record in four countries, of course. You think they'd at least check people out more carefully before they offer them jobs with things that can make really big explosions.

-- Ephiney (ephiney@yahoo.com), December 02, 2001.

They offered the same thing to me when I took it (ASVAB). I should have went. I really should...

-- Tator (you@cant.resist), December 02, 2001.

Well, as long as Homer Simpson is a "safety inspector" at a nuclear power plant......

-- Davey Rootbeer (yankeefans2@juno.com), December 02, 2001.

Act Assessment testing not tooooooooo sure, the person who created this test, needs to take it tooooo. Thank you listener!!!!!

-- Rachel (Rachel@milx.net), January 15, 2002.

*shuffles feet, embarassed he got a 29 on the ACT* That doesn't mean I'm smart, ok? (or..AM I? BWAHAHAHAHA!!)

-- Davey Rootbeer (yankeefans2@juno.com), January 15, 2002.

This punctuation is seriously sad. Obviously you people do not care about school because you cannot write properly. Even though I think writing is important, I think *high* school is pathetic. Cliques are probably the most embarrassing and ridiculous part of it.

Oh, and just for the record, an ACT score of 29 is pretty good. However, I do not think the ACT measures intelligence; only test- taking ability.

-- jules (fjklasd@hotmail.com), April 12, 2002.

who gives a shit one way or the other!!!!!!!!!

-- Fredrick Lester Johnson (freddies_world1953@yahoo.com), May 27, 2003.

I have to take the ACT soon. I find it pointless and pathetic. I know I will do well, but my school is pushing it further. I am being forced to *Study* for a test where I have no idea what the questions will be. I cannot get smarter in one week. I have read the booklet helping me how to take the test. It says to rest so I will be physically ready. Physically ready, this isn't a track meet. I know what I know, and what else can I do about it. So all this rambling, concludes to this. They do not need this test for college, grades are good enough. All this test does is give money to the state. At $25 a test, and thousands of kids to take it, they make alot of money over the biggest waste of time I could ever have.

-- Chuck (eightflames@hotmail.com), June 10, 2003.

I just happened upon this site while looking for educational toys and I have to say that I am amazed. I understand that the standardized testing does not allow each person to exhibit their abilities in every area. But in answer to the question as to why there is standardized testing...Standardized testing is used for many reasons and one is not to make corporate drones, lol. Standardized testing is used for special education to determine students who need intervention the most as we do not have an unlimited amount of money for extra services. It is also used to determine a students level of knowledge to give some idea where to begin instructing them so as to, hopefully, NOT waste time instructing on information that the student already knows. It is also used to assess whether the extra help has helped over a period of time.

Now for the more difficult area. Why is standardized testing used with regards to regular education. As one individual alluded to at this site, it is used to determine if a person has learned the minimum amount of information that would allow him/her to be successful at the next level of education or life (e.g. college, vocational training, or even jobs requiring particular skills). Again, as with special ed., it is also used in the regular education environment to know what a student may need to study in the future (e.g. retake a certain subject in college or be able to skip it). It is also intended in the Elementary and High School levels to assure a minimum level of teaching throughout the country. Although, the tests often need much improvement, statewide testing is a new thing and is evolving. So it isn't just to monitor the students but to monitor the quality of education that is made available to them.

Now, it is a shame that some individuals do not see the value of a high school education. I am assuming that those are individuals that have not supported themselves and do not realize that minimum wage will not allow you to support a family and barely allows one to pay bills for one person, if that. And don't misunderstand either....the schools do offer vocational tracks of study for students that want to learn skills for the work environment and don't want to pursue college. So I am not sure where that person was coming from.

And yes, there are a few individuals who make a lot of money without a high school diploma, but there are veerrrrry few and the odds are not in anyone's favor of being one of those lucky people. Taking a chance and not graduating from high school is a foolish track, but it is a choice. And yes, I have gone to college, but I went back many years after realizing I could not support my son and myself on what I could earn with only a high school education. And I have several friends who did not finish high school and who went back for the same reason. But more importantly they went back so they would have some choices and not be stuck doing a job they hated every day just to pay the bills.

And no, the service does not put one person in charge of dangerous equipment. ONE person is never in charge of anything, regardless. There are several checks and balances within a system such as that. Your high school education would teach you that. And the service/military TRAINS individuals, and uses their tests the same way our schools do to see what a person already knows, what they need to be taught, and for what they would be better suited.

And high school is useful, but it's purpose is not as obvious as Elementary School. High school is the place where you learn to apply what you have learned in a more broader sense. Elementary school is where you learn the basics. And yes, you do need reading, writing, and math to survive, contrary to many high school students' opinion, lol. You need Geometric, physics, algebra, grammar, vocabulary, etc... Try cooking without those things, try fixing your car without those things, trying reading a newspaper looking for a job, try filling out a job application, etc... You use the skills you learn in school to survive everyday without even knowing it. Besides, how would one have even learned to write a response at the website without the things they learned in school? Do you all think you would have been educated enough to question your rights as individuals here? NO. You are already educated inspite of yourself ;-).

There is nothing wrong with having a good time in life and preparing yourselves to be contributing members of society instead of individuals that everyone else has to work twice as hard to support through taxes. You can do both, I assure you. And twelve years is a very small piece of your life, just remember that. You have decades to live during which you have survive by the choices you made during those brief 12 years. So choose wisely! Because your choices are much more limited as far as redoing early choices when you get older.

Good luck to all of you and thank God that the government and parents guide (or force) us to get an education in spite of ourselves when we are in high school, lol.

Lisa

-- l. Millwood (lmillwo@yahoo.com), July 06, 2003.

well said. One of the main reasons for standardized testing is accountability. The schools and the teachers are the ones getting the grade most of the time.

-- laura Wood (apricot1119@yahoo.com), October 15, 2003.