L.A.P.
3rd June 2011, 02:27
I was assigned to write an essay as to whether students are over tested or not as my final exam and he plans on sending in the essays as his protests against the overt amount of standardized testing in my school. Just so you don't get confused, the two schools mentioned are Gulf Coast High and Golden Gate High. I used to and will be going back to the former and currently attend the latter. Gulf Coast is your typical school filled with petty bourgeois European-American kids while Golden Gate is your typical school filled with proletarian African-American and Hispanic-American kids.
Throughout this year in two different schools, Gulf Coast and Golden Gate, it has become apparent that students in Collier County students are being incredibly over tested. Students in Golden Gate High School have been especially been over tested as being used as guinea pigs for the county to tests out any new idea for a standardized tests they come up with. Whether it is practice SAT, ACT, FCAT, and several other standardized tests that can’t even be named because there were so many of them, most of them were complete bullshit.
Students can understand having to take the practice SAT and ACT as they are important tests that will determine a lot about what universities or colleges you can go to even though there is a lot to criticize even about these tests. And students can tolerate taking the FCAT despite it being considered a joke by most academic institutions and simply being ineffectual in being a project to raise the education standards of Florida, a state that is known for being very poor in education even in comparison with the rest of the United States. However, it is almost degrading how Collier County chooses to use the students of Golden Gate High School as test subjects on their redundant standardized tests that won’t really contribute anything to a child’s education at all. Names can not even be given to refer to the several different tests these students have to take and they only take time out of the day that could be spent actually giving these kids an education. It’s suggested that the school administration has nearly given up on the students of Golden Gate by testing out these new online and standardized tests but never testing them on the students of a school with a higher reputation such as Gulf Coast. It’s almost as if they think “Got a new idea for the next big test we give? Just give it to the Golden Gate kids and see how they do, it’s not like they’re doing anything else.” It is clear to any student in Golden Gate that they get the brunt of these tests because Golden Gate is considered the bottom of the totem pole and wasting their time doesn’t matter as much as wasting the time of a student in Gulf Coast. In a way, it’s part of the many things that lower the morale of the student body of Golden Gate High School thus causing them to perform even more poorly and the blame should be directly pointed towards the irresponsibility and out-right classism of the Collier County Public School Administration. It has become more than obvious that Collier County simply has no interest at helping the students in Golden Gate as much as they help the students in schools with a demographic of upper middle class kids such as Gulf Coast. Collier County doesn’t care about Golden Gate because they perform poorly but Golden Gate performs poorly because Collier County doesn’t care about them. This is the tragic circular logic that they have and the constant testing can not change this.
In closure of this essay, the constant tests on the students of Golden Gate High School as if they were lab rats won’t help their academic achievements or make them gain any more knowledge. This is because they root of the problem is not in the students nor in the teachers but in the very administration that runs the school board. Their lack of interest and classism against students from working class backgrounds but rather simply leaving them behind should be absolutely unacceptable. If anyone should be tested for evaluation on performance, it should be the bureaucrats themselves.
Tell me what you think.
Throughout this year in two different schools, Gulf Coast and Golden Gate, it has become apparent that students in Collier County students are being incredibly over tested. Students in Golden Gate High School have been especially been over tested as being used as guinea pigs for the county to tests out any new idea for a standardized tests they come up with. Whether it is practice SAT, ACT, FCAT, and several other standardized tests that can’t even be named because there were so many of them, most of them were complete bullshit.
Students can understand having to take the practice SAT and ACT as they are important tests that will determine a lot about what universities or colleges you can go to even though there is a lot to criticize even about these tests. And students can tolerate taking the FCAT despite it being considered a joke by most academic institutions and simply being ineffectual in being a project to raise the education standards of Florida, a state that is known for being very poor in education even in comparison with the rest of the United States. However, it is almost degrading how Collier County chooses to use the students of Golden Gate High School as test subjects on their redundant standardized tests that won’t really contribute anything to a child’s education at all. Names can not even be given to refer to the several different tests these students have to take and they only take time out of the day that could be spent actually giving these kids an education. It’s suggested that the school administration has nearly given up on the students of Golden Gate by testing out these new online and standardized tests but never testing them on the students of a school with a higher reputation such as Gulf Coast. It’s almost as if they think “Got a new idea for the next big test we give? Just give it to the Golden Gate kids and see how they do, it’s not like they’re doing anything else.” It is clear to any student in Golden Gate that they get the brunt of these tests because Golden Gate is considered the bottom of the totem pole and wasting their time doesn’t matter as much as wasting the time of a student in Gulf Coast. In a way, it’s part of the many things that lower the morale of the student body of Golden Gate High School thus causing them to perform even more poorly and the blame should be directly pointed towards the irresponsibility and out-right classism of the Collier County Public School Administration. It has become more than obvious that Collier County simply has no interest at helping the students in Golden Gate as much as they help the students in schools with a demographic of upper middle class kids such as Gulf Coast. Collier County doesn’t care about Golden Gate because they perform poorly but Golden Gate performs poorly because Collier County doesn’t care about them. This is the tragic circular logic that they have and the constant testing can not change this.
In closure of this essay, the constant tests on the students of Golden Gate High School as if they were lab rats won’t help their academic achievements or make them gain any more knowledge. This is because they root of the problem is not in the students nor in the teachers but in the very administration that runs the school board. Their lack of interest and classism against students from working class backgrounds but rather simply leaving them behind should be absolutely unacceptable. If anyone should be tested for evaluation on performance, it should be the bureaucrats themselves.
Tell me what you think.