Who Benefits From Standardized Testing - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 6 Words: 1765 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2019/06/24 Category Management Essay Level High school Tags: Standardized Testing Essay Did you like this example? Standardized testing has become a fundamental part of the American education system. Students are tested frequently from elementary school, through high school. Many people believe that these standardized tests establish a valuable and accurate measure of students success. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Who Benefits From Standardized Testing?" essay for you Create order However, others say they do more harm than good by limiting the scope of education. There are numerous sources which benefit from standardized testing, For instance; college admission, public schools, large testing companies, test preparation companies, and more. We align standardized tests and the results of them, with achievement, intelligence, aptitude, and understanding. Those who oppose our standardized testing culture spit back all the things you cannot sufficiently summarize by filling in a bubble, arguing that these tests aren’t examinations of realistic ability, but rather, an unreliable way of forcing rank. Tests like the ACT and SAT are often met with annoyance, dread or indifference. Nevertheless, standardized tests have certain benefits. Some are obvious, such as helping applicants gain admission to a college or university, along with possible scholarship opportunities. In addition (source here) states that â€Å"Popular academic course options like Advanced Plac ement, International Baccalaureate, and dual enrollment, in which a student enrolls in college courses and earns college credit while still in high school, while it is also possible to earn credit with just a standardized test score.† Furthermore, Students will take tests throughout their college careers. While the nature of these tests may change at the university level, the content on AP, ACT and SAT exams, are intended to help prepare high school students for the rigors of college. First and foremost, on the topic of education. colleges and universities benefit from standardized testing on a multitude of levels. Colleges and universities can use test scores to get a broad idea of a students academic ability. For many college admission officers, standardized tests provide a neutral yardstick for gauging student potential and performance. Admission tests apply a common standard to everyone. This helps colleges evaluate and compare the preparation of students who go to different high schools. All schools do not offer the same academic programs, learning environments or even expectations. Colleges look at your test scores, along with your high school grades and courses, to see how well prepared you are for college-level work. College admission officers try to get a complete picture of who you are, what you’ll bring to their campus and how you might do on their campus. They look at many parts of your application besides your test scores, such as; high school grades, high school courses, extracurricular activities, recommendation letters, application essays, and more. The importance of test scores in the admission process varies from college to college and depends on an institution’s admission approach and policies. Each college has its own policy. Some colleges, including more selective colleges, may place a high level of importance on test scores, within the context of the other parts of your application. Other colleges, including many community colleges, may not require a test or use your scores at all. Equally important, states that â€Å"In addition to using ACT scores as a quick, easy way to compare students in their applicant pool, colleges also use ACT test scores as a way of determining a student’s aptitude in different academic subjects. A score of 32 on the ACT Math Test, for example, may tell colleges that a student is ready to tackle the higher-level mathematics of their college program, while a score of 21 might tell them that a particular student may not quite have the proficiency they need. ACT test scores let schools see where a student stands on a broad academic spectrum, and decide if that student would be able to succeed at their institution.† On the other hand, standardized testing is an extremely profitable business. Around this time of the year, tens of thousands of high school juniors are frantically signing up for SAT prep classes, buying expensive AP guidebooks, and paying for the SATs, AP exams, and SAT subject tests. Profits for all companies involved are exorbitant, but one company, in particular, stands out with an enormous revenue of $200,000,000 dollars and a profit of $62,000,000. And what company would that be? None other than the College Board, a not-for-profit company that capitalizes off of students anxieties. let’s take a look at the compensation of the chief executives of three very large education non-profit organizations heavily involved in standardized testing. The College Entrance Examination Board, known as the College Board, which owns the SAT college admissions exam and the Advanced Placement program; the Educational Testing Service, which administers the SAT and AP exams for the College B oard as well as other assessments for other organizations); and ACT, Inc., which owns the ACT college admissions and also is responsible for other tests and programs. It’s easy to mistake big non-profits such as these as for-profit companies because they operate in a similar fashion. They pay their top people a lot of money, charge fees for their services, make investments, market and lobby legislators. So how well do their executives do financially? In actuality, they are doing quite well financially, and many of their subordinates do just fine, as well. According to the latest publicly available 990 tax forms filed to the IRS by the three organizations, which operate under 501(c)3 tax exempt status because of their declared educational missions: Kurt Landgraf, now the former president and chief executive officer of the Educational Testing Service, earned for the 2013 fiscal year ending Dec. 31, 2013: $1,307,314 in reportable compensation and $42,210 in estimated other compensation from the organization and related organizations. Jon Whitmore, the chief executive officer of ACT, earned for the 2013 fiscal year ending Aug. 31, 2014: $672,853 in salary, plus a bonus of $150,000, and other reportable compensation of $12,949, plus retirement contributions of $57,152, plus other nontaxable benefits of $18,109. That’s a total of $911,073. David Coleman, the president, and chief executive officer of the College Board, as well as a trustee, earned for the 2013 fiscal year ending June 30, 2014: $690,854 in reportable compensation plus $43,338 in other compensation from the organization and related organizations. Total: $734,192. In 1999, the College Board was facing cash-flow difficulties, so they recruited Gaston Caperton, former governor of West Virginia, to transform the nonprofit company into a thriving business. Fourteen years later, the College Board holds a complete monopoly over the test-taking industry. Many students are required to take an SAT, or ACT subject test in order to apply to certain schools, and all students wishing to earn college credit for an Advanced Placement class must take the corresponding AP exam, which the College Board creates. Therefore, it makes sense that its profits are 317% of the industry average and its former President, Mr. Capteron, earned 444% of the industry average at a compensation of $1.3 million last year. Its newly chosen President, David Coleman, will earn a base salary of $550,000, with total compensation of nearly $750,000. Additionally, College Boards 23 executives make an average of $355,271 per year. These high salaries are extremely suspicious. If the Col lege Board truly wished to create testing equality for everyone, wouldnt it pay its executives less and instead use those profits to lower the cost of the SAT for all? Why is this company considered a nonprofit if its motives arent completely altruistic? Furthermore, on the subject of financial benefit for large companies, the College Board will tack on all kinds of extra fees for certain services, including the Rush Order, exam date changes, and the question-and-answer service. On the College Board website, the company even attempts to sell all sorts of products, including The Official SAT Study Guide for $31.99. Although the SAT registration cost itself can be waived for low-income students, the costs of these special services are not, as a result giving high-income students an edge when preparing for the SAT and completing college applications. Its becoming questionable whether the College Board is, in fact, dedicated to an equity agenda of expanding access to higher education for the poor, African-Americans, and Hispanic. If the College Board truly wanted an equal testing experience for everybody, it would offer all of these extra services for free to those who cannot afford them. Does it really seem fair that one student can aff ord an SAT study guide, produced by the test-maker, while another cannot? Those students with the right amount of money reap the benefits, while the others are left in the dust. What both sides have left out in terms of how standardized tests align themselves, whether they are measures of intelligence or oppositional forces to that intelligence, is business. As of 2011, Gaston Caperton, the president of the College Board, non-profit owner of SAT, was paid $1.3 million. Richard Ferguson, former executive officer of ACT Inc., made roughly $1.1 million. Meanwhile, The National Board on Educational Testing and Public Policy at Boston College reported that the value of the standardized testing market was anywhere between $400 million and $700 million. (Janet Lorin Washington Post) At their core, standardized tests are not equalizers. Contrary to a still-persisting popular belief, they do not offer an â€Å"equal opportunity† learning environment, which college board says they have tried to obtain. It turns out, academic conformity sells, and business is booming. Perhaps even more questionable is the accuracy of these tests in measuring ones aptitude. Director of undergraduate writing at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Les Perelman, looked over around 50 sample essays from the SAT distributed by the College Board and found a very strong correlation between length and score. If you just graded them based on length without ever reading them, youd be right over 90 percent of the time,( Michael Winerip, Washington Post.) A report released a while ago by the National Council of Teachers mirrored Dr. Perelmans criticisms; it warns that the SAT is pushing for a formulaic way of writing and that students dont have time to rewrite on the 25-minute essay section. a major error when measuring ones editing abilities. This style of testing just promotes conformity; in order to succeed in the essay, students must ignore their inner creativity and instead churn out mechanical, structured responses. We can hardly consider standardized tests education. They enforce ideas of academic success and future prosperity that are as outrageous as the profit the testing industry rolls in from dependent schools and families. We see dollar signs where we should see the opportunity to teach human beings. Its quite clear that the College Board has acquired some major flaws over the past ten or so years. Not only has it given wealthier students an edge over their low-income peers, but it also doesnt accurately test certain abilities. In short, this nonprofit company has gone completely downhill.

Accountability Is The Responsibility Or Obligation Of...

Hollie Marwick-Best Politics A: Open Book Assignment Accountability is the â€Å"responsibility or obligation of government officials to act in the best interests of society† . In the UK, the best example of this is an MP being accountable to its constituents to listen to what they want and need and taking that to parliament. Accountability is used in democracy to prevent leaders, such as the Prime Minister or even MPs, from becoming power thirsty and corrupt. Without accountability, basic human rights and freedom can be dismissed by leaders and the public citizens become extremely vulnerable. The British Government uses Parliamentary Democracy. The parliament is the heart of democracy and has all political authority. Any decisions made must be agreed by parliament, even the Prime Minister cannot act without support from parliament. All members must be part of the House of Lords or Commons before being elected; therefore any government formed is directly accountable to parliament. The parliament is to represent ‘national interest’ and must accept any vote made by the people. It can be said that having the parliament ensures the people feel safe in Britain as they feel they cannot be taken advantage of, this along with elections allows the government to be accepted by the people. If a politician does not agree with the public or feels a decision could be changed to better him, he could go against the public’s wishes without any real punishment. 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Fasting Feasting Free Essays

INGESTION, DIGESTION AND REVULSION OF FOOD AND CULTURE IN ANITA DESAI’S FASTING, FEASTING T. RAVICHANDRAN* ABSTRACT This article attempts a cultural study offood and eating habits in Anita Desai’s Booker Prize short-listed novel, Fasting, Feasting. It shows how the ingestion offood affects acculturation process both in India and America in a multicultural context. We will write a custom essay sample on Fasting Feasting or any similar topic only for you Order Now Considering Foucault’s view that discourse is involved in the exertion of power, some of the discourses from the novel are scrutinised to reveal an oppressive power structure. Interestingly enough, the power structure of the novel revolves around a gastronomical centre; and parents through repressive familial norms exert power. The linguistic strategies, such as repetition and interruption, used to assert power are analysed by examining appropriate instances from the novel. Further, it shows how the novelist, through a transcultural bundle of representative characters as MamaPapa, Uma, Arun, the Pattons, Melanie, and Rod, assesses the cross-cultural culinary habits, divergences, and subversions involved. However, it concludes with the observation that taking the novel as a dichotomous study of two cultures, the one Indian, on account of its spiritual dimension representing ‘fasting’, and the other, American due to its plenty signifying ‘feasting,’ would result in a myopic reading. Whereas, the real charm of the novel lies in the flux shown between fasting and feasting – a digesting of the best of both the cultures. † †¦ he very essence of Indian culture is that we possess a mixed tradition, a melange of elements as disparate as ancient Mughal and contemporary Cocacola American† (Salman Rushdie) â€Å"From food, from food creatures, all creatures come to be. Gorging, disgorging, being come to be. † (Taittriya Upanishad) In the Indian cultural scenario, there has been a great outcry about the safeguarding and perpetuation of ‘ the Indianness. This implies, apart from * Dr. T. Ravichandran is a Assistant Professor in English , Department of Humanities Social Sciences, lIT Kanpur, India. LUCKNOW JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES: VOL. 1, NO. 1, JAN-JUN 2004 Downloaded From IP – 109. 161. 128. 204 on dated 23-Jan-2012 Members Copy, Not for Commercial Sale www. IndianJournals. com 22 T. Ravichandran Downloaded From IP – 109. 161. 128. 204 on dated 23-Jan-2012 Members Copy, Not for Commercial Sale ational identity, a culture characteristic of the country and its inhabitants in terms of originality, purity, sanctity, and exclusivity. However, in a decolonised land that lost much of its’ originality’ and’exclusivity’ in cultural conflicts, negotiations and transculturation processes besides gulping down some novelty from the colonisers and other foreign migrants, debating on a monistic culture is inappropriate. Despite desperate endeavours to maintain a unilateral cultural fa How to cite Fasting Feasting, Papers

A Rose For Emily Theme Analysis Essay Example For Students

A Rose For Emily: Theme Analysis Essay In A Rose for Emily, William Faulkner uses a theme common to many of his works. The changing of values and attitudes in southern society. Miss Emily was born into a family, the Griersons, that were very established in the community. She was said to be the last Greirson in this southern community. The family was no longer wealthy, but continued to be held in high esteem after her father died. The only material thing her father left her was the family home. Miss Emily was left a pauper by her fathers death. However, the most important thing left her was the Grierson name and all that it represented in that town. The Grierson name conveyed such respect on Miss Emily, that she was virtually untouchable by anything except her own personal tragic circumstances. She escaped the consequences of poverty virtually by being who she was. She was so secure in her own identity that she faced down and vanquished the city authorities on the issue of having to pay taxes, referring them to a man who had been dead ten years as the person who had knowledge of her situation. To avoid being poor Emily after her lover apparently refused to marry, she took matters into her own hands purchasing Arsenic. She offered no explanation for its use even though the druggist explained to her that the explanation was required by law. When an unbearable stench emanated from her property, the men sprinkled lime around the property to contain the smell but asked no questions out of respect for Miss Emily. The people of the town knew that there was one room in that region above the stairs that most likely held a tragic secret. Out of respect for who she was or who she had been, the secret was allowed to be hidden until she was decently in the ground.. Allowances were made for Miss Emily that were not made for ordinary people. Only a community of Colonel Sartoris generation and thought would have allowed Miss Emily the priviledges she had in this story.