Are our children over tested?

Question

As a teacher i firmly believe that our goverment has lost its way with education. pupils are tested in year 6 SAT's, year 7 as soon as they arrive and as they finish the year, in year 9 SAT's, year 10 IF they are taking their GCSE exams early and Year 11 for other exams.All this just so our goverment can justify NOT puttingenough money into education but having DATA to prove it's doing it's job....Do you agree? are our pupils over tested?

Answer 1

absolutely not! tests are required to force children to learn,. The "fear" of failing forces most kids to revise their notes and actually remember them. I know for a fact that if I didnt hav to do exams everything I would attempt to learn would go in one ear and straight out the other. They are also necessary (especially in secondary school) to learn how to work towards a deadline. The drop in education standards, especially in england is due to the introduction of a lot more coursework and a decrease in the amount of exams. Education is becomming soft!

Answer 2

Yes they are over tested. As a mother and a grandmother I am speaking from experience. Not only that but tests are not always a good basis for judging a child's intelligence.

More money should be put toward education. First of all more teachers, smaller class sizes, higher pay for the teachers as this is the most important job in our society -- educating the future, and the pay should reflect the responsibility of that job as well as the education it took to get it!

I value teachers so much and think that it's time the government did as well.

They can stick their all their unnecessary tests.

Answer 3

I strongly agree with you . There is far too much pressure on our children these days. My oldest child is only five and already we have been told that there must be no holidays taken next May as her class will be taking their sats!!
Her class is divided into tables according to ability and she's always going on about the 'clever' children who show their work to the headmaster, or get a prize from the teacher and how SHE wants to be the one to pull out a suprise from the teachers bag!!. (This bearing in mind that she IS in the top third of the class.)
She came home a few weeks ago having got all her spellings correct and with TWO new sets of words to learn. Monday to Sunday the first set, then Baptise, Sermon, Christian, Prayer, Hymn, Church, Altar and several others I can't remember as the second set. How many 5 year olds can spell words like these? I didn't even practice the second set with her. She has enough to do in a week with 2 reading books, spellings & maths and HAVING A CHILDHOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We have parents evening later this week and can't wait to see her teachers. I worry that she is affected now by 'having' to get all her spellings right, and there is a pressure to recieve stickers etc for good work, what is she going to be like by the time her GCSEs come around?
Our children need to be children.

Answer 4

As an Asst. Prin. I would have to agree with you. Our children are tested entirely too much. And what purpose does all these tests serve? Most of these children can't even comprehend how these tests are labeling them. Our govt. just seems to sit around and think of ways to confuse us rather than help us. No Child Left Behind may have been a good idea in theory, but if you ask me I think it hurt us more than it ever helped. Alot of awesome teachers lost their jobs because of a piece of paper. Now most of the teachers today are coming straight out of school and are burnt out in 3 years because they don't have the support they need on staff. That "anchor teacher" no longer exists. Remember when you could think back to all your teachers that had taught you and your siblings. Where are they now? I'm sorry to bird-walk, but we have at least 6 standardized tests to give our students on the elementary level. After a while they are so tired of testing I would be suprised if they started tanking them on purpose. Learning First, NWEA, and ISAT -- when will the madness stop?

Answer 5

I think tests help children reach milestones and help with motivation, self discipline and organisation.
Sad to say but apart from A levels.i enjoyed tests, its coursework that i hate.

perhaps there should be restructuring with the ages that tests are done at but it will always seem like too many as there will have to be initial tests to assess ability then mocks etc.

Most jobs nowadays have tests as well as the CV and application form.....it is good that children learn to channel their best efforts. Its coping strategies that make some children better equipped to deal with stress and it is this, relaxation, innovation and confidence that should be taught by parents and teachers alike.

Richard Branson is proof that children who do not perform well in school will not necessarily be out of work.

Answer 6

I agree. Yes, you do need to assess learning, and make sure that kids are making progress, but not to the detriment of that learning. When I was a teacher, I spent more time preparing children for tests, and testing them, than I did actually teaching new content. Everything was geared towards the tests.

Answer 7

of course they are!!! one of my friends who's still in skool says almost the same thing every week: "sorry i cant hang out, gotta revise" and i feel sorry for the lad! remembering my skool days (which werent that long ago) these kids are being turned into robots. as an adult, i truly feel sorry for them coz, esp. during 2ndary skool, they have more than enough going on and they dont need any more stress.
i think they should only have tests at the end of primary skool and the end of 2ndary skool and nothing else - no "end of unit", end of year etc its a waste of time and does virtually nothing whatsoever to the final marks they get when they leave skool. is it any wonder that more kids are getting depressed? have the gvmnt thought about that? all i know is the gvmnt are thick tw@ts with nothing better to do. get them out asap

Answer 8

I agree. All this testing and the children are not being taught how to learn apart from teaching to the tests, such as how to think, or how to handle life in general.

Competency is more than regurgitating on a test!

--That Cheeky Lad

--That Cheeky Lad

Answer 9

In America, children are undertested.
We should have a national curriculum, and teachers should have their classes meet specific goals at specific times.
The tests are there to check up on whether the teachers are doing their jobs.

Answer 10

YES. I incredibly agree.

Its too much stress! D: