Are Standardized Exams Sufficient as a Test of Knowledge?

We shouldn’t have to take standardized tests because they don’t provide any feedback on how to perform better. The tests treat everyone who takes them feel identical, they don’t make you feel different. These tests make create a huge amount of stress on teachers and students. Most test takers can handle certain levels of stress but others can’t handle any amount. There should be other options that schools and colleges could use or get rid of the tests all

Did you know, out of 65 countries 29 did better at the standardized tests than the U.S? Some people support the use of standardized tests and some are against the. I think standardized tests are not a good idea because they overpopulate schools, only test students on part of a subject, and stresses students out.

The satirical news site The Onion did a pro and con list of standardized testing which highlights it perfectly. Some of the pros are, “Every student measured against same narrow, irrelevant set of standards” and, “Western tradition of critical thinking best embodied in bubble-sheet format”. One of the funnier cons is, “There are easier ways to measure parents’ income” (The Onion). In a sad way, these have some truth behind them. Which shows how much of a joke standardized testing

Standardized testing is not an effective way to test the skills and abilities of today’s students. Standardized tests do not reveal what a student actually understands and learns, but instead only prove how well a student can do on a generic test. Schools have an obligation to prepare students for life, and with the power standardized tests have today, students are being cheated out of a proper, valuable education and forced to prepare and improve their test skills. Too much time, energy, and pressure to succeed are being devoted to standardized tests. Standardized testing, as it is being used presently, is a flawed way of testing the skills of today’s students.

Would you like to take a test that is unfair, expensive, and unreliable? Chances are you already have. Standardized testing in schools is not only bad for the students, but also bad for our country’s future. Some might think standardized testing is a good thing, because it is the only way to measure all students the same across the country. However, this thought is wrong for many reasons.

Standardized testing is not made to test every student. These tests often ask one sided, bias questions. Claims have been brought against standardized tests in court due to bias. How are they supposed to measure the ability of every student when every student is different? Students learn differently and preform differently depending upon the type of test given. Some students are stronger with essay questions, some with matching, and some with true and false. Some students could not even know the material but get a multiple choice question right through process of elimination. How is this a fair way to measure knowledge? It is not fair to the students that actually study for these tests and know the information required.

Standardized testing has been ruling over the lives of students, making or breaking them in their education without fair judgement. Tests like the SAT and the ACT count for way too much when applying to colleges, which in turn limits the student 's capabilities to thrive in an environment that would benefit them. There are many problems within a standardized test that deems them to be unreliable as a true test of knowledge. Although designed to test groups of students on intelligence, standardized testing neglects to fairly acknowledge the abilities of each unique student which reflect their true capabilities.

Schools all over the nation have introduced standardized testing as a way to evaluate what the students have learned over the course of the school year. Exams can be administered online or on paper, depending on the subject. Test can be taken at different points of the school year; results can be used as a way to determine what areas are weaker than others. Most results are viewed by the school board, administrators, and teachers. In some schools students take one end of the year test with different subjects, other just takes one test. These tests can be graded by groups of people are computers. Standardized testing has become a part of America’s educational system and many don’t see the benefit of the test at all.

There are many valid arguments, deeming it unfair to multiple parties. For example, those who speak a different language or have immigrated to the United States cannot easily be equipped to handle the standardized testing well known to our community, because they do not have enough time to master our language before being thrust into the testing realm. Special education students are also discriminated against, having to take the same standard of testing as their peers who do not have special needs. Standardized tests also don’t measure anything outside the scope of what is deemed meaningful education. “According to late education researcher Gerald W. Bracey, PhD, qualities that standardized tests cannot measure include "creativity, critical thinking, resilience, motivation, persistence, curiosity, endurance, reliability, enthusiasm, empathy, self-awareness, self-discipline, leadership, civic-mindedness, courage, compassion, resourcefulness, sense of beauty, sense of wonder, honesty, integrity."” (ProConorg). There is also the argument that teachers are just “teaching the test” rather than instilling our young generation with predominant qualities needed to be successful in life. These tests, according to studies done, are narrowing the curriculum taught, and increasing the price on testing, making it difficult on our educational system’s budgets. Some believe that

Standardized testing has been practiced in schools across America since the mid-1800’s. Today, they are used to assess where a student is placed in their educational career. Standardized tests commonly test students in the subjects of math, reading, writing, and science. Colleges also partially base their admissions on standardized tests such as the SAT or ACT. According to the Pew Center on the States, annual state spending on standardized tests rose from $423 million to almost $1.1 billion in 2008. (standardizedtests.procon.org) With states spending this much money on these tests, many question how well they actually work. Students are essentially being judged on what they know on the spot, and to many that determines

Some would argue that standardized tests test everybody on the same level and it shows how well the students are taught by the teachers. This is true but not everybody learns on the same level and some don’t take tests very well.

Many forms of standardized tests are in place. There are some for college admissions, for state regulations, along with a variety of other types. The one thing they all have in common is that they are not the best way to educate students, don’t accurately indicate anything about the knowledge of the test taker, and take time away from more principal learning. Most tests are administered during school hours and given too frequently. Therefore, students are forced to miss instruction time and sit through

A very current and ongoing important issue happening within the education system is standardized testing. A standardized test is any examination that's administered and scored in a calculated, standard manner. There are two major kinds of standardized tests: aptitude tests and achievement tests. Standardized aptitude tests predict how well students might perform in some subsequent educational setting. The most common examples are the SAT’s and the ACT’s. The SAT and the ACT attempt to estimate how well high school students will perform in college. But standardized test scores are what citizens and school board members rely on when they evaluate a school's effectiveness. Nationally, five such tests are in use: California Achievement Tests,

To begin with standardized testing creates several critical problems for students and for the education industry. These tests are created to test over particular things. In the end these types of tests are only limited in the amount of knowledge that can be tested toward students. For example, “Standardized exams offer few opportunities to display the attributes of high-order thinking, such as analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and creativity.” (“Standardized Testing Has Serious Limitations”). Even though these tests are able to attack certain subjects at the core, they still leave out very valuable and critical information that all students should know. In

Standardized Testing has been around for many decades in the United States. In 2001 George Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act was used as a teacher evaluation tool and not a student evaluation tool. It was a misconceived belief that teachers were giving easier tests to show higher grades for their students it was also believed that the same teachers were bumping grades to make themselves look better and more effective (Introduction: No Child Left Behind. 2005). The push for standardized testing came from Universities and Colleges because they were using Secondary Education grades as part of their admission process and they were discovering that some students were coming in with a less than proficient skill set that did not match up to the grades that showed on