Arguments Against Standardized Testing

Throughout high school and college we will go through a vast amount of testing but why? Testing is used to show a person’s amount of knowledge on a particular subject. Usually it’s for one specific subject and not a majority of them, standardized tests administered in schools today include all testable subjects as in English, Math, Science, Writing, and Reading. However, before we can all take the next step and begin our college careers, we have to take one of two tests, the ACT or the SAT. These two exams demine the college you get into, the amount of scholarships you will receive, and even whether or not your will be accepted into said college, all determined by the score you receive.

Standardized testing has been around since the mid 1800’s. Numbers went up when President George W. Bush enforced the No Child Left Behind Act and stated that testing will be annually in all 50 states. That is when education became more about being able to pass the test then actually trying to learn the subject and truly understand. Ever since students have always dealt with trying to get a certain score on test so they can know what schools are willing to accept them. That score just does not apply to the student it also involves the educators and the school as well. If schools do not achieve a certain goal they have budget cuts and cut teachers. Are test scores the determining factor of how much money a school will receive for that year? Is that fair to the students who want to get a great education and want to thrive to try to go law school or medical school?

“When we began the map test I knew my students were gonna dread it, I myself dread it, and I am not even taking it. So I decided how about a reward for these kids, if you got above your past score you got 7 extra credit points for the test, which made a lot kids eager to get a good score. They went to sleep early, read before bed, and got a good meal beforehand, everything the test recommends the students to do before taking it. These kids fully ready to take it, mindset clear. When they got their scores back most were shocked because the did not score the same or higher, they got a lower score. All across the room I saw devastated faces because they wouldn’t receive their 7 extra points, and all their hard work was a complete waste. I decided to start an investigation so I called the test company and explained the situation and the only thing they told me was ‘well maybe they lied to you.’ this could not be true, 90% of these kids were A average students in an honors class.

I one hundred percent agree with this, we should stop caring about standardized testing as that just adds more pressure to those that care much more than others about their future. I for one care enough to be successful in my life but I don’t want to have to depend on a great testing grade to judge my success. The SAT and ACT, in my opinion before this article, useless to me.

Should high-stake tests determine if students can move on a grade? Standardized test should not be used to determine student promotion. These test held back one-third of all fourth graders in Louisiana. The test doesn’t tell you w the student is learning or not. These standardized test across the country tell whether a student is able to obtain their high school diploma or their eighth-grade diploma.

Are schools teaching students to broaden their minds and think creatively or are they just preparing them for tests? It is important to know whether standardized tests are actually beneficial for students’ learning. Over the last decade, standardized testing has been a more prominent focus for schools. Many students have to be tested every year in order to know what classes they would be placed in. Not only do tests determine what classes students will take but they may also determine whether or not they would be accepted into certain schools. These tests are a major factor that determines whether students advance in their education or not. This major focus on tests steers away from the actual purpose of schools: to teach students and ensure they understand the material. Standardized testing is not that beneficial because it hinders students’ full

Like most things in academics, I just knew that the standardized test were just donkey manure and additional gatekeepers to the system. Sure there are waivers, but the fact that you have to pay for them, especially for something because college requires is foolish. Should you be applauded for doing well on them? Most definitely. But it’s like having to pay and being required to take a swimming test, which can only test how well you can swim, how fast, and how many form. But if you’re not a swimmer but a basketballer or a footballer or whatever your gift is, then you’ll be penalized for not performing as well. The point is, we’re inadequately being tested on forms that do not measure all correctly and yet have been indoctrinated in the same system or requirements that was only adopted in the 1960’s when the University of California system signed on to it. Furthermore, standardized tests like the SAT/ACT is more of a measurement of class than anything else. As of this writing, I come to find that many more colleges have dropped that requirement, but still, the fact that so many students spend so much wasted time paying and studying for it, like I did, makes me shake my head. I knew that I had to play the game, or get left behind. I knew the game wasn’t about my

The chart above posted by Zachary Goldfarb on the Washington Post further shows that if a student’s family is more affluent, that student is likely to do better. If standardized testing is going to test students as equals, then all the prep material should be made available for all students no matter what income level a student’s family is in.

There has been an ongoing debate on standardized testing as to whether or not it is necessary for individuals to complete. These exams are generally used to measure academic success and assembles a prediction as to how well a student will perform in subsequent courses.

The opinions on standardized testing are as divided as the United States during the 2016 elections. More and more people are arguing that “our educational system has gone too far in its dependence on standardized testing” (595). As far as I’m concerned, standardized tests should not play a role in determining access to college admissions and scholarships, because the availability of resources and your chances of doing well on those tests depends on your background, family situation, location, and many other factors. Instead, they should make sure that the diplomas from all high schools are equal and that they can be certain the students have earned that diploma and know the material. The only reason why they do standardized testing is to make

Our children are the most important resource in this Country. Our way of life could forever change, by the changes that are put into our schools by the federal government. The decline in meaningful learning because of the many standardized tests mandated, first accepted into our state from the federal government, which can degrade the lifestyle we enjoy today. “Standardized Tests measure only a small portion of what makes education meaningful”, and they are taking too much out of the learning time. This is detrimental to our children’s Education. Retired teachers and grandparents in a group called United Women’s Forum, meet every week. They are working to improve civic issues regarding the Education of our children. There is need for more

Education is saturated with standardized testing. Standardized testing is throughout your whole educational career, starting with the MAP test and ending with an ACT or SAT test. The curriculum in the classroom is molded to fit test taken by each student while teachers teach to the test. According to Council of Great City Schools, “as of 2016, the average student in America takes a staggering 112 mandatory standardized tests before graduating high school.” Standardized testing is defined as same test student take under similar conditions with criteria for multiple choice or short answer questions. College are examining on test score to decide student’s future in education. “Unfortunately we cannot accept you due to your lack of testing ability” is the last thing any college student wants to hear. High School students, who already have responsible for choosing a college, a career, and focussing on school work, have to focus on one more thing that should not even be factored to college, standardized test like the ACT or SAT. If you score high enough on the MAP test, you have opportunities to achieve in advanced classes in future classes that could help for college. If

Last, instead of being a system that caters to individual needs and inspires actual learning, school systems have resorted to simply striving for the highest test scores on standardized tests in order to rake in money.

Seymour Sarason once wrote that “we live in a test-conscious, test-giving culture in which the lives of people are in part determined by their test performance” (1959, p. 26). Taking tests are a large part of a child’s experience in school and serve many purposes. Tests range from the high-stakes context of yearly standardized testing mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB; U.S. Congress, 2002) to a variety of classroom tests which serve to monitor student progress as well as drive teacher instructional practices (Salend, 2009).

[2] Test anxiety refers to the stake that standardized tests are places on. There are implications involved if students perform poorly and rewards if scores are advanced. With these types of outcomes one would believe that students would perform exceptionally on standardized tests; however, even involving incentives data collected portrayed little difference in test score outcomes (Hout 36). Student performance on standardized tests is crucial in creating data that will ultimately provide information to improve the schools learning. In classrooms all over the country, 10%- 40% of students undergo test anxiety in some form (Wood 234). This can include students of average intelligence, students with disabilities, and even gifted students (Fulton 3). With this range of students experiencing test anxiety there must be a flaw in the data that states are collecting from