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 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.

However, just because the test is popular and widely used doesn’t indicate that it is a valid predictor of college success (Atkinson). The excessive utilization of standardized tests in no manner implies or suggests a higher accomplishment. The essentials of this debate are easily comprehensible: Standardized tests are not a high-quality predictor of college success.

“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.

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?

It is true that standardized tests are being used to evaluate whether our schools are doing their jobs. Our schools prepare our students for life in the workforce and college. If we do take away standardized testing, it will seem as though we have no way to evaluate our schools by, but the fact is we already have a way. What is it that students are typically evaluated by? Their volunteer work? Their extracurricular activities? Their clubs? Students are typically evaluated by their grade point average. Scholarships, school rank, and colleges take GPA into account. Everything that is important to a high school student, scholarships, school rank, and college, is in some way determined by their GPA. Some corporations use GPA as a cut-off point

The American educational system has proven to be insufficient in training our children to be well rounded citizens. With so much emphasis placed upon standardized testing, there is little room for personal growth and individuality; instead, our current classroom design forces kids to remain in a box rather than teaching them how to work with their strengths and weaknesses as individuals. With so much emphasis placed upon memorization and drilling, important aspects of childhood development, such as critical thought and the cultivation of creativity, have been abandoned. Rather than instilling a sense of accomplishment and motivation in our students, the educational system has become a force of fear as futures are determined by a test score.

I believe that America should cut standardized test funding by half, and furthermore decrease the number of tests the average student takes. Every generation is different, and the way they are taught is different to the point where not one thing is the same in any way. Before the 1900’s there were no standardized tests, but then by World War I standardized testing became standard for every student (Blasi, 2005). In the span of 50 years, multiple generations were born and they were raised on the seemingly new idea of standardized testing. These generations included veterans, slaves, and people who fought other Americans from different belief systems, so people can understand the skepticism I may have when I ask, was it right to implement

As the years go by, there are many changes within our country’s educational system. However, standardized testing is still a requirement for students and must be eradicated once and for all. Now, of course there needs to be a bridge between grade levels. The answer is simply letting kids communicate their answers through creativity. The fear of shading in a instead of b would finally be over if students were able to show what they know in alternative ways. Whether it’s artistic or verbal, the outcomes would be more positive than negative. A solution that solves one of the many problems in the United States education system would have to be eliminating standardized testing because it would provide a more efficient learning environment by focusing on learning rather than testing, it allows more students to further their education, and it results in less pressure for everyone.

We hate standardized tests. We hate how boring they are. We hate how much pressure that comes with them. And most of all, we hate how they only measure how well we can take a test.

As a graduate student in a doctoral program, I have a fair share of standardized testing experience. Never have I been exceptionally great on standardized tests but have always willed myself to reach whatever benchmark I was challenged to accomplish. Coming from a home where Spanish was the first language and my parents barely had more than a middle-school level education, I had to discover ways to overcome academic and testing difficulties. Statistically, it is well documented that many of our country’s diverse learners have trouble positively representing themselves on standardized tests for a plethora of reasons; I can attest to this from first hand experience. From language barriers that cause deficiencies in vocabulary development to deficient levels of formal education in the homes, the barriers often compound to enormous heights for children from low-socioeconomic statuses and/or those where English is a second language within the home. Regardless of these facts, testing will continuously remain to be an accountability system that is vital in education. Although, in education we often fall short by using tests and data as the ultimate answer when it can be used for so much more. Through technology and assessment, the ability to pinpoint every single deficiency that student’s have is completely possible. Rather than using testing as the answer, educators must become better at understanding how to use testing as a tool. Furthermore, when stronger testing platforms and protocols can be created and implemented, the more our educational

Most kids might not ever believe that parents don't like test either.Some parents do not like standardized testing, they think that it is to much.The argument between standardized testing is getting hot.Some parents think that we should have standardized testing,but i personally think that we do need testing because the district needs to know if we are learning what we need to be learning or if we are learning anything at all,also to depict if we move on to our next grade also for us to know what we are learning ourselves.

Thesis: Standardized tests such as the ACT and SAT are not the most accurate way to measure a students aptitude and intelligence, therefore schools should pay more attention to graduation and dropout rates, enrollment into advanced placement classes, as well as extracurricular activities.

Since the 1980’s, US students have been falling well behind students in other industrialized nations in terms of knowledge and education. The US is losing its ability to create a quality education for the majority of its students. The government has attempted to combat this by introducing the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2002, then replacing that with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2016. Nonetheless, these laws have failed in their attempts to improve education and have implemented rigorous amounts of testing rather than fixing the education system. They have created a flawed testing system, applied too harsh of punishments on under-performing schools, and harmed disadvantaged students. The fact that these problems exist is

Standardized testing has been used throughout recent history for evaluation by companies and universities and to test capacity and intellect within the education system. Even in China, standardized testing was used in a basic form to control citizens’ suitability for positions in the government and society. Alfred Binet established the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test, which is now known as the IQ test. During World War I, the armed forces used Army Mental Tests to regulate the best positions for new draftees. IBM industrialized a system of standardizing test scores by scanning bubbled in answers, and today we use those scantrons and scantron machines. The College Board presented the SAT test we use today almost ninety years ago. When it was