Do You Believe That Standardized Test Accurately Measure A Student's Ability

Standardized testing is known to improve students’ education, but is it really needed in school? Standardized testing determines whether a student is prepared for the next grade based on their test scores. While some students do great on their test others struggle a lot. Not all students are good test takers; majority of the students do good in school but struggle when it comes down to testing. While many agree that standardized testing helps improve students education, it shouldn’t be necessary in school because one test score shouldn’t determine a student’s readiness or academic level.

Others may say that a standardized tests are fair and objective measure of students. The tests are neither fair nor objective. There use promotes a narrow curriculum. Standardized tests undermine the ability to produce innovators and critical thinkers.

Since Middle School, I was not opposed to standardized testing. I thought of it as a way of testing us of what we have learned. Although, after reading some articles about standardized testing I am re-thinking the pros and cons. From personal experience, I thought of it as a challenge to pass them. But now that reminisce about it, I noticed some of the cons of standardized testing. I remember having a week or two dedicated for testing, and in case of students failing they had to take time to redo it. It would take a while for all the students to finish their tests. And after remembering how it was back in those times I was more on the opposed side.

Forms of standardized testing have been around since the Sui dynasty time period, in which the Sui and Tang dynasties conducted imperial examinations in order to test those that hoped for government positions. Many other cultures have adopted it as well and refined it into almost an art form; for example, the United States. The United States began to conduct standardized testing around the time of the First World War; these tests measured the abilities of soldiers in order to give them jobs according to their results. Although the approaches to standardized tests are very different, the same general concept is the same. Since then there has been an increase of standardized tests: SAT, ACT, ASVAB, TAKS, STAAR, and EOC’s, just to name a few.

Standardized tests are often unfair to a wide range of students. Students coming from high-poverty schools often have fewer resources and weaker teachers (Layton A1). “People are sick of the overkill of test volume and the consequences, ridiculous things like rating art teachers based on the reading test scores in their schools” quote Robert Schaeffer (Layton A1). “Fort Myers, Florida, gives 183 tests during the year!” quote Sen. Patty Murray (Layton A1). There is many ways students can be evaluated more

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.

Standardized testing does have its place in school. Often times it is misused and overused. “Measuring what and how well students learn is an essential building block in the process of strengthening and improving our nation's schools.

Justin Baeder, the Director of The Principal Center (a group that teaches instructional teaching devices for educators) and education blogger states, “If the test is a measure of individual ability, and predicts that individual's likelihood of success in, say, a particular university, then yes, I think standardized test are fair to the extent that they are good predictors. But they often aren't, and over-relying on test scores can narrow the pool of eligible applicants and reduce its diversity for no good reason.”

Standardized tests can be found at any level of a student’s academic career, but are they accurate indicators of a student’s academic abilities? Standardized tests are used to measure a student 's academic abilities, and overall knowledge. In theory, a student 's skills can be determined by examining the limited data collected from the test. However, standardized test do not fully represent a student 's abilities, and cumulative knowledge. Many factors may affect the validity of the scores, and the accuracy of the assessment. Instructor’s teaching directly for the test, being able to guess on multiple choice questions, examining only test scores, and ignoring other academic factors contribute to the biased representation of students’ academic abilities.

Since the implementation of standardized testing, tests have actually strayed from their original purpose which is to measure student achievement and success. There are many different viewpoints when it comes to defining standardized testing. In the article, “Standardized Tests Do Not Effectively Measure Student Achievement” they define achievement as, “more than just a score on a standardized test.” Basically, they argue that achievement is too complex to be measured and put into a score. Opponents of standardized testing argue that these tests are unable to

Like Bert Lance one said, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” This is the way many people feel about standardized testing. To them the tests appear to be a reliable and harmless way to measure students’

In most states there’s standardized test for every subject a student takes. Most Americans believe there is too much testing in schools. A major magazine for information about education called Kappan took an annual “PDK/Gallup Poll of the public’s attitude toward public schools” (---, 1) The 2015 polls were over telephone and internet surveys among adults over 18, including public school parents, political party membership, and people of different race. One of the question asked “in your opinion, is there too much emphasis on standardized testing in the public schools in your community, not enough emphasis on testing, or about the right amount?” (---,6) In the national total, 64% said too much emphasis. More than half of the poll view there is too much standardized tests. Now we have Common core that’s suppose to help the problem with high-stake testing. Common Core adds more testing sub-subjects to English and Mathematics for example to test our students more. Kumashiro points out that “more testing would do little to improve education.” (Kumashiro,

Students spend hours taking standardized tests, but are they even a reliable source of student growth? Without testing schools will

The following article “ Does standardized testing really evaluate your kid’s learning?” written by Tim Johnson, examines the effects of standardized testing for parents, students and teachers while evaluating the importance linked to student success. This article looks at the increase of anxiety for all members that are involved when standardized testing is held, and the debate on whether the results should dictate where to purchase a home. Dissenting and supporting arguments are present within the article, as some say it helps parents to understand how the child is performing in key areas, which can aid how teachers can improve classroom learning. However some argue that the standardized testing is misleading, as it does not give a comprehensive

“Standardized testing is one of the most passionately debated education topics in America” (Baxter, pg. 1). They became much more prevalent after the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act mandated annual testing across the United States. Standardized tests are used to assess students and teachers, however some people object the idea that the performance on a single test is a valid measure of what a student has learned, or what their teacher has taught them. In this paper I will argue that relying solely on standardized testing for student placement damages education.