Ineffective Measure Of Standardized Testing

In today’s day and age, the key to success is achieving a higher education after high school. The steps in which we take to graduate high school and attend college, where we will be furthering our education, is all about jumping through hoops. We spend 12 years of our lives in school— five years of elementary school, three years of middle school, and four years of high school. During these 12 years of school, we are subjected to many standardized tests to see if we are up to standards and to measure our achievements. Standardized testing doesn’t showcase every student’s potential or intelligence. Not all students test in the same ways, therefore they should not be treated as if they do. To help cater to students variances, the government should administer a new type of testing that varies upon the students abilities.

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.

Standardized testing has been around since the early 1900’s. Today, it determines a high school student’s future. Every year juniors in high school start to prepare months in advance for the SAT’s and ACT’s. Along with the test itself, comes stress that is not necessary. The debate of standardized tests defining a student’s academic ability or not has become a recent popular controversial topic. Many colleges and universities are starting to have test optional applications because they are realizing that a single test score does not demonstrate the knowledge of a student. There is more value in a student that should rule an acceptance or rejection. In the article, “SAT Scores Help Colleges Make Better Decisions” Capterton states, “The SAT has proven to be valid, fair, and a reliable data tool for college admission” (Capterton). Capterton, president of the College Board, believes that the SAT’s and ACT’s should be used to determine a student’s acceptance because it is an accurate measure. What Capterton and deans of admissions of colleges and universities don’t know is the abundant amount of resources upper class families have for preparation, the creative talents a student has outside of taking tests, and the amount of stress they put on a 17 year old.

Currently, there are around 37 thousands schools in the United States. Each year, there are more than a million students that applying for college institutions (National Center for Educational Statistics). As an university admission office, it is often difficult to select students based on numbers and words that show up on their application without knowing the applicant. Since there are many factors and can impact a student’s high school experience and performance, it is unfair to be comparing every student in the United States with a same standard. In order to minimize these differences, standardized tests were invented along with the No Child Left Behind act in 2001 which enforced all students to participate. Ideally, standardized tests are objective and graded by computer. The test is expected to be evaluating all students with the same standards. While the educators and designers of the standardized tests focus on generating a test that allows them to compare all students fairly, they abandon the fact that all students’ resources and backgrounds are inevitably different. Assuming that all elements of an educational system serve to benefit students’ learnings, standardized testing is an inadequate method of evaluation due to its negative impact on students and teachers’ mindsets, inaccuracy in evaluation of students’ abilities, and the

Einstein once said, “If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Likewise, if a poor test-taker is judged by their SAT score, they could be forced to attend an inadequate institute of higher education. For decades, the SAT has been “the test” that makes or breaks a student's chances of getting into their top college. Generally, the privileged populace do well, but minorities and women do not come out as strong and are therefore limited to college choice. The SAT has proven to be an unsuitable, biased method for predicting success of students in college.

In 2011, Jen Wang was finishing up her freshman year at Connecticut College. As a young girl growing up in New Jersey, Jen took her first SAT when she was in the sixth grade, long before other students her age would even start to think about college. Jen said that test preparations for standardized tests, like the SAT, took up most of her free time that could have been used to do other things (Billy). The SAT’s early intent was to open doors of higher education to students without traditional credentials, but now this test is held at high esteem, the biggest indicator of college success (Mulugetta). Although standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT are used to “level the playing field” for students across the country, these tests add little

Standardized testing is an overemphasized aspect of the modern education system. All states use some form of standardized testing, and in recent years, it has become a deciding factor in a student’s ability to graduate. But, how effective are these tests? They aren’t. They don’t test a student’s aptitude, they only test the ability for a student to hold information, not apply it. State testing must be removed on the grounds that it inhibits the critical thinking abilities of younger generations, and it misrepresents a student’s aptitude for learning.

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.

The stress settled in once the word ‘testing’ echoed through the classroom. The students knew what it brought, and they knew how dreadful it would be; sitting in one room, hour after hour and day after day, silent and still, with only the sound of the clock resonating through their heads. Standardized tests are assessments that local and national governments may require their students to take. However, these tests do not properly evaluate their intellect, and only lead to tension and mental strain on a student’s attentiveness. Although many schools believe that these assessments are productive, it is proven that they are not beneficial to students because standardized testing leads to stress and anxiety, it is wasting valuable classroom time,

One of the main reasons colleges use a student’s standardized test scores is to determine how ready they are for college and how they will perform in their freshman year (“Do Standardized Test” par 10). However, in reality these standardized tests do not properly predict a student’s first year college performance. Throughout the years, multiple studies have shown that a student’s GPA is a much more accurate representation of their future performance in college than their standardized test results. One of these studies for example, states that “The ACT regularly underestimates the abilities of females, who earn higher grades than males in college, despite lower ACT scores.” (“The ACT: Biased” par 10)

High School juniors and seniors are frequently asked what they plan to do for their college education. While discussing their future in college, many relevant topics come into the conversation. One may talk about their grades and classes, paying for school, and their test scores. All of these have a very important impact on what a student will do for the next few years of their life. Unfortunately, in our society, test scores are an extremely important factor in the college admissions process. Students are highly encouraged to put forth a serious effort in order to achieve the best possible score. “To this day, most four-year colleges require applicants to take one or more of a number of standardized tests for admission, and

Standardized tests are a requirement for students to pass in order to graduate high school and attend college. The hope behind standardized tests is that they cover a number of rudimentary concepts and processes, and reflect what students have learned in their classes under a strict evaluation scale. However, in reality, standardized testing is offering very finite and ineffective learning skills, which don’t prepare students for college. The result: high dropout rates and high remedial enrollment in colleges. These tests aren’t effective enough for students entering college, and consequently, have a negative impact on learning. Although standardized testing is woven into public schools, the tests do not demonstrate a student’s true learning, do not prepare them for college, and are racially biased. The content of these exams needs to be changed so that they cover important subject material, such as reading, writing, and mathematics, in a proper manner that is geared to level students with college curriculum. This way, students can truly be ready for college, the dropout rate can lower exponentially, and students can ensure success in college to make an impression in the most crucial years of their education.

Colleges can consider high school GPA as the alternative for test scores. Almost all of the schools during admission completely overlook high school GPA. William C. Hiss, a principal investigator of Defining promise, declares “High school grades matter, and they matter a lot” (Maitre, par.2). It is not fair for many students like Ms. Casimir, a sophomore attending Wake Forest University, who scored 1580 in SAT. This was “an embarrassment” as she graduated high school “with a 4.0” (Simon, par.10). Her dreams to go to “Cornell” and “Davidson” was shattered but yet she was admitted by the “Wake Forest University which gave her full ride without seeing her SAT score and she has 3.2 GPA now” (Simon, par.10). It’s not a miracle as diligence and

“A student body must be composed of more than students who do well on a test. A standardized achievement test cannot measure intangibles such as a candidate's drive and individual determination” (Spiegler, 2013). Since the mid-1800s, high stakes testing has been an enormous part of American education. In the American education system, the lack of success have been held accountable on the increasing levels in poverty, universal use of high stakes testing, and quality of teachers. High stakes testing demonstrates bias against women and categories of socioeconomic variety. The SAT and ACT are unfair because wealthier citizens can afford tutors to assist students with test tips and higher scores on the exams. While in the process of applying for

Students are overwhelmed with school, work, extra-curricular activities, family, etc. Perhaps standardized tests are a major contributor to students’ stress. A standardized test is any test scored in a consistent manner and requires test-takers to answer identical questions. Among the most common include the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the American College Test (ACT). According to the article “Standardized Testing Has Negatively Impacted Public Schools” from Opposing Viewpoints in Context, the beginnings of standardized tests occurred during World War I when the American Psychological Association developed a “ground-administered test” to eliminate inefficient recruits (Solley 3). Today, standardized tests are necessary for college admission. Just last month, in March of 2016, College Board, the non-profit organization responsible for administering the SAT, altered the format of the test. It is now formatted more similar to the ACT and includes an optional essay reducing the score from 2400 to 1600. Many advocates argue standardized tests accurately measure academic intelligence and hold teachers and schools accountable. In today’s society, standardized tests have become the norm, and unfortunately, people overlook their negative effects despite research substantiating arguments about their disadvantages. Standardized tests are disadvantageous because they hinder education and contain bias.