Introduction. A Resounding “Thank You” Is Directed Toward

Recently, arguments have arisen over the issue of standardized testing. It doesn’t matter whether we are talking about the ACT, OGT, semester exams given by the district, or the recent implementation of PARCC tests, all are standardized tests that almost all Ohio students will encounter in their schooling career. In Aaron Churchill’s “Bless the tests: Three reasons for standardized testing,” Churchill gives his reasoning on why standardized tests are beneficial even past the assessment of students, teachers, schools, and districts. He argues, among other things, that the tests give parents a good comparison of their students to other students, hold schools accountable for student academic growth, and close the gap between different grading practices in schools. These assertions, along with the rest of the essay, are invalid.

The Washington Post published the story “2015 Superintendent of the Year: High-stakes testing is the ‘fool’s gold’ of accountability” by Valerie Strauss on August 27 about one superintendent’s discontent with constant “high stakes testing”. Strauss was covering the story of man who was named the “2015 American Association of School Administrators National Superintendent of the Year”, Philip D. Lanoue who is the superintendent of the Clarke County School District in Georgia, which is one of the most impecunious districts in the state. Lanoue believes that the constant pattern of standardized testing in schools is completely different from what he refers to as actual “meaningful assessment” and considers the tests to be unbeneficial for students.

Many people in the United States are concerned with the role that standardized testing has on education. Most of them have very strong views on this subject and as it usually happens with large-scale issues these views are very diverse and often opposite. Some claim that standardized testing is the best way to determine student’s skills and qualities because they are equally designed for everyone and not biased. Others, on the other hand, argue the fairness of these tests. They believe that test scores do not represent student’s knowledge. What is certain, in my opinion, is that this subject needs more attention followed by actions that will actually make difference in the education system.

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) initiative is a plan to restructure the educational system in the United States and provide students with a high-quality education. Many states have adopted and are implementing these standards. In our fast changing world, different skills are needed to do the jobs our society has to offer. Upon completion of high school, these students need to be equipped to either enter the workforce prepared to meet the demands of their employers or to enter college prepared to take their education to the next level in pursuit of careers. The CCSS will increase in depth and difficulty from kindergarten through grade 12.

What once began as a simple test administered to students yearly to measure understanding of a particular subject has, as Kohn (2000) has stated, “Mutated, like a creature in one of those old horror movies, to the point that it now threatens to swallow our schools whole” (p.1). Today’s students are tested to an extent that is unparalleled in not only the history of our schools, but to the rest of the world as well. Step into any public school classroom across the United States and it will seem as if standardized testing has taken over the curriculum. Day after day teachers stress the importance of being prepared for the upcoming test. Schools spend millions of dollars purchasing the best test preparation materials, sometimes comes at the cost of other important material. Although test

Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is a widely debatable topic. Parents, teachers, administration, and even states have taken a stance on what they believe. CCSS is a document created by researchers, teachers, administration, and even the public, stating exactly what each student in grades K-12 should be accomplishing by the end of each level. It is ideally in place for teachers to have a clear understanding of what students are expected to achieve and know by each benchmark test so they can ensure this readiness. Though much thought and exertion has gone into the production and implementation of these standards, many myths have been formulated from them, causing the standards to sound as if they do not have any advantage to our schools (“Understanding the Common Core”).

High-stakes testing. In today’s educational society, those words have the power to strike fear and doubt into teachers and students alike. High-stakes tests are exams used to determine important things about a school, district, teacher accountability and student performance. For a student, these tests have the power to determine whether or not she will advance to the next grade level and whether or not she graduates from high school. For a teacher, these tests often serve as evaluators of how well he teaches his students. Schools and school districts, who often run their establishments like businesses, use these high-stake tests to boost ratings, receive grades, and in many cases, request funding for things like transportation, based on how well the school as a whole did perform.

The American Education system has been under standards based reform for over 25 years. In 2009, The National Governor’s Association developed and released the Common Core State Standards (CCSS); a set of educational standards which would standardize learning expectations in English Language Arts and Math for students in any state that chose to adopt them. The debate over the implementation of these standards attempts to confront the government involvement in educational reform, the quality of the standards, and the way in which topics are taught in American classrooms. The implementation and adoption of the CCSS is a positive move that puts a common framework in place for improved student education.

According to the Glossary of Education Reform (http://edglossary.org/high-stakes-testing), high-stakes tests are designed to measure student achievement and to determine whether a student is intelligent enough to advance in education. These tests can come in many forms; although the SAT and ACT are considered the most common examples of high-stakes tests in America, any test used to make important decisions about a student can be considered a high-stakes test. For example, students giving oral reports in front of a faculty panel to receive their diplomas would be taking a high-stakes test. However, because these high-stakes tests can only be taken a few times at most, and because these tests are supposed to accurately represent a student’s ability in the classroom, many students report anxiety before these tests. Because higher levels of test anxiety may be associated with lower test scores, one question arises: is high-stakes testing truly the most accurate way to assess a student’s ability in the classroom? To answer this question, researchers have begun to explore an alternative to high-stakes testing: low-stakes testing. Low-stakes testing is also used to measure student achievement; however, these tests are not typically used to make important decisions about students. I argue that low-stakes testing should be implemented in schools in hopes of lessening student test anxiety and encouraging long-term retention of course material.

The educational system in the United States has gone through many changes over the last century. These changes are a part of a constant movement toward educational excellence for every child in this nation. One of the most recent acts placed on public school systems by the government is to create more accountability for schools in order to ensure that all children are receiving the proper education. Part of this mandate is that public schools will require students to take tests in order to gather information about their academic achievement. Although educators and administrators claim that the mandatory ability testing programs being initiated in America’s public schools will hold students and teachers accountable for academic

Today, it can be observed that society has shifted education drastically from the time schools were constituted, to now. Throughout history, schools have gone from private, where only the elite can attend, to public schools where virtually anyone can attend. One of the factors that goes along with education is standardized testing. Frederick J. Kelly, father of the standardized test, once said, “These tests are too crude to be used, and should be abandoned.” Not only has this shift occurred within education itself, but it has occurred within the testing concepts found within standardized testing so much so that the founder of these tests has chosen to give up on it.

There are many different types of standardized tests used in schools around the country, but “high-stakes” achievement tests in US elementary and secondary schools have produced

High-stakes testing has resulted in a shift from educational input tracking (e.g., per pupil expenditures, teacher salaries, class size, required courses, seat time) as indicators of educational performance, to an increased emphasis on testing as a means to hold schools accountable for educational outcomes. Less emphasis is given on a student’s actual growth in terms of knowledge and more on how well they score in the test. No matter what is leading to the scores. This also creates incentives for cheating. Cheating on a single critical exam may be easier than either learning the required material or earning credit through attendance, diligence, or many smaller tests, more examinees that do not actually have the necessary knowledge or skills, but who are effective cheaters, may pass Standardized test results have become the indicators of school and student performance, with public reporting, monetary or nonmonetary rewards, and a range of interventions for low-performing schools as consequences for excellent or

People who graduated from an American school are painfully aware of how much emphasis is placed on high stakes testing. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is a system of standardized tests put in place by the U.S. Department of Education, and studies performed on NAEP show a “significance between funding and student performance”. This means that pressure is placed on schools by both the state and federal government to provide positive test results in order to get maximum funding. Because schools have changed their style of education and are

In 2001, President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act, instilling hope that the federal government could better hold K-12 schools accountable for all students to have proficient academic outcomes (Klein, 2017). President Obama made changes to the No Child Left Behind Act when 42 states needed waivers due to not reaching the proficiency expectation. In 2015, the Every Student Succeeds Act was enacted. This Act provides states with more flexibility in order to help students meet proficiency. The Act also provides resources to secondary institutions that struggle to meet graduation requirements (“ESSA Overview,” 2017). In an effort to align education across America, states could opt into utilizing the Common Core State Standards beginning in 2009. This academic overhaul became the national effort in organizing education in America by standardizing what is learned and when in K-12 schools. Currently, 42 states and the