Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing

Texas takes the STAAR, Alabama the ARMT, and Hawaii the HSA. Each state in the U.S. has a standardized test required of every student. From the ACT and SAT to the STAAR tests, standardized testing has become common practice for almost every student. The earliest records of standardized testing are when in China, anyone wanting to get a job in government had to fill out their knowledge of Confucian philosophy and poetry in examination. As more and more kids began to go to school during the Industrial Revolution, standardized testing spread as a way to quickly and easily test a large number of students. But not everyone agrees with the tests, stating that they are unreliable, and that the stakes are too high. Standardized tests cause immense amount of stress for not only students, but teachers as well. And the tests might not even be effective, causing more anxiety than it's worth.

When people think of the education system, most can say that there are some problems, though they might not be able to pinpoint what needs to change first. If you ask most teachers, they will say that the first thing that needs to be changed in the schooling system to help the students more is the standardized testing. They will say that while it can be helpful it has a lot of faults and needs to be updated or changed to help its students. Standardized testing has often been a topic for discussion, between parents and people in the schooling system. It seems that a lot of people either hate standardized testing for not giving every child a chance to succeed, or love it for being a fair way to test whether a child knows what they need to know at their age. There have been many articles, books, and documentary’s debating on whether or not standardized testing is doing more harm then good. There was a comic made that shows the brutality and bluntness of what standardized testing is really like. Standardized Testing causes too much stress by putting unfair expectations on teens and doesn’t give every single student the chance to succeed.

Standardized testing in the United States started in the mid- 1800’s (Standardized Tests - ProCon.org). This kind of testing was originally created to measure students’ performance and progress in school (Standardized Tests - ProCon.org). In recent years, the public school system has relied heavily on the information this test provides, in doing so creating controversy. Other than being a student myself, and participating in multiple standardized exams such as, CSAP, ACT, and SAT, I do not have much background knowledge on this debate. The debate over standardized testing has raised this inquiry question: What are the effects of standardized testing on the United States public education system?

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.

The earliest record of standardized testing originates from China. It was created to test knowledge of Confucian poetry and philosophy for men applying for government jobs. In 1905 a man by the name of Alfred Binet created his own,

In 1845, educational pioneer Horace Mann proposed that Boston Public School children should be tested through written examination. At the time, Mann had not only envisioned that this would provide a more efficient method of measuring schools' effectiveness, but he also saw this as a mechanism for schools to "become vehicles for social advancement” for citizens (Gallagher, 84). His assessment model ultimately proved to be so successful that it was adopted by school systems in nearly all U.S. cities in the years following its initial implementation. In particular, New York State used it as a basis for its Regents Examination. Furthermore, although there were many developments in standardized testing during the next

Education has been an important part of society for centuries. Over the years it has slowly evolved into what it is today. The topic of education has been controversial since the beginning. It seems as though there is always someone that sees a need for change in how students are being taught and assessed. More specifically, many people think that standardized testing is not an effective way to assess students. While on the other hand, many also believe that standardized testing is the most efficient and effective way to assess people of all ages. The debate over standardized testing has been shown to effect students and the community in many different ways. Standardized assessments have had huge impacts with both teachers and students. Whether one thinks standardized testing is effective and efficient or misdirecting and unproductive it is a big part of the educational system. While the argument may present that standardized tests leads to simulated knowledge, others argue that standardized tests are very effective in assessing students.

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.

The earliest known use of a standardized test was in seventh century China for citizens applying for a government job. Although that was

Standardized tests were given to individuals hoping to acquire a position in the Chinese government during the 7th century, Medieval Knights hoping to be selected to defend their kingdom, and Army officer candidates during World War I. However, only recently have they been used to test the level of knowledge possessed by a student in the classroom. Laws are being introduced by government officials that are requiring schools to meet nearly unattainable standards. The required criterion is placing enormous pressure on school districts, administrators, and teachers. Standardized tests should no longer be used

Lastly, the reason(s) why we should not have standardized testing. Standardized testing evaluates a student’s performance on one

In Time’s: A brief history on standardized testing, we are given a deeper history on how standardized testing began. It is said that the Chinese started using standardized testing for government jobs to examine their knowledge of Confucian philosophy and poetry. French philosopher Alfred Binet began putting together a standardized test of intelligence. That

Standardized testing is the bane of the United State’s educational system. It causes fear and stress in students and can cause confusion and teaching problems fpr teachers.It bankrups schools fires teachers and ruins kid lives.A standardized test is any form of test that (1) requires all test takers to answer the same questions, or a selection of questions from common bank of questions, in the same way, and that (2) is scored in a “standard” or consistent manner, which makes it possible to compare the relative performance of individual (Standardized Test Definition) To understand why over testing is harmful to students you must know the consequences of standardized testing. First you must know about the history of the standardized education movement and what is did to society.The losses of learning time,The losses of love and creativity of learning,The creation of a sterile/changes environment of a school day,week,or even month, and the physical and emotional effect on student and teachers.

The use of standardized tests is historical. In fact, they were first used in China to test hopefuls for government jobs on their knowledge of Confucian philosophy and poetry. Soon, the concept of standardized testing spread as it proved to be an easy way to test a large number of students quickly, especially during the Industrial Revolution