Should the Standardized Test Be the Only Measurement for Students' Ability in Learning?

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.

Standardized testing is not an effective way to test the skills and abilities of today’s students. Standardized tests do not reveal what a student actually understands and learns, but instead only prove how well a student can do on a generic test. Schools have an obligation to prepare students for life, and with the power standardized tests have today, students are being cheated out of a proper, valuable education and forced to prepare and improve their test skills. Too much time, energy, and pressure to succeed are being devoted to standardized tests. Standardized testing, as it is being used presently, is a flawed way of testing the skills of today’s students.

Would you like to take a test that is unfair, expensive, and unreliable? Chances are you already have. Standardized testing in schools is not only bad for the students, but also bad for our country’s future. Some might think standardized testing is a good thing, because it is the only way to measure all students the same across the country. However, this thought is wrong for many reasons.

The use of standardized testing to measure students’ knowledge is an inaccurate reflection of their capabilities. By being forced to take a test that does not effectively show their abilities, students become overstressed, and the tests themselves do not promote true academic achievement. Rather than learning about subjects in order to gain knowledge, students simply memorize facts and formulas to get a decent test score. Standardized tests are not an appropriate measure of student performance, only benefit certain groups of students, and do not prepare students for the real world.

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.

Standardized tests are hurting our educational future. They were implemented for reasons such as evaluating teachers, schools, districts, and so forth, and to determine if students should advance to a higher grade. What standardized tests are actually doing is taking over students’ education. Different levels of the educational system are continuously requiring more tests to assess various objectives, without any evidence that these tests are benefiting students. The effects these tests are having on the education are crippling. Teachers are under a surmountable amount of pressure for their students to achieve high scores, since their careers are in the hands of them. Teachers are reverting to unethical practices to protect their careers. Valuable education time is lost with preparing for and taking of these tests. Students could advance their education further and quicker with less preparation and tests. These tests are not an accurate assessment of students’ abilities since they only assess few subjects. Comparing students’ on only a portion

One reason why standardized testing should not be used to measure students’ educational abilities is that it does not accurately reflect what students have learned in the classroom. Every student in a classroom has their own way of learning, thus they are not on the same learning level. It might take one student to slowly understand a topic in class, while the other picks up the concepts right away. Standardized tests are usually in a multiple choice format; having quick answers to superficial questions. The pressure of needing a high score on these tests leaves the student to become stressed. This results to them not performing as well and can affect their scores, positively or negatively. There are students who get good grades in class

Do you feel that standardized testing has benefited the way that students learn in the classroom? Has it hindered their learning?

You may wonder, Why do we have standardized tests? They were created so that the government could keep track of how schools were performing and they wanted to see how the money they gave the schools was being used. “In 1965, as part of the War on Poverty, the Johnson administration sent extra federal funding to low-income schools, and in return asked for data to make sure the money was making an impact.”(Rizga) “Standardized tests have been a part of American . education since the mid-1800s.” (Standardized) Standardized testing has been in our lives for over 150 years and it has been used to keep track of the education level of the citizens. “The modern testing movement began with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), enacted

Each year many high school students are encouraged to take standardized tests. They are told how essential the tests are and to spend vast amounts of time preparing for them. Although many people think that standardized tests are a useful tool for the measurement of students’ aptitude and intelligence, they are ineffective to represent the true proficiency of their understanding.

Sasha Zucker states in her article “Fundamentals of Standardized Testing” that standardized tests are unbiased because machines grade the tests to avoid human errors in grading. However, the bias that occurs on standardized tests is mostly found in the students taking the test, such as in their culture, disabilities, emotions during the test, and any other aspects in their life that would cause test scores to greatly differ from what they could be and the test scores of other students. Having machines grade the standardized tests removes a very small amount of bias in standardized testing and does not provide for an unbiased testing method. Zucker also states about viable tests that “For a test to solve this combination of challenges effectively,

For every student wanting to apply to colleges, exempt classes, etc., standardized testing is put into use to measure the amount of knowledge about the subject. There are many biased opinions on why standardized testing should be banned. Many come from unscholarly critics. However, there are some critics who show both sides of a story when it comes to standardized testing. Over the years, standardized testing has shown a wide variety of grades that are not good enough for many students. Some students struggle with what they got on the standardized test simply because they are not adequate test takers. Some however have some critical advantages that “show” that they are capable of taking standardized test and knowing the material. In other words, standardized testing clearly demonstrates no abilities of what a student really has.

Standardized testing allows for something schools can compare students’ knowledge with. Although this may be true, testing is actually harmful. Standardized tests are an unfair way to be accessed because they do not accurately represent a student’s abilities. Many people don’t perform well on tests; they are smart, and understand the subject, but they don’t show it on the test. It is easy to forget something on a test, even if you studied for a while and normally understand the topic. Many students experience nerves or anxiety when taking a test. Feeling nervous has been proven to affect a student's performance for the worst. Students panic if they run into a question they aren’t sure of the answer to which decreases their score even more. 50% to 80% of test scores were fluctuated and had nothing to do with the actual growth in learning of a student. This shows that tests are an unfair analyzation because the scores are not accurate.

A very current and ongoing important issue happening within the education system is standardized testing. A standardized test is any examination that's administered and scored in a calculated, standard manner. There are two major kinds of standardized tests: aptitude tests and achievement tests. Standardized aptitude tests predict how well students might perform in some subsequent educational setting. The most common examples are the SAT’s and the ACT’s. The SAT and the ACT attempt to estimate how well high school students will perform in college. But standardized test scores are what citizens and school board members rely on when they evaluate a school's effectiveness. Nationally, five such tests are in use: California Achievement Tests,

“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.