Standardized Testing

Standardized testing has become a controversial topic in recent years, parents, students, teachers, principals and almost anyone who has a relationship with education is affected by this topic. People are either for or against standardized testing, some believe it is the only fair way to compare students others believe that the tests are too greatly stressed in school and are a nuisance to education. Standardized tests are stressed greatly, students learn testing material all year not focusing on anything else deemed unimportant by the test makers. Every student has the same amount of time and question on tests; they also are tested on the same subjects which the test makers believe are most important for children to learn. Standardized tests are used for many things such as ranking students on a national basis and government funding for schools.

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.

Standardized test cause reduced content knowledge. In other words, teach the test criteria and nothing more. The scores that everyone is trying to get only give a person a small amount of the knowledge that, without the test, they would obtain. Theses scores are drilled so hard into a student’s head that they do not know any other thing to do than to pass that test. Barber states in his article that there were three groups of people, elected officials from the school board, the press, and the public. He said that “All three groups were clamoring for something simple and repeatable to use to judge how well their schools were doing.” He goes on to say that they thought standardized testing was just that. They wanted to compare other schools to their school, that it gives them those bragging rights. This will eventually create a ripple effect, and come back on the schools in harmful ways.

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

Even though there are many downsides to standardized testing there are still viable reasons why they are still being used today. One of the main reasons includes the easy and quick access of testing students. Standardized testing allows schools to quickly access a large amount of students at one time. This is also one of the cheapest ways to tests such a large crowd due to machinery that grades which results in low tests costs for students. These tests also help by setting a national curriculum for all high school teachers to teach in schools. “It provides guidelines for curriculum. Standardized tests give teachers a structure of what needs to be taught. This helps keep classroom material consistent across the country” (“Pros and Cons of

Standardized tests do not really show students abilities when it comes to a subject, it just shows if they can pass it or not. “Standardized tests are unnecessary because they rarely show what we don't already know. Ask any teacher and she can tell you which students can read and write” (Jourlies 2). A student, when it comes to a test, can take a test and get a good grade on it, it does not show whether they gave it their best or just did not. If anyone can see good results, they automatically see if a school is on track. “We could publish the results of these performance tasks, and the public would have a good idea of what we're good at and what we're not” (Jourlies 8). It would be helpful for a public to see on what a school has, it also can wake up the school and start to lead the student on a focus of what was not accomplished. It is not necessary to have tests that can show something that is not always going to be true to what it seems, others can see what is shown on a result, but at the same time do not know where it has gone

These tests measure only a small portion of what makes education meaningful. Gerald W-Bracey Phd qualities that standardized tests cannot measure “creativity, critical thinking, motivation, honesty, courage etc.”(standardizedtests.procon.org) In school a teacher knows his or her students and they usually know their personality and truly how wise they are in and outside the classroom. On a standardized test this is something that cannot be proven. For example, if a student gets their classwork and homework done and turns it in on time the teacher knows he or she is diligently trying in their class. If they happen to not do well on a test it might not be that the student isn’t smart or didn’t study, but it could be that the student just wasn’t their normal self that day. On a standardized

In various ways, standardized test are beneficial from tracking students’ progress over the years to not allowing teachers emotions to get in the way of the testing process. Standardized testing sets expectations high for students and it does hold them accountable for the same standards, which may lead to achievement gains. By looking at the students’ performance they will be able to determine how well they retain information. Also the school is able to learn what their students are able to do and what they cannot do compared to other school districts, so they would be able to improve their education system. When giving more personal assessments, it is very possible “that the teacher or person assessing the student can let their emotions or biases affect how they score that student” (Young). In most cases, standardized tests are objective. There are wrong or right answers, and there is no room for feelings or emotions. Standardized testing gives teachers guidance to help them determine what to teach students and when to teach it. Tests are highly accountable and reliable as they judge the candidates on a common platform across states and nations. Standardized testing is “a simplified way of timeline management” (A Look at the Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing). Standardized testing gives parents a good idea of how their children are doing as compared to students across the country and

First, standardized testing helps us to see growth of students. We can see growth as compared to other students and other countries. Students take the test more than once and it’s different every time. Growth can be seen from these tests throughout the year telling teachers what to teach.

Third, research shows that testing brought positive effect to student learning. It is human nature to stay complacent with the status-quo. Except for a few driven ones, most students would choose to procrastinate studying if no tests are administered. Testing, therefore, can serve as a positive “pressure” that help students to push their limits on a regular

Believe it or not, standardized test are not meant to torture you. Physicians, lawyers, real-estate brokers, doctors, and pilots all take high-stakes standardized tests to ensure they have the necessary intelligence for their careers. Also, Standardized tests hold teachers and schools accountable for actually teaching the students and if they teach them well. It also gives the teachers a guide on what to teach the students. The results that are sent home give the parent a good idea of how well their child is doing in class and on tests.

Standardized testing guides teachers on how they teach. That means that a teacher is preparing his/her students for the SAT or ACT. That's important because teachers are there to prepare

One of the two purposes of standardized tests is to ensure the accountability of the teacher’s teaching. The students’ grades supposedly reflect on how well the teacher teaches. Consequently, teachers create a curriculum to excel on the test, instead of creating tests to excel the curriculum. We cannot have

To begin with, the teacher’s goal is to prepare well their students to pass the standardized test given. Yes, I acknowledge that teachers do prepare students well enough to pass the test and provide them with enough information to relief them. But teachers are therefore only teaching materials that will be on the exam test. With this being said, students aren’t actually learning anything else but what’s going to appear on the exam. According to a testing scholar Richard P. Phelps “93% of studies on student testing, including the use of large-scale and high-stakes standardized tests found a positive effect on students achievement”. In reality standardized test have not improved student achievements. Though many may say standardized test improve ones knowledge is completely false. Researcher Gregory J. Cizek states, “Standardized testing causes severe stress in younger students”. In other words, Gregory believes this kind of test don’t make a major

To begin with standardized testing creates several critical problems for students and for the education industry. These tests are created to test over particular things. In the end these types of tests are only limited in the amount of knowledge that can be tested toward students. For example, “Standardized exams offer few opportunities to display the attributes of high-order thinking, such as analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and creativity.” (“Standardized Testing Has Serious Limitations”). Even though these tests are able to attack certain subjects at the core, they still leave out very valuable and critical information that all students should know. In