Standardized Testing Argument Essay

Standardized tests are largely unnecessary, ineffective, and overused. Despite the enormous monetary resources and hours that companies pour into the making of standardized tests, the unholistic pen and pencil approach of these tests tends to assess students' test-taking ability rather than their actual intelligence. All this new testing leaves less time for classroom learning than generations past. This time may seem negligible at first; however, it adds up considering the number of ACTs, SATs, graduation and annual state tests students take over their academic career. What little time left is sacrificed for busy work and teaching for the tests. Nevertheless, who can blame teachers when the results of standardized tests determine their job performance? The tests were mainly designed to showcase the efforts of teachers and schools to the state, and a reduction of standardized tests is integral to fixing our educational

Standardized tests are unnecessary because they are excruciating to the minds of many innocent students. Each year, the tests get tougher and stricter until the students cannot process their own thoughts. The tests become torturous to the minds of those only starting in the world of tests. The students already battling in the war are continuing to fall deeper and deeper into the world of uncreativity and narrowness. As the walls narrow in on them, they are lost and unable to become innovative thinkers. Moreover, the implementation of standardized tests into the public school systems of the United States of America has controversially raised two different views –the proponents versus the opponents in the battle of the effectiveness of

Standardized testing has been in our education system since the 1800’s the use of them became more frequent in 2012, when the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was reinstated, making testing mandatory throughout the education system. Though, these tests gives the schools, teachers, and parents and overall data report on each student it still doesn’t prove anything. You can’t prove that teachers and schools aren’t doing their jobs by students’ academic performance through testing, to many factors play a role in the individuals' test scores. For instance, you may have students test behaviors, students with undetected learning disabilities, and you may have students that just don’t care. The data received from these tests should instead focus on the individual students strengths and weaknesses to better assist the schools, teachers, and parents with helping the student achieve

“…only twenty-two percent of those surveyed said increased testing had helped the performance of their local schools compared with twenty-eight in 2007” (“Public Skeptical of Standardized Testing.”). Furthermore the poll indicated an eleven percent increase, compared to last year, towards the favor of discontinuing the usage of students’ test results for teacher evaluations. William Bushaw, executive director of PDK International and co-director of PDK/Gallup Poll also stated, “Americans’ mistrust of standardized tests and their lack of confidence and understanding around new education standards is one the most surprising developments we’ve found in years” (“Public Skeptical of Standardized Testing.”). All in all, not only are these tests a concern for students, who are forced to sit through them, hoping to get a decent enough score to place into a class, receive their diploma, or even get accepted to the college of their dreams, but they are a concern for parents as well, who only want the best for their children and to see them succeed.

In the article, “high stakes of standardized testing”, Steve Kastenbaum express a unique way of writing that helps persuade the reader that standardized testing are not the most effective way to critique students or teachers. The main audience for his article are students, parents, teachers and school officials. The article starts off by discussing how testing has been a part of the American education for a long time. He then goes on to quote a variety of people who have opinions on this matter to elaborate more deeply on the effects of testing and pressure that is involved with testing. In his article it was obvious that each of these people ranging from teacher and students to school officials had their own view on the matter. The people

In Jouriles article “Here’s why we don’t need standardized tests” in Education Week magazine, researches the cons of standardized testing and why it should not be allowed. Greg argues that standardized testing is pointless and it’s messing with the education system forcing it to do something that is damaging the staff and students in numerous of ways. He used himself as an example of working at a school to explain that teachers in individual schools can assess students just as fairly and more accurately than the standardized testing. That a piece of paper with hundreds of questions isn’t going to effect students in any way, it’s only going to stress them and even lose confidence in themselves as a student. That with discussions and collaboration between the teachers us much more effective than the pressure that the tests brings to the students and the staff with the way they teach. The article also shows the debate of standardized testing from a teacher point of view and it also does a good job of tackling the other sides of the argument. Greg shows that he’s understandable and not all teachers are able to collaborate on the grading system and that it should be a problem that should be more focused on and getting it fixed rather than ignoring it. His main argument I believe is to encourage the system to believe in the teachers that they can keep track of

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

“High school grades reflect years of effort and are more reliable assessment of college potential than test scores.” Historians detected that standardized testing started back in the seventh-century in China. The government of China began to organize written exams to select people for the civil service. Also many educators try to make sure that they are following the right requirements but some of them don’t and do all sorts of stuff with the results. Many individuals would say that standardized testing is a helpful way of learning from what the student knows and doesn’t, but the consequences that teachers found out of the standardized tests are making the students have a decrease in critical thinking.

Ever since then standardized testing has been a huge part of education. Teachers across the nation had to teach to the curriculum instead of what they thought the students needed to learn. Nowadays colleges strictly look at ACT and SAT scores rather than classroom grades, because they believe that some teachers grade on a curve and are not giving the students a fair chance. Standardized tests are an unreliable measure of student performance. A 2001 study published by the Brookings Institution found that 50-80% of year-over-year tests core improvements were temporary and “caused by fluctuations that had nothing to do with long-term changes in learning…”(“Standardized Tests”). Teachers are stressed over if they are teaching “correctly”. They went to a 4-year college, some even more, to get a degree in something that they wanted to do, either for themselves or for the children, and now they have to “teach to the test”. Tests can only measure a portion of the goals of education. A pschometrician, Daniel Koretz says, “standardized tests usually do not provide a direct and complete measure of educational achievement.”(Harris, Harris, and Smith).

Students shouldn’t be measured by what they get on standardized test since it doesn’t show other things that the students are good at. The author wrote, “ Contrary to popular assumptions about standardized testing, the tests do a poor job of measuring student achievement. They fail to measure such important attributes as creativity and critical thinking skills.” (Opposing viewpoints in Context pg.1) The author’s main argument is that standardized tests do not show the other skill that students, schools or programs have that isn’t shown just through a test. That Standardized testing doesn’t effectively measure the achievement of students. In his or her article, the author puts what achievement is but what is based on standardized test and not other things. A lot of attributes are not measured from the standardized tests. There are some places that have rewards for “shallow thinking” (Opposing viewpoints Pg.3)

In this day and age-standardized tests have become the sole way of testing kids, and it's affecting our educational system and schools. As stated by Education Week, an American education news site, every state requires some sort of standardized test that students must take. Our nation is no longer just looking at how kids learn and grow to see if they are achieving. They are measuring this achievement or competency through a test. Additionally, according to the Washington Post,”The average student in America’s big-city public schools takes some 112 mandatory standardized tests between pre-kindergarten and the end of 12th grade” (Valerie Strauss). As important as standardized tests have become, the question begs again, “Which school provides students with the skills needed to learn and perform on these tests”. While both year-round and public schools benefit its students, year-round schools focus on student retention, while public schools focus more on standardized tests.

Standardized tests are defined as the test directed and given in a standard way. From the 1800s, the standardized test has been an important aspect of the education sector and has been a primary factor to evaluate academic proficiency and sole criteria for admissions as well as scholarships. There are millions of international students like me who are forced to give TOEFL and SAT to fulfill the criteria for admissions as well as scholarships in America. But as soon as I finished the testing, I realized how unfair, subjective and unreliable these tests are. Therefore, I believe standardized tests should not be a sole measure to evaluate the academic competency of a student as it is unreliable due to its faulty format and

There are more important skills a student needs to learn for their future. Julia Barrier-Ferreira is an educator and wrote an article for Clearing House, which focused on the nurturing of students. Not only are thinking skills important for a student’s future, but they also need the skill to deal with difficult life issues. Students may be able to achieve academically, but lack what is necessary to cope with difficult life issues. Teachers have to abandon teaching students what is not related to the standardized tests, which then makes them lose sight of what is important for the students. A whole child is not simply composed of their intellect, but their emotional and spiritual well-being as well. According to Barrier-Ferreira, “A school must be about achieving a balance between developing the intellectual, emotional, and social selves of each individual” (39). This can be done by allowing students a reasonable amount of time to socialize with their peers and allows students to align with the natural disposition of the human being (Berrier-Ferreira 39). However, a teacher cannot focus on teaching students how to socialize or deal with real-life problems if their teaching method is changed to standardize. It would be difficult to teach students the material to pass the standardized tests and nurture them emotionally and spiritually. Barrier-Ferreira’s main argument is that standardized testing are preventing teachers to teach what is not on those tests. Also, students are

Right now, in schools all across America, many students are stressing about a standardized test. Standardized testing has only begun to boom over the past decade. Many schools use the final standardized test grade to determine whether a student has failed or passed his or her classes. It has also forced many teachers to basically teach to the test. That means that they try to jam the material into their students’ heads just until they take the exam. Standardized tests are a major issue in public schools today and the government should get rid of them.

Standardized test are tests put in place in order to be a reliable measure of success and to have a positive academic effect on students, but recent studies have shown that these tests might not be as accurate as we perceive them to be. A standardized test is one that is the same for all test takers, it is scored and administered in the same exact way for each student. Common forms of these tests would include: achievement tests, intelligence tests, and aptitude tests. The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and The American College Test (ACT) are common standardized tests in the United States along with any other test that a state administers. A Brookings Institution study claims 50-80% of standardized testing results were unreliable and did not accurately reflect student performance, therefore standardized testing should be eliminated. Students need to put all of their energy into learning, instead of worrying about passing state wide tests that do not accurately define their current or future abilities as a student.