Standardized Testing Craze In The Usa Research Paper

Anyone who has ever taken the ACT or the SAT knows how stressful and difficult the tests are. Students are forever judged because of the scores the receive by colleges and peers. The ACT/SAT are standardized tests that are meant to calculate what students have learned in previous years of high school. Colleges then use this score to determine whether a student will succeed in college. Specific problems with this process include the fact that high schoolers are extremely busy and may have other things on their minds, the tests require brutal test prep, the test can cause stress and anxiety, and the tests do not accurately gage a student’s college success. For these main reasons, students should not be required to take the ACT/SAT to get into college.

There is a strong irony in our emphasis on standardized testing in a country that promotes diversity among career options for students. Tests are mandated throughout the country and students spend days preparing for the multiple exams they have to complete. Many students pay hundreds of dollars for tutoring and prep materials to improve their scores on these standardized tests. Even school syllabuses have shifted to help prepare for the big standardized tests such as the ACT and SAT.This frenzy behind standardized testing is understandable however, since colleges put a lot of weightage on standardized test scores and the government hands out thousands of dollars of scholarships to both students and schools based on the results of these exams. The Washington Post estimates the market to be a two billion annual business.

Einstein once said, “If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Likewise, if a poor test-taker is judged by their SAT score, they could be forced to attend an inadequate institute of higher education. For decades, the SAT has been “the test” that makes or breaks a student's chances of getting into their top college. Generally, the privileged populace do well, but minorities and women do not come out as strong and are therefore limited to college choice. The SAT has proven to be an unsuitable, biased method for predicting success of students in college.

For many years, standardized tests have been a pillar of college admissions. Students are persuaded to take the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) or the American College Test (ACT) because colleges believe the scores can predict an applicant’s academic success after high school. However, an increasing number of colleges have made reporting test scores optional due to inconsistencies with the tests, many of which have been emphasized by students. These inconsistencies and other problems with test distribution have led to increasing demands for standardized testing to be reformed or become optional in the admissions process. Standardized testing should be eliminated as a criterion for college applicants because the tests have made education less significant, have made scores vary among students with similar academic abilities, and have not contributed a noticeable improvement to children’s intelligence.

If the test truly showed the academic potential of students to colleges, it would not be discriminatory based on any factors besides those relevant to college admissions, such as intelligence and passion. It is very difficult to effectively showcase a student’s potential with standardized tests, because they “focus only on cognitive dimensions, ignoring many other qualities that are essential to student success” (NCTE). These cognitive dimensions are very limited in scope, and are not effective in portraying all of the skills that a student may have. On the SAT, these focuses are reading, writing, and math. On the ACT, these focuses are english, math, reading, and science.

High School juniors and seniors are frequently asked what they plan to do for their college education. While discussing their future in college, many relevant topics come into the conversation. One may talk about their grades and classes, paying for school, and their test scores. All of these have a very important impact on what a student will do for the next few years of their life. Unfortunately, in our society, test scores are an extremely important factor in the college admissions process. Students are highly encouraged to put forth a serious effort in order to achieve the best possible score. “To this day, most four-year colleges require applicants to take one or more of a number of standardized tests for admission, and

Imagine a test capable of making or breaking a student's chances of getting into his or her dream college. Imagine a test score that can be easily influenced, but only through thousands of dollars worth of coaching. Now imagine that same test but biased towards certain crowds of students while also being incapable of accurately predicting their futures. Is this the test you want for colleges to use in order to distinguish students? This is the SAT—famous for the unnecessary pressure it presents to students as well as the unfair disadvantages it presents to many others. Since these SAT scores are extremely artificial, SAT tests are not an accurate predictor for future success.

Not only does standardized testing limit students from attending the college of their dreams, it also puts a large amount of stress on students and teachers and the test do not test for necessary skills needed in the real world. With this current system, students are limited to what schools they can get into. By only allowing students with a certain score into a school, this makes it unequal to all students. This then does not allow students that have potential in classes at that college to truly be happy at the college they end up in. The test seems to determine an individual’s potential by their ability to retain information they learned in years past. Not every career will require in depth knowledge of algebraic formulas or scientific methods taught in school, therefore, to require students to test high on the ACT or SAT when the career they want to pursue may not require certain knowledge that is tested seems illogical. By making standardized tests less important in determining college admission, all students would have equal opportunity to attend the college they want.

Since childhood it has been taught that education is key to being a successful and productive person in today’s day and age, but exactly how children should be educated is being debated heavily throughout the United States. I have decided to do my senior project on standardized testing (common core testing) as a way to shed light on this broken system. Standardized testing has been created in order to compare test scores around the country and decide exactly what needs to be taught in schools.While this may seem like a good idea on paper, the animation of this in the real world has been a complete disaster. Lately, students have been bombarded with standardized tests and it has been negatively affecting their education. In a quote from one of the most influential females of our generation, “If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn't be here. I guarantee you that.” (Michelle Obama). Now in this quote the first lady is saying that people should not be judged based off of one test that is going to determine the way that they are being educated, which is exactly what is

Colleges and universities such as Iowa State need ways to evaluate applying students which really show their potential as college students. A three hour-long test cannot reveal many traits of successful students. Qualities like good study habits, a positive self-concept, the ability to set goals, and real world knowledge are not shown in a test like the SAT (Fairness). Another problem with the SAT is that today so many preparation methods exist; the tests aren’t really a true showing of what a student knows. There are many companies who claim their product can be that miracle teacher that boosts a student’s score and get them into the college of their dreams. Should colleges really be base this large decision on knowledge that can be just "picked up" in four short weeks or an entire twelve-year education?

Standardized testing is used to tell students level in certain areas of academics; however, it is actually a waste of time and money.

Standardize testing is an epidemic rising all over the country. Many ask what standardize testing is? Standardize testing is defined as any form of test that requires the same question to be answered, in the same concept, and that is scored using a consistent manner, which is unfair to the tester (“Standardized Test”). Testing the students for the rating of the teachers and the placement of the schools is absolutely absurd. This academic issue is nationwide and especially in West Virginia. What might we do to better the validity of standardize testing? Is standardized testing really the best way to measure the students’ academic ability?

“The research shows that compared to the national standardized tests, the SAT and ACT, a high school GPA is much better at predicting a student's cumulative GPA in college and a student's chances at completing college,” says Wendy Lecker, journalist of Stamford Advocate. She agrees that standardized tests should not determine a student’s future based on how well they scored. Because of this, some colleges have even started making the tests optional to

Firstly, a child’s future should not be based on one score. Colleges today, especially the more prestigious ones, highly stress the need for good scores on tests like the ACT or SAT. This puts more pressure on our students. It basically lets them know that if they do not do well on a test, then they can’t go to a good college and their future won’t be as successful as those who do well on that test. We tell our

The two common college admissions exams in the United States are the Standard Achievement Test (SAT) and the American College Test (ACT). They are nationally standardized tests used for college admissions (“Socio-Economic Bias in SAT and ACT May Be Leading to Scoring Disparities”). Most colleges require either the SAT or the ACT for admission (“SAT Officials Hope to Score Points on Eliminating Bias”).