Standardized Testing: The Real Threat to American Schools by Alfie Kohn

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.

Standardized testing is not made to test every student. These tests often ask one sided, bias questions. Claims have been brought against standardized tests in court due to bias. How are they supposed to measure the ability of every student when every student is different? Students learn differently and preform differently depending upon the type of test given. Some students are stronger with essay questions, some with matching, and some with true and false. Some students could not even know the material but get a multiple choice question right through process of elimination. How is this a fair way to measure knowledge? It is not fair to the students that actually study for these tests and know the information required.

By World War I, standardized testing was a common practice in the United States. It started with the Chinese, filling out tests to determine job status among the workers. During the industrial revolution, children left the farms and land to sit behind a desk, which caused the need to test a large amount of children quickly. The most common and well-known in our society are the SAT and ACT, which became a common rite of passage into universities in our society. There are many different views on standardized testing, creating a rift in our society, whether it has positive or negative impacts on our educational community and futures of children in our country.

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.

Introduction: Standardized testing is used to hold schools accountable. The pressure to have students pass the STAAR test has negatively impacted education, because teachers to narrow curriculum in order to focus on material on the test. Standardized testing is causing the deterioration of a meaningful curriculum in the Texas Education System

Some would argue that standardized tests test everybody on the same level and it shows how well the students are taught by the teachers. This is true but not everybody learns on the same level and some don’t take tests very well.

They do not do an acceptable job in furthering a child’s learning. Learning is much more than a test. There are students that may do very well at choosing the right answer, but not truly be learning anything that will help them later on in life. “Standardized tests, by virtue of being multiple-choice, don’t allow for students to express themselves.” (Evans) Students learn the most by expressing themselves to others. Bringing to light the flaws in standardized testing, this shows that in reality, these tests hold students back in their learning. Since standardized testing is such a big part, other important things are being held back from students because of the time in the classroom that is spent preparing students for these

Standardized testing has been around for centuries. It has been a part of America’s education since mid 1800’s. Ever since the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, tests are now required and mandated in every state. But has their use improved America’s education?

“Mostly, they worry that common standards would reduce teaching to only a small range of testable information and would not produce the knowledge, flexibility and creativity needed. Buttressing this concern, the Center on Education Policy found that the emphasis on test-based accountability has indeed already narrowed the curriculum” (Mathis). Standardized testing has become a controversial topic recently throughout the nation because of the harsh, confined lessons teachers are being forced to give. According to a news article written by the New York Times, teenagers nationwide are taking anti-depressants to cope with test-related stress and teachers would rather retire than teach when the government seems to value testing over learning. Teachers

When I was in grade school there was a large push for us students to excel in standardize testing. In recent years I have been more and more aware that these tests are not so much about us as students. What it is about is the school proving that their little education community is superior to others in a fight for funding. That’s not to say that the public school system is poor, or that I feel I have been done a disservice by attending public school. I loved my high school, I am just simply concerned with how much conformity was encouraged in that community. I remember, vividly, being told by one of my English teachers that my opinion was wrong because it did not match the opinions expressed in the text book. This was one of the most extreme

Standardized testing first started in the mid 1800s, testing the amount of knowledge that a student knows when it comes to the three main subjects; math, science and history. The big question is if these tests are accurate in testing the knowledge of the student, or only testing the ability of the student to take tests. Those against say that standardized testing overall is not worth the time and the money for no overall improvement in the students. They believe there is too much emphasis put on testing, causing the students to over stress. Those on the other side of the spectrum argue that standardized testing is the only cheap and effective way to evaluate students and their knowledge. They argue it is a way for them to be able to measure the progress of

In the USA, standardized testing began in the 1900’s. The first tests were given during WWI, to determine if Soldiers were fit to become Officers. Later on it was used to determine if students were college worthy. The SAT, was created in 1926 by the College Board, as an aptitude test. This test became so famous, that by the 1930’s “the test was accepted

Based upon the sources I have cited, standardized testing can be biased or unfair to students, tests are created and often are not written by people with no to little teaching experiences, teachers are forced to teach test material, thus eliminating a student's creativity, and students are given over the requirements of testing.

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

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