The Importance Of Standardized Testing

Ever since standardized testing started being used as a way to evaluate the intelligence of students and the teachers’ ability to educate, the standard of actual education has been diminished immensely. Standardized testing is used in most public and private schools to analyze students’ knowledge. It has affected the way in which students learn and has corrupted the methods teachers use to educate. In some cases, English-Learning and disabled students face discrimination from teachers since teachers have more responsibility to have a high number of passing students. Some countries around the world don’t use standardized tests to rank their students or schools and yet they have been successful. Standardized tests are not efficient on making students learn, they should not be used to evaluate students’ knowledge.

Standardized tests inhibit the ability for students to perform well on stress inducing tests; thus, students question their abilities to succeed, and they lack engagement in their educational learning. Standardized tests produce the feeling of anxiety as heart beats accelerate, bodies’ tremble, faces flush, sweat pores open, hands grip tighter, and muscles tense. As the test dates come closer, students are

Test anxiety is common in even the youngest of students, and it can take a toll. Standardized testing can cause levels of extreme anxiety, leading to emotional and physical distress in students. Many instances of students getting upset and sick have been reported by parents and teachers over last year’s testing season. Resulting in many parents refusing to let their kids take the tests, because of the stress they cause. (Fernette) Getting physically sick is not unusual for students with

Each year high school students from around the country take the SAT or ACT. The ACT and SAT are both standardized test used by colleges to determine the knowledge of a student and predict what their performance will be in their first year of college. An immense amount of pressure is put on student to receive certain scores in order to obtain scholarships and admission into college. Even just one point on a student’s score can determine if they will be accepted into their dream college. However, the results from standardized tests, such as the ACT and SAT, are often inaccurate. Because of this one’s knowledge and academic ability are misrepresented, and they are denied certain opportunities. Standardized tests such as the ACT and the SAT

Standardized testing has been ruling over the lives of students, making or breaking them in their education without fair judgement. Tests like the SAT and the ACT count for way too much when applying to colleges, which in turn limits the student 's capabilities to thrive in an environment that would benefit them. There are many problems within a standardized test that deems them to be unreliable as a true test of knowledge. Although designed to test groups of students on intelligence, standardized testing neglects to fairly acknowledge the abilities of each unique student which reflect their true capabilities.

Students are overwhelmed with school, work, extra-curricular activities, family, etc. Perhaps standardized tests are a major contributor to students’ stress. A standardized test is any test scored in a consistent manner and requires test-takers to answer identical questions. Among the most common include the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the American College Test (ACT). According to the article “Standardized Testing Has Negatively Impacted Public Schools” from Opposing Viewpoints in Context, the beginnings of standardized tests occurred during World War I when the American Psychological Association developed a “ground-administered test” to eliminate inefficient recruits (Solley 3). Today, standardized tests are necessary for college admission. Just last month, in March of 2016, College Board, the non-profit organization responsible for administering the SAT, altered the format of the test. It is now formatted more similar to the ACT and includes an optional essay reducing the score from 2400 to 1600. Many advocates argue standardized tests accurately measure academic intelligence and hold teachers and schools accountable. In today’s society, standardized tests have become the norm, and unfortunately, people overlook their negative effects despite research substantiating arguments about their disadvantages. Standardized tests are disadvantageous because they hinder education and contain bias.

One of the biggest topics in the educational world is standardized tests. All fifty states have their own standards following the common core curriculum. There are many positives and negatives that go with the standardized tests. A standardized test is any type of “examination that's administered and scored in a predetermined, standard manner” (Popham, 1999). These standardized tests are either aptitude tests or achievement tests. Schools use achievement tests to compare students.

Alarming is an understatement when it comes to the anxiety and stress standardized testing brings. Students are told how vital these tests can be to college acceptance, class placement, and school ranking, so it is no surprise that they lead students to become stressed out and anxious about taking the assessments. According to education researcher Gregory J. Cizek, "illustrating how testing... produces gripping anxiety in even the brightest students, and makes young children vomit or cry, or both" (2). The affect standardized testing has on students is unacceptable, no students should be anxious and uneasy about going to school due to a test. To continue, the Sacramento Bee reported that "test-related jitters, especially among young students,

The education researcher Gregory J. Cizek says that tests are causing major stress and anxiety to teens and even to the brightest students. Also, these tests are causing students to even do things as jurassic as throwing up on the test which has made teachers learn how to deal with the situation if someone were to projectile vomit on their test (Cizek 2). Also, all of the unnecessary stress that is put on the student’s impacts them tremendously. American students are on of the most tested children in the entire world! They take more than 100 million standardized tests every year, according to Teachers College at Columbia University in New York City. The results of these tests are taken seriously by educators, parents, and even local government officials, for they are shown as a measure of teacher and school progress and can affect a child's future placement in a schools system. All this pressure is not lost on children because even on the students who are very well prepared can be impacted greatly by the general anxiety surrounding the tests (Clovis 1). What makes standardized tests stressful? A major factor is the way by which they are tested at. They are rigidly timed, the instructions are complicated, and the rules are strict (Cizek 3). Although, testing is not too stressful. The US Department of Education stated: "Although

Standardized tests cause unnecessary stress on students because of pressure to do well on tests. Students who study too much or do not study enough can get stressed out. Not studying enough can make students feel unprepared and can cause anxiety. Studying too much can overwhelm a student of overload of information. In the article, “The Leading Source for Pros & Cons of Controversial Issues”, an education researcher Gregory J. Cizek, says “the brightest of students even get stressed.” If the smartest students in school get stressed, how can average students avoid stress? There is no way to avoid the stress that comes with these tests. It also states, “The Sacramento Bee reported that ‘test-related jitters, especially among young students, are so common that the Stanford-9 exam comes with instructions on what to do with a test booklet in case a student vomits on it.” The stress that comes with standardized tests is bad enough, but

Standardized tests. Like them or not, they are everywhere. And everybody has their opinion about it, whether they are useful or not. Many say that they are harmful as they put kids under pressure and stress. Others say they help kids learn and scale kids with other school systems and nations. Lots of evidence shows that they are indeed useful, but I believe there are also several weaknesses, and improvements that can be made to fix them; the biggest being a pre and post test. Standardized tests can also have more focused lessons that lead to more undemanding goals, which can let teachers use their own teaching methods to eventually meet with the same goal.

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.

Many students get test anxiety which affects their health and test scores (“Pros/Cons of Standardized testing”). As someone who has experienced standardized testing, I know students at my school who get very anxious about taking these tests and feel physically ill because of them. They end up with test scores that are lower than their class work and grades would predict. The scores only show what the student was able to do in that one point of time. (“Pros/Cons of Standardized testing”). One standardized test, the Stanford-9, has evidence of this anxiety among students ("Standardized Tests - ProCon.org."). The exam has directions for the teacher of what to do if a student vomits on the test due to extreme anxiety ("Standardized Tests - ProCon.org."). The makers of the test expect that some children will be so anxious they will throw up! You may wonder why students feel so much anxiety about taking standardized tests. The pressure from parents and teachers and community about the results of the test and how you will be judged based on those results is not a positive thing! Also, teachers and parents cannot help students improve for their next standardized test because they do not get to see the results of their last test until months or even a year later (Woesthoff Julie)! This builds anxiety about why are we doing this anyway? Plus, the results are not specific (Woesthoff Julie). Students are labeled using terms like basic, proficient, advanced, average, below average, below grade level or needs improvement. These terms are insulting to students who tried their best. They are embarrassing to good students who had anxiety or a bad day. They are also rude towards children with disabilities and English language learners who are working with modified teaching, but have to take the same tests as other

I am planning on doing my causation essay over the effects standardized testing has on a students attitude and outlook on their impending future. Majority, if not all, have taken a standardized test and this life-altering questionnaire has been the source of hatred towards schooling and negatively impacts our mindset due to a simple number never being high enough to truly show what one is capable of. I recently received my SAT score and was highly disappointed that I did not achieve the score I felt I worked for. This, in turn messed up my plans for attending my top choice college because I was thrown into the “average category.” This conforming test pushes you to the limit on stress and time and is the loathed obstacle that greatly determines

Students are stressed. But, what is the goal of these tests? Are we trying to make students compete with one another to see who gets the higher score? Or are we preparing them for life outside of school? Maybe at one time these tests were used to measure how well the future leaders of our countries were learning, but now it is no longer like that. These tests seem to show no post-school value except to find the most successful kids and give them scholarships to college. Going along with this, everyone, depending on their grade, is required to take the same exact test. Despite their different ways of thinking, students are grouped together and the ones who are different are “wrong” simply because they were unable to learn it due to the way they were taught. Holding every single student to the same standards avoids the fact that everyone has a different mindset and each person may excel in different subjects. This poses a question: when will the system change? Students are held to such enormous pressure that when they meet the standards, they are convinced they’re stupid, and I struggle with this, too. However, it would be easier if all of the intimidation encountered when we are testing would just be withdrawn and students can be able to take a test, try their best, and if they don’t succeed, they can continue to work hard because, after all, a test shouldn’t determine how