The Pros And Cons Of Standardized Testing

Today standardized testing in our nation’s schools has become normal to students in grades three through eight in all fifty states. In twelve of the fifty states standardized testing is required to graduate high school. Standardized testing should be eliminated from school from all fifty states in the United States. Students and teachers are not benefiting from the results of standardized testing. Standardized testing causes more stress for students and teachers, resulting in test anxiety for students and teachers to burn out from

Many people believe that standardized testing is helpful, common, a great way to measure growth, fair towards minorities, and takes away very little class time. The author, Laura McKenna, emphasizes the fact that parents only argue about the effectiveness of standardized tests and they “view the Common Core and the accompanying tests as a threat to their ability to keep their kids safe in a hostile world”. Some parents say that they don’t want their child’s imperfection to be revealed. The article also disputes that standardized tests are no different than the common core because “teachers’ approval rate of the Common Core dropped from 76 percent in 2013 to only 46 percent in 2014”. This article addresses the complaints about standardized tests and proves that the complaints are ridiculous in order to show that testing is

The clock ticks on, and the school day drags slowly. As the pencil hovers over the four answers, the student sighs heavily in distress. This is how many students feel while taking standardized tests. Standardized exams have been a major part of the American education since the mid-1800s. The use of the tests shot up after President George W. Bush signed a bill known as the “No Child Left Behind Act” on January 8, 2002. The act required all fifty states to have their students take the tests. Although, the purpose of the exams was to measure a student’s and their school’s academic improvement, but this idea is incredibly flawed. Many times the tests graded unwell and many people believe that the exams are a waste, which is just a few of the many reasons that students opt out each year. However, eliminating standardized tests from a student’s educational school year is necessary because the tests cause great stress, they are unfair and the tests

“Standardized testing has become the arbiter of social mobility, yet there is more regulation of the food we feed our pets than of the tests we give our kids ” (Schaeffer). Standardized tests have commonly been used to evaluate a student’s knowledge of a particular subject over the course of a class, or to compare students with one another. Therefore, standardized tests are being used to make serious decisions for students in 2014. Decisions such as grade promotion, high school graduation, and the college a student will or will not attend are among the life changing outcomes of a single standardized test. Schools have an obligation to prepare students for life, and with the power standardized tests have today, students are being cheated out of a proper, valuable education and are being forced to prepare and improve their test skills. Too much time, energy, and pressure is being spent on preparing students for standardized tests. So much more is being sacrificed, for instance schools are cutting back on or even eliminating electives, programs in the arts and recess for young children. The focus on standardized tests is putting children in the 21st century at risk for emotional, psychological, and intellectual harm.

Understandably, it is commonly argued too many standardized tests are being given. The average student takes 112 standardized tests in their elementary through their high school career; it is equivalent to 8 standardized tests per year (Strauss 1). “Standardized Tests ProCon.org” released an article in 2016 about standardized testing and mentioned a study by the Brookings Institution, tests are supposed to be a measure of student performance; the study suggested standardized tests taken on a yearly basis improvements were only temporary and didn’t impact long-term learning (1). Studies have looked at testing practice of schools located in big cities and protests started about the exams. After a study, there was a national opt-out movement of students opting out of mandatory standardized testing. After this opt-out movement, Common Core standards fueled the fire because teachers started refusing to administer giving standardized tests; they were also begging their schools to inquire change for their state’s testing requirements. The concerns of too much standardized testing is turning into a live political issue, which may turn into a complete movement.

“Standardized testing has swelled and mutated…to the point that it now threatens to swallow our schools whole” (Kohn, 2000). Comparing standardized testing to a swelling monster that is taking over the school systems is a bit of a reach but there is some weight to this statement. Standardized tests have become so frequent in elementary and high school education that they have become the most important tool that is used by school boards and colleges to determine a student’s achievements, but how accurate and reliable are these tests at showing all of these achievements? The answer? Not very accurate. Standardized testing, at both the elementary and secondary scchool levels, are not effective at accurately showing a student’s achievements.

There is evidence that shows the American school system deteriorating. In 2002, the United States dropped from 18th to 31st in the math PISA. Incentive programs are rapidly failing and not yielding results for the U.S. The National Research Council stated, "Despite using them for several decades, policymakers and educators do not yet know how to use test-based incentives to generate positive effects on achievement consistently and to improve education" (Standardized Tests, 2017). Brooking Institute studied the testing improvements of students over a period. The results found that “50-80% of year-over-year test score improvements were temporary and ‘caused by fluctuations that had nothing to do with long-term changes in learning...”(Standardized Tests, 2017). In 2002, President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001(NCLB). The Act increased the federal government’s role in education. The Act of 2001 required states to have an academic standard for reading and math (Klein, 2017). Those against standardized testing feel the NCLB decreased the quality of teaching. The pressure on teachers made them start “teaching to the test.” In a University of Maryland study, the results show a "declines in teaching higher-order thinking, in the amount of time spent on complex assignments, and in the actual amount of high cognitive content in the curriculum"(Standardized Tests, 2017). There is a

A typical student in the United States takes about 112 standardized tests between kindergarten and senior year. By contrast, most countries that outperform the United States on international exams only test their students three times during their school careers. The topic of standardized testing has been controversial for years. Many people argue over whether or not the tests are actually useful to the educational system. Nonetheless, statistics prove that the United States spends way too much time testing their students without an inkling of all the negative effects the tests bring. Schools should be able to focus on enhancing students’ educations, but all the testing forces teachers to spend their short amount of class time preparing their

Colleges have long since used the SAT as a deciding factor of whether or not a student

Standardized tests are critical to our nation’s education system as they hold teachers and schools accountable to students, parents, and taxpayers, are perceived as generally fair, and contain some critical thinking and creative merit.

The way students learn around the country is being tailored to accommodate for the use of standardized tests and this started with President George W. Bush signing the law, No Child Left Behind. “No Child Left Behind Act which was initiated in 2002 ushered in the current era of high-stakes testing.” (NCLBA). “This law required states to administer math and reading tests every year to students from third to eighth grade and imposed increasingly harsh punishments on schools that failed to make “adequate yearly progress” on these tests.” (Mulholland). Without question, the use of standardized testing hurts the curriculum taught in school because students are now being taught to take a test versus capitalizing on their various unique genius and

42% of high school seniors in Ohio are not set to graduate because of their poor scores on standardized tests. Students all over the United States are forced to participate in statewide standardized tests each year. Many claim that standardized testing allows for teachers to help their students easier, and that it holds school districts accountable. While school mandated standardized testing can be useful, statewide standardized testing is ineffective and negatively impacts students.

OH NO! You have to take the standardized test today,and you are not prepared. Standardized tests have been a part of

Standardized tests set a standard for all students to be at the same level of intelligence and comprehension, whether it be Keystone exams, Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT), or the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, America is obsessed with having their students reach a certain score or better. With the addition of high school exit exams, are we taking standardized testing too far? The argument that the Washington Post gives in one of its articles uses arguments such as the facts that come from these tests and what should be required of graduating high school.

Standardized tests have been part of American culture since the 1800s. Many disappointments in the education system have been blamed on the use of standardized tests. Standardized tests do not measure student achievement or ability.