The Pros And Cons Of Standardized Testing

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

Growing up in Chesapeake every student is forced to take a standardized test at the end of every class they take. Standardized testing has been a part of the educational system for so long that everyone is just accustomed to taking these tests or giving them out. Standardized testing does not just effect the students but it also effects the teachers. Chesapeake School Board should get rid of standardized testing in all grade levels because of different learning style, it limits the teachers to what they can teach and poor test scores.

Pressure to succeed at these tests creates feelings of anxiousness and stress in students that can cause students to dread coming to school at all. Students should be able to enjoy coming to school and learning. Pressure from standardized tests does not allow students to further their education in a stress-free environment. This can be detrimental to the quality of education. Dawn Laborde is a mother of three school-aged children from Florida. She said, “My third grader loves school, but I can’t get her out of the car this year.” (“States Listen as Parents Give Rampant Testing an F”) This demonstrates how even children as young as eight or nine years old can feel the pressures given by standardized testing. It is worrying that young children and teenagers are spending so much of their time in school agonizing over standardized tests and other concerns that accompany them. The pressure to succeed at these tests can also cause students to feel physically ill. Education researcher Gregory J. Cizek states, “...illustrating how testing...produces crippling anxiety in even the brightest students and makes young children vomit, or cry, or both.” (“Is The Use of Standardized Tests Improving Education in America?”) The fact that students are brought to tears or made physically sick due to stress from testing is very disturbing. Schools should be relaxed environments where students can freely learn and grow

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

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

whose purpose is to ensure fairness and accuracy in student test taking, said: "The widespread

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.

Who pays for the standardize tests that just repeatedly test students over the same things? Is it the tax payers, schools, local, state, or are these tests government funded? Here are the exact words from an article from the eduFocus, “According to a study by Brown Center on Education Policy, a sufficient education isn’t the only thing that standardized tests are costing students, school districts, and tax payers. The study finds that 44 states spend upwards of a collective $1.7 billion on standardized testing each year of grades K through 12. The state of Pennsylvania alone spent over $58M on standardized testing, roughly $33 per student (assuming all students are tested every year).” (Strauss). Where else could that money go? It could make

Everyone has felt the stress before taking a test. The nervousness about getting a good grade and what happens if you don’t get a good grade. But the most stressful thing about standardized testing is THE NIGHT BEFORE THE TEST. That probably has to be the most stressful thing I have ever experienced. Trying to learn and memorize everything that you learned throughout the year is kinda difficult. Like if I was in a zombie apocalypse I would be fine because I experienced what really stress is and I could handle a zombie trying to eat my brain.

School for 10 months each year, for 12 years of a person’s life. Students getting taught four main subjects each day: math, science, history, and science. Then, every year, students typically take one big standardized test, or even more. These tests are claimed to give educators an objective that’s unbiased. Standardized testing supposedly helps identify the natural tendency of individual students, identifying skill development and progress. However, are these things what standardized testing really do for students?

Eighty out of one hundred-eighty days, on average of twenty point three percent for eighth graders, one hundred-twelve tests overall, twenty-five percent on average, these are statistics found on the amount of time that standardized test take.(*****) Which doesn’t include the optional exams like the Advanced Placement (AP), American College Training (ACT), or the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), along with the inclass exams like the tests, quizzes, and prep time taken for all of these exams. Are classrooms over testing their student’s? *

A standardized test is any form of test that requires all test takers to answer the same questions in the same way, and scored in a consistent manner, which makes it possible to compare the relative performance of students. A critical addition to education, standardized testing was a major step towards regulating a student’s achievements, ensuring the accountability of teachers, and guiding a school’s curriculum. Despite this noble aspiration, since the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act and afterward the Every Student Succeeds Act, which made standardized testing mandatory, American education has depreciated due to its unfair judgment of students’ learning, the narrowness of school curriculum, and the flawed hindrance to the

The pressure created by the standardized test which is administered in a closed room in which a student is not even allowed to move is destroying students’ passion for exploring new material. As stated in the article “illustrating how testing ... produces gripping anxiety in even the brightest students, and makes young children vomit or cry, or both” (Croft). Besides effecting the student’s performance, anxiety and pressure could affect the health of the student and live harmful effect lifetime. It’s also quoted in the article by Heather Arabadjis, “FOR MANY parents, the Department of Education's "Common Core" is a source of tremendous anxiety and frustration, second only to their child's reactions to the words test prep time." Time and a pressure-free environment are needed to develop innovative ideas or mastery on a topic.

This problem eventually lead to a negative impact on their emotional and physical state. Moreover, stressful events can trigger an emotional response. In the case of standardized tests, this emotion is most likely dishonesty, specifically cheating. For example, the largest profile case of cheating in American education's history was discovered in Atlanta in 2008, “more than 150 teachers and administrators from 44 public schools across Atlanta were caught changing answers on standardized tests used to judge student performance and rank schools, according to a state report. Teachers and principals were erasing the wrong answers and filling in the right ones, the report said. At one school, the faculty even held weekend pizza parties to correct answers before turning them in. Over the course of a single year, scores at the school jumped 45 percent.” ( Atlanta