The Pros And Cons Of Standardized Testing

Standardized tests can place a huge amount of stress on students and teachers. Some students do well with certain levels of stress, others not so much. A lot of students suffer from what is called test anxiety which hinders performance. Studies suggest that too much stress is psychologically and physically harmful. Stress is so overwhelming that the brain shifts into a “fight or flight” response. Which means that it is impossible to engage in a higher order thinking process that

Additionally, Albert Einstein once said, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” There are different forms of intelligence that go beyond what our school system measures. Students are not a unit to be measured, and students cannot be assigned a numerical value to identify their intelligence. Students are diverse—they learn at different speeds, and they learn in different ways. Focusing solely on test scores is hurting our students and deviating away from building our society on success and excellence. Critics are slowly realizing the problems associated with standardized tests—they create anxiety, they are extremely biased, and they do not measure the ability to think deeply.

When people think of the education system, most can say that there are some problems, though they might not be able to pinpoint what needs to change first. If you ask most teachers, they will say that the first thing that needs to be changed in the schooling system to help the students more is the standardized testing. They will say that while it can be helpful it has a lot of faults and needs to be updated or changed to help its students. Standardized testing has often been a topic for discussion, between parents and people in the schooling system. It seems that a lot of people either hate standardized testing for not giving every child a chance to succeed, or love it for being a fair way to test whether a child knows what they need to know at their age. There have been many articles, books, and documentary’s debating on whether or not standardized testing is doing more harm then good. There was a comic made that shows the brutality and bluntness of what standardized testing is really like. Standardized Testing causes too much stress by putting unfair expectations on teens and doesn’t give every single student the chance to succeed.

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

Standardized testing is not an effective way to test the skills and abilities of today’s students. Standardized tests do not reveal what a student actually understands and learns, but instead only prove how well a student can do on a generic 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 forced to prepare and improve their test skills. Too much time, energy, and pressure to succeed are being devoted to standardized tests. Standardized testing, as it is being used presently, is a flawed way of testing the skills of today’s students.

The stress settled in once the word ‘testing’ echoed through the classroom. The students knew what it brought, and they knew how dreadful it would be; sitting in one room, hour after hour and day after day, silent and still, with only the sound of the clock resonating through their heads. Standardized tests are assessments that local and national governments may require their students to take. However, these tests do not properly evaluate their intellect, and only lead to tension and mental strain on a student’s attentiveness. Although many schools believe that these assessments are productive, it is proven that they are not beneficial to students because standardized testing leads to stress and anxiety, it is wasting valuable classroom time,

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.

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.

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,

Students spend a lot of time stressing over standardized testing when they could be focusing their energy on more important academic and social activities that could benefit them in the future. Standardized testing are stressful for students for one that it is timed, students often times can not focus knowing that they have a certain amount of times to take this very important test. And if they start stressing out from not having enough time left then they are gonna start writing or bubbling in random answers and then that can cause them to do worst. Teachers are being told to “teach the test”,the teachers don't want to teach us the same basic things every year, but if they don't then students will be unsuccessful when it comes time to taking the exams. Which can lead to consequences ad problems for both the student and the teacher. Some of those consequences may include students being held back, teachers getting in trouble or possibly loosing their jobs because they have failed to meet the standards set and what people think students should learn and what type of material the teachers should teach.” Brain research suggests that too much stress is psychologically and physically harmful. And when stress becomes overwhelming, the brain shifts into a “fight or flight” response, where it is impossible to engage in the higher-order thinking processes that are necessary to respond correctly to the standardized test

The research reports that over half of the examinees were not comfortable since from the beginning of the test they were stressed out, the students who tortured with anxiety. The SAT is one example of a standardized test. In the 21st century, the number of standardized tests been given in schools has greatly increased and the frequency with which exam are given faster compared to the 1990s. No doubt standardized tests are an effective tool for instructors to be able track their students work but it can be too much pressure for students. However, standardized tests is based on class material and other courses content have been delivered in a rigid, circumscribed way. The more standardized tests are given, the more they sap the energy of educators and draining the life from students’ learning. The standardized test can have negative impacts on the students and educators and also on the education system, and lead to problems such as lower graduation

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 testing creates a lot of stress on students and educators alike. Because of how much stress is put on them to prepare students for these tests, many excellent teachers quit their jobs everyday. In fact, in April, new federal data stated that 17 percent of new public school teachers leave their profession after four years due to stress and other reasons. Some teachers fail to teach students skills that go beyond the tests because they’re so pressured to get their students ready for these exams. This amount of stress can lead to feelings of negativity towards school and learning in general as well as cause negative health issues. Standardized tests places a large amount of stress on both teachers and students.

Virtually because of the substantial importance of standardized tests students often are overwhelmed which leads to test anxiety. “Being anxious about taking tests is very common”, when taking the SAT or ACT “because there is so much pressure from teachers, parents, and peers on students to get good scores” (Barhyte, 16-17).”Test anxiety can be potentially serious when it leads to such high levels of stress that students actually underperform. For some, the nervousness and self-doubt they feel before a test is so intense that it influences their concentration” (Barhyte, 16-17).

The debate on standardized tests and its adequacy in testing a student’s knowledge about a subject has been going on for many years. Tests, in general, has been around for centuries and without them there would not be progress and no gleams of progress. Students ranging from elementary school to high school have experienced standardized testing. Teachers, educators, and parents are also involved in the students’ lives, which revolves around the tests, one way or another. There are many views on standardized test. However, the three most common views are: educators who are for standardized test which benefits students, educators who are at the other extreme of opposing standardized tests, and educators who view tests are a benefit if done in appropriate amounts.