Using Standardized Testing Within Our Education System

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.

The constant demand for quality and improve education throughout the United States, a number of education reforms were put into place, which mandate standardized tests into our education system. Standardized testing is not effective in helping students individually, they are more geared toward evaluating the performance of the schools and teachers. Therefore, they need to reduce the amount of test given to the student's and need to improve data to provide teachers a better understanding of their student’s strengths and weaknesses.

It's 8 A.M. on a Saturday, and masses of students around the United States wake up and head to their testing sites in order to take the SAT. This is a common occurrence that happens multiple times a year, but it raises the question as to how seriously should society take these tests and other standardized testing, such as the Regents examinations in New York State. The answer to this is obvious, clearly these exams, and all standardized tests, must be taken seriously, due to the fact they provide vital information for colleges such as which students are the best, they provide ample data for high schools and state governments to prove that the academic standards are being upheld, and they also provide useful information to various institutions

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?

Standardized tests are a requirement for students to pass in order to graduate high school and attend college. The hope behind standardized tests is that they cover a number of rudimentary concepts and processes, and reflect what students have learned in their classes under a strict evaluation scale. However, in reality, standardized testing is offering very finite and ineffective learning skills, which don’t prepare students for college. The result: high dropout rates and high remedial enrollment in colleges. These tests aren’t effective enough for students entering college, and consequently, have a negative impact on learning. Although standardized testing is woven into public schools, the tests do not demonstrate a student’s true learning, do not prepare them for college, and are racially biased. The content of these exams needs to be changed so that they cover important subject material, such as reading, writing, and mathematics, in a proper manner that is geared to level students with college curriculum. This way, students can truly be ready for college, the dropout rate can lower exponentially, and students can ensure success in college to make an impression in the most crucial years of their education.

As Students in the public school system, we are tested rigorously on a routine basis to equally evaluate and test our academic ability. These tests determine the path we should take throughout our career in school, and even decides if we should be able to graduate.

For many years now, standardized tests are used in most schools and institutions. The assessments are a way to measure the student’s intellect and prepare students for the real world. The standardized tests are timed and each student is given the chance to answer the multiple choice questions, true or false, or fill in the blank to the best of their ability. The evaluation measures the beginner performance and prepare them for college. Most of these exams are important for graduate or undergraduate programs. Most of the schools around the world have standardized testing in their class to grade the student. Some schools do not use computerizing scoring because they want to remove any bias that is happening. The students strive their best to

Standardized tests have become a recent controversial topic across the nation. Americans strive for a great education system, but fail to realize that testing is the main issue. It is believed that they are a simple way to evaluate students from all different areas. However, there are countless faults that cannot truly show students’ ability. Standardized tests in the United States do not accurately measure intelligence and should be modified to prevent issues in academics.

The purpose of education has shifted from learning & gaining knowledge to see how well students can show patience, obedience, and willingness to work, so that colleges can pick out people that are going to work hard (Brabeck).We memorize, study for the test and forget it and repeat the cycle all over again. That’s why when young children ask adults or parents for help with their homework, they struggle to help because they can’t remember it. Also if the purpose of school was to learn, than why do they make us do standardized testing ? Standardized testing is not used in any way to see how much we’ve learned, but rather how much we can memorize/remember. Which is creating a conformity within our learning, and destroying creativity (Brabeck).

Since the turn of the century, the alphabetic letters that have defined schooling have changed. The days of the A’s, B’s, and C’s are long gone; it is now the era of a slew of initialisms and anagrams that have completely distorted the curriculum. Indeed, standardized testing has warped what was once the natural learning process, rooted in curiosity, into bubble-filling boot camp. The industries that manufacture these tests are compromising the core values of education. Instead of having teachers who are free to focus on educating students about material that matters, we now have teachers worried about how their students will score so as not to count negatively towards a teacher’s evaluation. As a student who has been in public education from

The ongoing controversy revolving standardized testing within public schools continues as the correlation between student, along with teacher, achievement and the use of standardized testing is researched. Some deem standardized testing as an inevitable way to determine student progress, while others relate more towards negative effects from standardized testing.

As a result, many feel that tests like the ACT and SAT do not provide correct evaluations of a student’s knowledge or learning capabilities. Hence, in order to pass any test, memorization is automatically preferred rather than understanding the concept of the subject. An interviewee in Katy Walsh’s interview comment’s, “…I guess it's our human penchant for trying to attach a number to kids: 'You're an 83; you're a 78.' We are comparing and sorting kids by using these tests and that doesn't always correlate to what's being taught in school. If there was a stronger connection between what kids are taught in school that would make sense…” Although Standardized testing is utilized across the nation nowadays, it certainly does not measure one’s intelligence. With this in mind, it should be disallowed because it is an unbeneficial way of measuring the performance level of a student and creates a grade oriented mindset. We as students are being ranked based on our grades we receive on exams. But are these tests an effective way to measure student’s achievement? Students are being unmotivated to excel in subjects they struggle in because the educational system is defined their success by a certain number. The system in pinpointing out their weakness rather than helping students improve in their areas of difficulty. Therefore, they are manipulating the fact that a grade defines them and their future. Schools should focus more on the development of a child, rather than rank them based on the grades they receive in a test. Not only are standardized tests an undependable way of grading, but also, it does not promote life skills the child will need when growing

Standardized testing entails mostly true/false, fill in the blank, or multiple choice questioning. In 1991, Douglas Archbald stated that with the increase of standardized testing; student achievement and school quality has not visibly increased.  One of the original goals of standardized testing was to increase student and teacher performance, which has not been supported. Standardized testing requires the student to only use lower order thinking such as rote memory and regurgitation of useless facts. The majority of the testing includes memorization of other’s knowledge and does not encourage higher order thinking such as analysis, synthesis, and application of the materials (Archbald, 1991; Capella, 2011; Dennis & O’Haire, 2010; Elliott, 1991). Standardized testing is normative, meaning it compares students to one another. This could lead to a decrease in student self-esteem and teacher morale. In addition, results of standardized testing do not take into account application to real world settings or future careers. Standardized testing does not encourage collaboration, integration of knowledge, or application of said knowledge. The weaknesses of standardized testing lead to a movement to find an alternative; authentic assessment (Archbald, 1991; Dennis & O’Haire, 2010; Elliott,

Considerable research suggests that not only the tests themselves but also the manner in which indigenous students are assessed contributes in important ways to the performance gap between AI/AN students and their White peers (see, e.g., Estrin & Nelson-Barber, 1995). For instance, the very notion of testing students’ knowledge on-demand, out of context is antithetical to common cultural practices among AI/AN communities (and PI communities as well); yet, such students are routinely asked to demonstrate their learning in these ways, particularly on standardized tests. In fact, all elements of assessment—its design, administration, interpretation, and use—have not adequately attended to the ways in which cultural and linguistic differences affect

Standardized testing in the United States has gained a tremendous amount of attention since its original debut all around the country. It has become a fundamental part of the modern education in the United States, at this point there is probably no student who hasn’t taken a standardized test in the U.S. Standardized tests are practically used to judge how well a student is learning and how well a teacher is providing students the information that they need. As much as these tests are useful to schools and universities, they do have many problems, namely: a lack of value in the content being tested and taught, stifling creativity and imagination in classroom, and these exams have become an end instead of a means to an end.