What Are The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Standardized Testing

This is considered as formal method of assessment, which may be carried out in the middle or at the end of course, or

The assessment process in the classroom can be completed in several different ways, but they are effective in helping children. Some steps may include observations, testing, and evaluations. These assessments can help the caregivers provide the children with the best care possible and available for them. These observations and test may be completed from several sources and situations to ensure the test are accurate.

Texas takes the STAAR, Alabama the ARMT, and Hawaii the HSA. Each state in the U.S. has a standardized test required of every student. From the ACT and SAT to the STAAR tests, standardized testing has become common practice for almost every student. The earliest records of standardized testing are when in China, anyone wanting to get a job in government had to fill out their knowledge of Confucian philosophy and poetry in examination. As more and more kids began to go to school during the Industrial Revolution, standardized testing spread as a way to quickly and easily test a large number of students. But not everyone agrees with the tests, stating that they are unreliable, and that the stakes are too high. Standardized tests cause immense amount of stress for not only students, but teachers as well. And the tests might not even be effective, causing more anxiety than it's worth.

Since Middle School, I was not opposed to standardized testing. I thought of it as a way of testing us of what we have learned. Although, after reading some articles about standardized testing I am re-thinking the pros and cons. From personal experience, I thought of it as a challenge to pass them. But now that reminisce about it, I noticed some of the cons of standardized testing. I remember having a week or two dedicated for testing, and in case of students failing they had to take time to redo it. It would take a while for all the students to finish their tests. And after remembering how it was back in those times I was more on the opposed side.

Standardized testing has been around since the mid 1800’s. Even though testing has been around for a long time it is still debated whether or not it should precisely “score” students. Students have been subjected to standardized tests frequently through their years in school due to laws which have been passed by Congress. Decisions about the evaluation of schools and students are recurrently made by government authority and are often not in the best interest of teachers, students, or their classroom environments.

Standardized tests, in all forms, provided information for the students, teachers, and parents (Christison & Schneider, 2013). For students and parents alike, standardized test was a useful way for students to measure their own progress and parents to monitor their child’s progress academically (Blazer, 2012). Unlike regular classroom grades or comprehension exit exams, standardized testing was also a great predictor of how a student would later perform in college and/or their level of work readiness (Blazer, 2012). Teachers used the data provided by such tests to monitor what their student were and were not learning and the material that they had already mastered (Carroll, 2015). Teachers often used standardized testing data as an instructional tool to determine whether or not their lessons were effective for their student’s (Carroll, 2015). Standardized testing was a reliable method to provide standard information on student skills and changes that needed to be made in order for students to meet their goals for learning (Carroll, 2015). Standardized testing was found to be the only objective, consistent, and comparable method to measure the student’s success (Morial,

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tests were primarily employed as measures of student achievement that could be reported to parents, and as a means of noting state and district trends (Moon 2) . Teachers paid little attention to these tests, which in turn had little impact on curriculum. However, in the continuing quest for better schools and high achieving students, testing has become a central focus of policy and practice. Standardized tests are tests that attempt to present unbiased material under the same,

In the society of today, there are various educators who believe in assessment as proper method to measure the performance of a child in school as well as the overall achievement of a specific school system. The assessment may be presented in the form of verbal, written, or multiple choice, and it usually pertains to certain academic subjects in the school curriculum. Recently, many educators began to issue standardized tests to measure the intelligence of a common student body. (Rudner, 1989) These standardized tests were initially created to reveal the success in institutional school programs, and exhibit the abilities of students today. The standardized tests can reveal the strengths and weaknesses

Standardized tests provide an easy and accurate comparison between results either within the school district or outside the school district, both locally and nationally. In fact, “tests are designed for a variety of purposes, and their results are used in a variety of ways” (Wiliam, 2010, p. 107). Once schools receive the results of individual performances, it is easy for administrators to compare the results to observe the content areas that need improvement. The results of standardized tests can help to better identify areas of strength and weakness which help schools develop programs and implement the correct educational services to improve and build upon the scores within certain content areas. This is important because often times, students are rewarded if scores fall within the advanced to proficient category.

Standardized tests are tests that have been prepared with questions specially aimed at the identification of achievement levels. These types of tests are created with a great deal of research that has been aimed at identifying what areas of knowledge and skills are typical at what ages and education levels. Standardized tests have been debated for years. Some will argue that standardized testing will improve student achievement and is an overall significant indicator of a student’s ability in the classroom. Others will argue that standardized testing is overused and shows no indication of a student’s ability in the classroom. There have been many different scientific studies that show the pros and cons of standardized tests and how they may

Standardized testing is used in schools across the nation to determine academic placement, disability status, grade promotion, and high school graduation. Would an alternative to standardized testing for high school students provide a more authentic assessment of ability and academic achievement? There are several weaknesses with relation to standardized testing and in comparison, authentic assessment requires a more hands on approach to teaching. There are also several reasons why teachers are not jumping on the bandwagon of more authentic assessments. Professionals in the field of psychology, who work with children, should have a broad knowledge base in education and authentic assessments. Distinguished and credible sources aide in the

Second, standardized testing is not an equal result of what each student can do. All standardized tests are so important in students lives, so why is standardized testing so unequal for students. Disadvantage students get the shorter end of the stick when it comes to standardized testing. Most disadvantaged students can not do the same work in the same amount of time that someone without any disadvantages can do it. According to “Testing Patience”, “members of organizations like the American Educational Research Association and the National School Boards Association view academic achievement as elitist, and thus unethical. They further consider it culturally insensitive to expect family structure, ethnicity, and

Multiple problems with standardized testing have emerged that relate to the students and teachers; however, problems have also appeared with this testing that relate to the public. Test results are released for the public eyes to view, allowing them to judge a school on how the scores say it is doing. The problem with this is that it may misinform the public about what or how the school is doing throughout the school year. The grades on these tests vary because of four factors and according to Jouriles they are, “a teacher’s conception of achievement, a teacher’s sense of equity and rigor, a teacher’s skills, and the composition of students.” If these factors are not all in play at once, a student may not succeed on the test, which is not something he/she can control. Once the scores are released and the public sees that the overall grades are low, some may blame the children while others will blame the teachers. The person to blame in this situation is neither, standardized tests put both students and teachers under a tremendous amount of pressure to perform exceptionally well. Moreover, the scores are all averaged together - as to not show how an individual student did on a test - but this is categorizing him/her. The average scores may have been exceptional, but certain students could have not done well and they still do not understand the concepts they were supposed to learn. On the other hand, the average scores may be horrible, but certain students were able to succeed

Over many years, schools have been using standardized testing as a way of measuring student’s abilities and understanding of the material. The student is usually given a limited time to complete a scantron-based test which will later be used by the education system to determine the students’ success rate. The pressure and anxiety among students are increasing as the test is getting more complicated and getting more valued than student’s overall achievements. The education system is focusing more on the passing rate of the standardized test than focusing on encouraging the students to learn the materials while applying them in real life. Standardized testing in the K-12 school system should be removed so students can focus more on developing creative skills instead of stressing about marks and the financial disadvantage for less privileged students can be solved. With that, teachers can focus more teaching students real life lessons with the standard curriculum, instead of putting emphasis just on the standardized test.