Argument Against Standardized Testing

Although standardized testing has been a major part of schooling it has also had a negative impact on effective education. Standardized has made a huge impact on public schooling so much that not only does it affect the students but also the teachers. With the teachers now beginning to get raises or having their jobs on the line if their students fail the test, many students have not been getting the fullest education process that they could get. Students may not realize the impact that it has had on the type of teaching style that they receive because they are so used to it. With so many teachers not having a lot of time to teach what is on the test and the other things that they feel are important to students to know, a lot of

Standardized testing in the United States started in the mid- 1800’s (Standardized Tests - ProCon.org). This kind of testing was originally created to measure students’ performance and progress in school (Standardized Tests - ProCon.org). In recent years, the public school system has relied heavily on the information this test provides, in doing so creating controversy. Other than being a student myself, and participating in multiple standardized exams such as, CSAP, ACT, and SAT, I do not have much background knowledge on this debate. The debate over standardized testing has raised this inquiry question: What are the effects of standardized testing on the United States public education system?

Standardized tests are often unfair to a wide range of students. Students coming from high-poverty schools often have fewer resources and weaker teachers (Layton A1). “People are sick of the overkill of test volume and the consequences, ridiculous things like rating art teachers based on the reading test scores in their schools” quote Robert Schaeffer (Layton A1). “Fort Myers, Florida, gives 183 tests during the year!” quote Sen. Patty Murray (Layton A1). There is many ways students can be evaluated more

Many students throughout the American education system struggle due to the fact that they have to take a standardized test. But, this struggle differs for each student, some are too lazy to take them while others are having difficulty performing well on these tests. As a student who learned English as a second language, I could relate with the people who are having trouble performing well on standardized tests. When I was in high school there was nothing more frightening than Standardized tests. There was a lot of emphasize on these tests and they had the power to determine my future in the means of deciding which colleges I could attend. But, I wasn’t alone in this matter, not all students perform to their potential on Standardized tests. No matter how hard I tried to study for these tests, I was just not doing as well as my class mates. It made me feel like I was beneath all my other class mates and I thought they were intellectually superior. But, I met other like me who were not good at taking test and didn’t perform well on these

I one hundred percent agree with this, we should stop caring about standardized testing as that just adds more pressure to those that care much more than others about their future. I for one care enough to be successful in my life but I don’t want to have to depend on a great testing grade to judge my success. The SAT and ACT, in my opinion before this article, useless to me.

A new study by RAND Corp, in Santa Monica, California found that “between 50 percent and 80 percent of the improvement in a school's average test scores … was temporary and was caused by fluctuations that had nothing to do with long-term changes in learning or productivity”(Olson). This shows that a student’s performance on standardized tests is too inconsistent to accurately display an objective evaluation of their education. Also, as the scores change each year, the ability to evaluate the teacher becomes difficult. In a high school in New Mexico a teacher found that “Students raced to see who could finish the test first, not who could get the most correct answers. … Former high school juniors interviewed this week said many students blew off the tests after being told that the scores wouldn't count toward graduation— unlike the required 10th-grade competency test”(Contreras). This shows that students do not take standardized tests seriously when it does not affect them directly. So, it does accurately represent students or teacher’s academic achievement. Standardized testing is not a consistent way to evaluate a teacher’s ability as well as track a student’s

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Albert Einstein, a German-born physicist. This quote is referring perfectly to standardized testing by saying something along the lines of, you can’t judge a student’s ability to perform well in school by giving him/her a standardized test. Standardized testing is wrong just because not all students can perform well on a test, including myself. Administration often want to take the easiest way out to collect the data they need to place students in classes instead placing them according to something else; or in such way that is fair to all students. Education is a big part of our nation today with one of the biggest components being standardized testing, which does not accurately measure full capabilities of students from elementary on up to the high school level.

I believe that America should cut standardized test funding by half, and furthermore decrease the number of tests the average student takes. Every generation is different, and the way they are taught is different to the point where not one thing is the same in any way. Before the 1900’s there were no standardized tests, but then by World War I standardized testing became standard for every student (Blasi, 2005). In the span of 50 years, multiple generations were born and they were raised on the seemingly new idea of standardized testing. These generations included veterans, slaves, and people who fought other Americans from different belief systems, so people can understand the skepticism I may have when I ask, was it right to implement

According to an article on the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development's website, "Employing standardized achievement tests to ascertain educational quality is like measuring temperature with a tablespoon" (Popham). Standardized tests have been used throughout the U.S. for decades to rank schools and students; show progress; and determine eligibility for programs, colleges, etc. However, these tests should not be used at all, let alone for such important purposes. Although many wrongly disagree, standardized tests are overly stress-inducing, more challenging for certain groups, and preventing students from learning vital things in school.

Many of those who are in favor of standardized testing will argue that standardized does the except opposite from what was stated above. Standardized testing is useful in determining which students are intelligent and hard-working, who will go off to top colleges and have a good career. One view is that the tests have gotten better over the years, making it more reliable and accurate in measuring intelligence. They show how much the student has grown and whether or not they are performing as an average student should of a certain grade level (Education Post). It is also argued that standardized tests demonstrate whether or not the schools and teachers are capable of teaching/ if the school programs are working (Campbell). While the tests have

Diane Ravitch once said “Sometimes, the most brilliant and intelligent minds do not shine in standardized tests because they do not have standardized minds.” Standardized test “is any form of test that requires all test takers to answer the same questions, or a selection of questions from common bank of questions, in the same way.” Different students will take the same test and then the test will be evaluated by professors to see how students did. Standardized tests also provides teacher evaluation, to evaluate if the professor is teaching the students in the right way and if students are understanding what the professor is teaching. Like many issues in education, standardized test is a controversial topic among professors, voters and parents. A lot of people believe that standardized testing is good for student and they show student’s achievements. Others disagree and believe that standardized tests don't measure student’s learning.

“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.

Standardized testing, “an examination that's administered and scored in a predetermined, standard manner” (Popham, “Why Standardized Tests Don't Measure Educational Quality“), has been around since approximately a century ago and is deemed as the ideal ‘calculator’ to determine the strengths and weaknesses in the education system in the United States of America. Although it is heavily flawed, the United States will not revoke this process or alter it because it has been deemed as a ‘set’ method in determining the level of education America has achieved. The method of standardized testing is problematic because it does not accurately measure

The United States education system has been using standardized testing since the 1800’s. Since the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002 mandated annual testing in all 50 states their use has escalated tremendously. Since 2002 America has dropped from 18th to 31st in mathematics and science while reading has not improved either (ProCon). The failure of the education system has been blamed on various outlooks. There may be many factors, but standardized testing has not shown a substantial positive effect. In fact, it has hurt our students, teachers and the education system as a whole. Although some say that it holds valuable information, the negatives severely outweigh the positives in standardized testing.

According to Diane Ravitch, “Sometimes, the most brilliant and intelligent minds do not shine in standardized tests because they do not have standardized minds.” Her point is that not every students mind operates the same way, so one test that all students must take does not measure the student’s actually abilities. Across the United States, standardized testing is a popular method used to measure a student’s academic ability and their college admission. These exams have multiple-choice questions and sometimes a writing section, which the examiners must complete in a certain amount of time. Every year the tests get harder and harder, which causes anxiety in the students. Standardized testing does not measure the skills students have learned and their intelligence from school and life.