Arguments Against Standardized Testing

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Creativity, critical thinking, resilience, motivation, endurance, reliability: these are just a small portion of things that describe life skills standardized tests do not measure. By definition, A Standardized Test is any form of test that requires all test takers to answer the same set of questions in the same way, scored in a standard matter. After over 40 years of Standardized Tests and 13 years of the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge/(NJASK) New Jersey made a big change. Now, all New Jersey Schools take the PARCC, an online standardized test. The No Child Left Behind act mandates that all students have set goals, leading to these tests. Standardized Tests should be eliminated because they do not measure student achievement accurately, they do not motivate students to try, and they have a negative impact on graduation rates. …show more content…

“Daniel Kortez puts it, scores on a Standardized Test “usually do not provide a direct and complete measure of educational achievement.”(Harris). Teachers fail to teach the material that students need to know to do well, leading to inaccurate test scores. In schools, students were reportedly “superficially engaged if they just copied down answers, guessed a lot, and skipped the hard parts.” (Harris). Many elementary students did not try hard because they were not fully engaged in their test, leading to them not trying to their fullest potential. This is proving the point that their ability is not measured accurately, eventually showing false test scores. While standardized tests should be eliminated because the achievement of students is not measured accurately, students also are not motivated to