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Arguments Against Standardized Testing

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“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.” Many of us have heard this famous quote by Albert Einstein, but do all of us know how true and real the meaning of it is? Inspirational speaker, Prince Ea, believes that “many kids can relate to that fish, swimming upstream in class, never finding their gifts, thinking they are stupid, believing they are useless” (Prince). Standardized tests and common core are prime instigators of those feelings by teaching students that they have to fit into the cookie-cutter mold just to be successful. These methods are designed as one-size-fits-all, but most of us know that one size doesn’t always fit all. These …show more content…

This is false, however, because the tests are not truly designed to show strengths and weaknesses. For example, to accurately investigate strengths and weaknesses, a forty-five question English standardized test must allocate 15 questions to grammar, 15 questions to reading comprehension, and 15 questions to spelling. Standardized tests that students take today do not have an even spread of questions in the field, therefore they are not an accurate representation. They say that these tests show the improvement of students in a certain field. A study conducted by the Brookings Institution “found that fifty to eighty percent of year-over-year test score improvements were temporary and ‘caused by fluctuations that had nothing to do with long-term changes in learning’” …show more content…

Act was passed, but that was the past. This is the present. The world has advanced and schools do not need standardized tests and common core to create factory students anymore. It needs more creative thinkers, more innovative minds. Students are the future. Do we want the United States to advance, or should we be stuck in the past, training students to work in factories, as Prince Ea says, “making them compete to get an A: a letter that determines product quality, hence grade A meat,” (Prince). Do we want schools to continue using standardized tests to teach students that bubbling in an answer is the way to succeed? Standardized tests are controlled and created by large profit organizations who are only looking to make money. These companies are increasing the difficulty of the tests and programs like common core are stamping out all forms of individuality and creativity. In doing this, they make it harder for students to believe that they are needed, to believe that they can be the ones to cure cancer or to end world hunger, just because one test told them that they weren’t good at math, or science, or English. Think about it. Should we let these tests kill the spirit of the young minds that will shape the

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680 Words | 3 Pages

Standardized testing has not improved education in America. Standardized tests have been issued in schools all across the nation for years now. Some people like them and some people don’t. They do not help the student learn more information than they would without the tests. The U.S. has dropped from 18th highest scores in schools in the world to be in the 30’s on almost all of the subjects on the test.

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1754 Words | 8 Pages

Standardized tests are started way too early in the school systems. "Students as young as 6 or 7 years old are now subjected to weeks of preparation for high stakes tests. Because math, reading, and to a lesser extent, science are the only subjects regularly tested, students are drilled in those topics." (Kumeh).

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1178 Words | 5 Pages

Increasingly today in America’s school system, there is a recognition of tension between individuality and conformity. The struggle between students’ personal needs and the needs of the whole continues to grow. This can be seen though the controversial issue of standardized testing. These are tests that are designed in a way, which are administered and recorded in a consistent method. In standardized testing, all test takers are required to answer the same set of multiple-choice, true or false questions, short answer, and essay questions.

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434 Words | 2 Pages

Not only does the school system hurt the concept of individuality in personal expression, but it also encourages higher-ups to think of the student body as a sort of group itself, ignoring the basic needs of each distinct student. When kids are constantly grouped together, it becomes difficult to differentiate herd mentality from individual thinking. Kids often don’t know that such an idea can hurt them because they have been taught from such a young age that there is supposed to be a “standard” when it comes to grading and grades. Standardized testing promotes the culture of thought that there is supposed to be a “good” and a “bad” when it comes to ways and results of learning. According to source C, these testing methods are started as early as kindergarten-- a time

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1134 Words | 5 Pages

Standardized testing is a way to determine the potential of the student and the academic achievement. The American students are ranked against others around the world, and the number that America is in is not encouraging. The tests are not fair, and their use is producing a narrow curriculum and this kind of tests only limits the chances of the nation to produce qualified professionals like innovators. Standardized testing does not help the American students because the tests do not give the true potential and the ability of the student. The tests are given to the students to determine how well they have prepared, but this does not portray the true potential of the students.

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1718 Words | 7 Pages

Since the No Child Left Behind Act was mandated in 2002, test scores in our schools have steadily declined. In spite of this, proponents argue that standardized testing is an objective and effective method to measure student achievement and to hold teachers accountable. Unfortunately, this is the farthest thing from the truth. Standardized tests are neither fair nor effectual, there overuse and misuse promotes a narrow curriculum which forces teachers to "teach to the test" instead of teaching to the student. This instruction style inhibits creativity and undermines our country's ability to produce innovators and critical thinkers.

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1859 Words | 8 Pages

The Controversy of Standardized Testing Students everywhere take standardized tests. However, are they truly beneficial to the students? Are these tests capable of showing what students can really do? Or, are they biased against the test-taker, making it harder to reach his or her goals? Is it fair to base a student’s intelligence on one simple test grade that that student might have had a disadvantage in?

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552 Words | 3 Pages

Diane Ravitch, PhD, states,” The tests are meaningless because the scores provide no information about what the students learned and didn’t learn. The teacher is not allowed to find out what the students got wrong.” The tests have no point in being there, because if the teachers can not see what the student got wrong, then they can’t help them learn anything. Teachers should be able to see what the students got on the standardized test, even though they are no help, but otherwise, the student will keep having the same problem over and over again, because they are failing the same area of

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498 Words | 2 Pages

All in all, the obsession with testing is robbing children of their childhoods. It’s easy for some people to think that these tests are helpful. People like this claim that the parents approve of these tests. Others say that standardized tests are reliable and measure student achievement.

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942 Words | 4 Pages

Albert Einstein once said: “What is tested does count, but much of what counts cannot be tested.” A child's efficiency should not be determined by the value of a test. Change needs to take place and a difference needs to happen within our education system in order for more students to transcend and succeed. So many different organizations have tried to tackle this problem due to the harm it has caused our youth. Yet, thus far standardized testing still remains a factor in the school systems (NJ.Gov, 2016).

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1309 Words | 6 Pages

Children are being hurt today because they're passing the tests, and the tests are not recognizing that they cannot do what they need to do." (Merrow, 2001). For instance, if a student continually struggles on the math portion of the standardized test, he or she will know where they need extra assistance. On the other hand, if a student is continually scoring high in certain areas or all areas, they are probably not being challenged; consequently, they are not reaching their full potential. Standardized tests gives insight as to where a student stands compared to the rest of the nation.

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980 Words | 4 Pages

These factors demonstrate that this source of testing is not an accurate representation of a student’s intellectual ability; therefore, students pursuit for higher education should not be dictated by one test. Ultimately, standardized tests, such as the ACT, should not control a student’s ability to pursue higher education. Even though institutions view these test scores to decide a student’s eligibility, the ACT does not determine how a student will succeed in a college or university. Nevertheless, while students are required to take these test to graduate high school, institutions should consider more than test scores and not let the ACT be the determining factor in a student’s true ability.

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935 Words | 4 Pages

Certainly, some people say that standardized testing is the only way to determine growth and achievement within students. But, these tests don’t usually provide an entire measure of educational attainment. They don’t give attributes such as a sense of wonder, leadership, compassion, curiosity, and critical thinking. Daniel Koretz, a psychometrician stated, “…tests can measure only a portion of the goals of education, which are necessarily broader and more inclusive than the test could possibly be”(humbleisd.net). Standardized tests can at best only measure if a student is good at their core classes.

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648 Words | 3 Pages

The modern standardized testing system makes our society seem like it is getting smarter, but in reality our nation’s children are just being taught to pass a test. Teachers do not want to lose their jobs because of their student’s test scores, so they have began to teach them what is on the test so that their test scores will be better. This seems like a logical solution, but life is not about passing a multiple choice test or writing a good essay in a short amount of time. Life tests people in hands on ways and in situations people have to make instantaneous decisions. What our nation’s kids need to be learning is how to pass the tribulations of their upcoming life, they are the future of our nation, and if all they are taught is to pass a test then our nation has

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912 Words | 4 Pages

Standardized tests have been a part of American education since the mid-1800s. Many people believe that standardized tests are reliable and objective measures of student’s achievements because without them, policy makers would have to rely on tests scored by individual schools. Others, however, believe standardized testing has not improved student achievement, according to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB), passed in 2002. Clearly, standardized tests are neither fair nor objective and that excessive testing undermines the ability to produce innovators. In this essay, I will argue that standardized testing in public schools is not effective.

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