Arguments Against Standardized Testing

Imagine studying hard for a test, using all your free time to focus on that one test; that you’re going to remember everything on it for what? You memorize it just for the test and put time into it to end up getting a bad grade. What would a person do then? See someone as a failure or someone who isn’t smart? If teachers don’t stop using standardized testing then students lives will become more and more difficult. Standardized tests should no longer continue due to children worrying about tests and gain anxiety and become stressed. It could effects the social life, creativity in the students, and has not been an effect that has improved students learning.

Standardized testing is a way for students to get anxiety and to be stressed. Moving on

Ncte.org has a section that argues against the policy in the use of standardized testing and in the section “Limiting Students” they state that, “GED recipients perform about as well as high school graduates on standardized tests but have much worse life outcome because they often lack important qualities such as curiosity, conscientiousness, perseverance, and sociability.” This shows and explains that standardized testing has an impact on the creativity and social life of the students because those skills aren’t used as much over a test. In 2010 the College of William & Mary created a study to find the trending effect of the creativity when standardized tests were being used. They finally came to a conclusion that “Americans’ score on the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking have been dropping since 1990.” Even researcher Kyung-Hee Kim lays part of the blame on the “increase in standardized testing.” This also shows that there’s an impact on the creativity part of a students when all they do is depend on the standard test that they are given. Some may argue that teaching to the test can be a good thing because it focuses on essential content and skills, eliminates time-wasting activities that don’t produce learning gains and motivates students to excel. Procon.org states that,’93% of studies of students testing, including the use of large-scale and high-stakes standardized tests, found a

Many people argue and give their opinions over the “ No Child Left Behind Law” in whether it is a good thing for out students or not, but procon.org helps us use the fact of the law and ties it in the effect of stard testing claiming “After No Child Left Behind (NCLB) passed in 2002, the US slipped from 18th in the world in math on the Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA) to 31st place in 2009, with a similar in science and no change in reading.” This shows that the use of standardized testing has a negative effect on the ways a student and students learn, they don't help them have a better understanding, they just force onto the students. May 26, 2011, National Research Council report found no evidence test-based incentive programs are working: “Despite using them for several decades, policymakers and educators do not yet know how to use test-based incentives to consistently generate positive effects on achievements and to improve education.” This shows that standardized testing has no positive effect on the students, therefore, there is no use in using them other than to cause anxiety and conflict on the students. Some may argue that standardized tests are not narrowing the curriculum, rather they are focusing it on important basic skills all students need to master. Edexecellence.net gives the claim “Standardized exams are designed to be objective measures.