Arguments Against Standardized Testing In Schools

Testing in School Standards, evaluations, critics, rules and regulations ensure students are up to par with the millions of other students around the country and the world. When does standardized testing become too much? Are the regulations in place too constricting? The majority of students who went through public high schools, middle schools, and even elementary schools know the familiar feeling of dread when it is time to take standardized tests. Standardized tests are “any form of test that (1) requires all test takers to answer the same questions, or a selection of questions from common bank of questions, in the same way, and that (2) is scored in a “standard” or consistent manner, which makes it possible to compare the relative performance of individual students or groups of students” (Glossary of

when the NCLB bill was passed and what is happening now. U.S. standards are low, the highest scoring state in the country, Massachusetts, still scores roughly 2 and a half years behind their school aged counterparts in countries like Shanghai. A 15 year old in Shang Hai is averaging the same scores as 17-18 year olds in the U.S. (Strauss). The Bill does not take into account the leading scorers, but the averages. Supporters of the NCLB bill, say that the reason our test scores fall so far behind those of Shanghai, Canada, Korea, and Singapore, is because of the uneducated, poverty-stricken students, but our poverty rate is only 22 percent compared to Vietnam’s 79 percent; Vietnam, still out performs the U.S.(Strauss). The creators of the NCLB bill and others similar to it do not have the first-hand experience in the school. They are looking for a solution, from test scores, rather than starting at the problem and working for a solution. This bill and the outcome of the bill prove how out of touch the creator of it was from the actual working and learning