Moral Argument Against Standardized Testing

As students head back to school this year, they will be decorated in new apparel and fresh supplies, but one thing that will not be new is the amount of standardized testing they will be met with. Since 2002 the United States has seen the amount of standardized testing increase rapidly; with each year brings more money spent and more tests administered. It has been concluded in a study completed by the Brown Center on Education Policy that on average, 1.7 billion dollars is thrown at the standardized testing initiative each year, solely in the United States of America. While the data may claim to track students and hold education systems accountable, while still exclaiming to be conclusive and fair; other forms of concrete data are revealing

It is estimated that 1.7 billion is spent on testing annually in the United States, now this money comes from the pockets of taxpayers and is spent on the testing. So if this money is coming from the people of the United States, one would think it would be invested into accurate testing to act as a reference for where are students are at. But, if these test results are indeed not accurate, what is the point of millions upon millions of dollars being invested into an endless circular process? Doing well on a standardized has little if any correlation to true mastery of a topic, or more crucially a student’s ability to apply the concepts to a real world setting. Standardized testing displays a student’s ability to sit in a crowded, distracting room, stay focused for the test’s duration, and use portions of their encoded memory to recognize an answer from a list that may be the correct one. In order to fulfill George W. Bush’s dream of evolving into an educationally competitive powerhouse, the United States must use the taxpayer’s money for something relevant and truly revealing. Also, if decided to continue our standardized testing habits, there must be a push to make the questions rigorous enough to gage proficiency, yet inclusive enough to be a realistic marker for all of our