The Standardized Trap
How can dark shades bubbles on a piece of paper determine the intelligence of any child in America? Since the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the United States educational system has been largely driven by standardized testing. Teachers and students alike experience said testing year in and year out as the system remains similar to the year before. Standardized testing is defined as any form of test that 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 is scored in a “standard” or consistent manner, which makes it possible to compare the relative performance of individual students or groups of students. This multiple choice format supplied by the average standardized tests leads to an unbalanced form of testings. The problem with this format is multiple
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“Why should wealthy parents be able to opt out of the over testing by sending their children to private schools while disadvantaged students are forced to exist in a high-stakes, over tested climate for the sake of producing data that confirm what everyone already knows: Their schools lack the needed supports. (Dianis)” This first bias puts those who were born into less wealthier families immediately at the disadvantage as they are exposed to far more testing. Another bias is that depending on which school a student attends, their score could be greatly affected. The tests are not a matter of intelligence, but a matter of what is specifically taught within the school systems to pass the test. Unfortunately not all school system do, or are able to teach in the fashion. Creating a significant bias as the environment of those in a different school impacts their ability to pass a standardized test. Therefore standardized testing is not effective due to the inherent bias