The Argument In Favor Of Standardized Testing In Public Schools

A study done by NEA states that 70 percent of educators dislike standardized testing. The The National Education Association asked 1500 teachers if they agreed with standardized testing fand 77, 75, and 58 percent of elementary, middle school, and high school teachers respectively disagreed with testing. Therefore, standardized testing should be removed from public schooling. The intellectual capacity of a student cannot be completely measured by a standardized test. "Contrary to popular assumptions about standardized testing, the tests do a poor job of measuring student achievement" (Harris 1). Standardized testing cannot accurately show the academic abilities of a student. Standardized tests only measure a fraction of what a student has

Standardized testing can quickly the only indicator of student and teacher accomplishment. The United States would be able to rabidly fix the testing problem with a simple touch-up of their education laws. "Despite ample evidence of the flaws, biases and inaccuracies of standardized exams, NCLB and related state and federal policies, such as Race to the Top (RTTT) and the NCLB waivers, have pressured schools to use tests to measure student learning, achievement gaps, and teacher and school quality, and to impose sanctions based on test scores" ("How Standardized Testing Damages Education" 1). The United States education system can be fixed by removing mandated testing. Laws such as NCLB, and RTTT should no longer exist. The system of scoring that is currently used hurts both slower, and advanced students due to its pressure and ease. "Tracking generally hurts slower students but does not help more advanced students" ("How Standardized Testing Damages Education" 1). Tracking of test scores as a school or even class only hurts both sides, advanced students get bored because they have to slow down for the other students, and slower students feel pressured to rush, because of the advanced students. Currently, students spend an immense amount of time studying for both low-risk and high-risk assessments respectively. "Education increasingly resembles test prep" ("How Standardized Testing Damages Education" 1). In all three sections of school: Elementary, Middle, and High schools, students spend an entire month prepping for their end of the year exam. On top of that, students then have class specific finals to then stress about. Finland currently has no uniform exams and is ranked much higher than the United States on country-wide education. "The U.S. is the only economically advanced nation to rely heavily on multiple-choice tests" ("How Standardized Testing Damages