Standardized Testing

Political intervention in our education system has created a coiled road in which we cannot reach our final destination- educational success. Striving to create an education system that will make our students “career and college ready,” federal and state government-made decisions have changed the origin and meaning of what we teach students. Not only has the government switched the importance of what students should prioritize in their education, but influenced the quality of knowledge taught in classrooms.

The earliest forms of documented testing was the Chinese imperial examination that were based on philosophy and classic literature. Although it was an extremely tedious exam, it determined officials based solely on caliber and not on family

Today, standardized tests have appreciable economic and cultural biases. College admission tests, such as the SAT and ACT, oppresses the low income, racial minority and female groups. While these tests are only a fraction of the whole application process, it is undoubtedly the most important. Because education standards and types vary amongst states, these tests are used to sum up the entirety of the student’s educational knowledge. Thus, the name standard in standardized testing is born. However, the main flaw to this seemingly acceptable idea is that because educational standards vary, students are taught different things at dissimilar times and are expected disparate results. Therefore, creating a platform that levels Advanced Placement, honors and regular students on the same playing field does not give an accurate representation of the abilities of each individual. Another flaw would be the preparation process for these exams. Low income families cannot afford the overpriced practice and tutoring. The SAT and ACT are two standardized tests amongst the many

Teachers can no longer teach what they feel is necessary for students to learn in the specified class, but rather teachers teach for the tests. Student life has been changed to focus on passing. To pass the EOC, to pass the ACT, the SAT, the GED, PSAT, NMSQT, GRE and the list continues. In Robinson’s Ted Talk he emphasizes the role of teachers, stating that,

“Teachers are the lifeblood of the success of schools. Teaching, properly conceived, is not a delivery system. What great teachers do is mentor, stimulate, provoke, engage. Education is about learning. If there's no learning going on, there's no education going on. And people can spend an awful lot of time discussing education without ever discussing learning. The whole point of education is to get people to learn. And part of the problem is that the dominant culture of education has come to focus on not teaching and learning, but testing.”

Policies that have been passed in the congress room has changed the reason for