Standardized Testing Effectiveness

Is standardized testing an effective measure of student achievement? The No Child Left Behind Act was made to close student achievement gaps by providing all children with a fair and equal opportunity to obtain a high-quality education. Every year students are required to take multiple standardized tests such as the end of grade, or end of course, exams along with the SAT or ACT. Although schools measure their student achievements by standardized testing, students do not always meet those standards. This is not an accurate measure of student achievement. As a student who doesn 't test well, standardized testing is always a challenge. After research, it has been proven that standardized testing does not measure the ability to comprehend

President George Bush thought testing could be an accountability piece so that the quality of public education was guaranteed to all students; it required all students to be tested every year in grades 3 to 8 in reading and math. The legislation was also put into place to show those schools that were failing, improving, or excelling in the two subjects. More attention was focused on school accountability resulting in more and more testing for schools to either pass or fail sometimes murky criteria. “After the No Child Left Behind Act was passed which mandated testing in all 50 states, U.S. students fell from 18th in the world in math in 2000 to 31st in 2009.” (Is the Use”). No Child Left Behind obligated school districts in all states to ensure that all students are proficient. “After New York City’s reading and math scores plunged in 2010, many schools imposed extra measures to avoid being shut down, including daily two and a half hour prep sessions and test practice on vacation days.” (Is the Use”). Standardized tests measure only a small portion of what makes education meaningful, as recent studies have shown. Standardized testing creates disadvantages for students who do not perform well on tests, or do not have the background knowledge to complete questions effectively. Testing does not take into consideration the external factors that can affect a student. Some of the external factors are problems related to students in their daily life, which include extracurricular activities, family issues and even working