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Standardized Testing Essay

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Standardized Testing: Beneficial or Not?
As famous comedian John Oliver expressed, “Standardized tests: the fastest way to terrify any child with five letters outside of just one whisper of the word, ‘clown’” (Oliver 0:06-0:12). Those who support standardized tests believe that they have established a universal standard to measure student progress and ensure accountability. In addition, standardized testing provides parents and students a way to gauge student progress and improvement over time (Tunnell 3-4). Unfortunately, the tests can be unfair to marginalized and learning disabled students, and--for older students--GPAs are considered a more accurate measure of future academic success than standardized testing (Lutchman 2). Although standardized …show more content…

Such testing began in the mid-1800s as education adopted more formal practices. By the first World War, standardized tests became required for college entrance. According to Dr. Mary Lyn Bourque, the United States struggled with testing issues for almost four decades before George W. Bush became president in 2000 (Bourque 227). Previous efforts by Clinton, Reagan, and the first President Bush to improve education largely failed (Bourque 229). One positive outcome, however, is that their attempts to improve the US education system paved the way for the second President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). This act required standardized annual testing based on a program that George W. Bush oversaw while he was governor of Texas (Bourque 229-230). Unfortunately, despite the NCLB act’s legislation and hopes to improve school performance, the rankings did not rise in America’s favor. For example, in 2000, US students were ranked 18th in the world for mathematics only to drop to 40th by 2015 (Lutchman 1). Likewise, the rankings for English and science also significantly declined (Lutchman 1). Adding to the problem is the fact that what appears on a test may not always correlate to what a student has learned in the classroom, and the tests are not always telling of a student’s future success in college or the workplace (Lutchman 1). As Educator Keon McGuire of Arizona State …show more content…

This necessary data helps policymakers ensure that school districts are consistent and identify whatever interventions may need to be done (Churchill et al. 3). Without standardized testing, policymakers have no objective way to determine which schools need help and which deserve rewards. As Churchill wisely asks, “Who would want policymakers to intervene in a school based on their ‘gut feeling’ or reward a school based on anecdotes?” (Churchill et al. 4). The testing provides valuable information for making decisions and is the only fair way to establish

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Exploratory Paper: Is Standardized Testing Bad? Standardized testing has been around in one form or the other for centuries based on historical data which shows its use way back in imperial China and was used to determine the strengths and talents of individuals so that they could be effectively used in the emperor’s service. In the 19th century Great Britain introduced standardized testing to its’ territories and eventually Europe. The United States introduced standard testing to its citizens in the late 20th century and has rapidly integrated this testing tool into the nation’s public school system.

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: In my opinion, standardized testing is beneficial but also flawed. I agree they’re non-discriminatory because the content is equivalent for all students, but teachers are “teaching to the test,” leaving out additional learning opportunities. From experience, I believe the tests are

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Standard testing is a very controversial and important subject because it deals with the progression of the American education system. The practice of these assessments has been highly scrutinized not only for the way it has changed the format of classrooms, but also for its accuracy, pressure, and abundance. In 2001, standardized testing became federally mandated through the No Child Left Behind Act by former president George Bush Jr. According to research from the Council of the Great City Schools, students have been taking “an average of 113 tests from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade” (K. Hefling). These numbers have increased to the point where parents have opted for their children to not attend standardized exams.

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Many students are smart and understand the content, but it doesn't show on test scores (Gregory J. Cizek, 2001). In essence, testing brings out stress in even the brightest of students, messing with their heads come test day. The facts show that from the 50 states, 700 school districts claim that standardardized tests are causing greater anxiety than the average everyday assessments (Joseph Spector, 2015). In conclusion, student achievement

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There are also much better ways to test a student’s capability to learn; a 2006 Center on Education Policy conducted a study and found that a curriculum that follows state standards and uses the test data as feedback led to higher scores than those that prioritized test-taking skills. When teachers are more focused on teaching material rather than test strategies, their students benefit from it (“Do Standardized Tests Show an Accurate View of Students’ Abilities?”). Several alternative methods to state assessments for measuring a student’s academic success include comparing high school graduation rates and the number of dropouts, offering advanced placement courses, and looking at the percentage of the former students that are admitted to colleges. State assessments are more harmful than helpful to students; they are a large cause of test anxiety and a majority of teachers can never fully prepare their students. Although state assessments are an easy way to be able to see the growth of students, that does not mean that they are the best

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Standardized tests are very common in today’s modern society. They are used as a tool to measure a person’s performance and indicate how their estimated performance will be in a college class. Every year hundreds of students take the ACT or SAT in order to get accepted into their college of choice and to receive scholarships, but they fail to see the problems with these standardized tests. As more and more people take these tests, the national average score falls causing doubt in the extremely important system. This is leading people to question whether or not the ACT and SATs are accomplishing what they were created to do.

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In fact, the increasing use of standardized testing will do more damage than good, because of its failure to capture the entirety of a student’s body of work. Furthermore, the overwhelming stress that the United States government, and school systems have placed on the usage of standardized tests has become detrimental to American education, and is not the most effective way to gauge the intelligence of American students. The American educational system should be fixated on providing each child enough attention and information so they can succeed in that class and in the future. However, the increasing focus on having to pass a standardized test has blinded schools of the real goal, because they are required to get their students to pass the standardized tests.

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These limitations highlight the need for an alternative form of assessment that can capture a more diverse set of student learning outcomes. As such, the narrow focus of standardized testing may lead to an ineffective evaluation approach, which undermines the goal of education or prepares students for success in various contexts. While standardized tests offer a perspective of student performance in a limited number of areas, they should not be relied upon as the core measure of student

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Bush passed the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), an reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) under Lyndon B. Johnson administration’s War of Poverty. The No Child Left Behind Act requires states to administer an annual assessment, and ensure that schools are making Adequate Yearly Progress, a set of measuring tool to determine if schools are successful. One of the primary goals of the No Child Left Behind Act is to close the students’ achievement gaps by 2014 through the four main pillars: stronger accountability for results, more flexibility for states, more choices for parents, and proven education methods. (U.S Department of Education, 2004) However, the NCLB is exacerbating the gaps with its strong emphasis on the use of standardized testing as a measurement.

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Some might argue that while standardized testing has its flaws, it must still be in place because it is good for using a common measure to help see what changes are needed d to help improve the school. For example, in the paper “What is the case for Standardized testing,” author Lauren Crawford evaluates how standardized testing is useful for many schools, and talks about how schools have used standardized testing to help turn things around saying, “ In older grades standardized testing measures where students rate in comparison with their peers and thus how the student and his teachers are doing (Bagin, 1994). While these tests do rate students according to how well they do on these tests, some schools have used these scores to reform their systems and, in turn, drastically improve their methods (Wolf et al., 2000). Schools in economically devastated areas like the ones in eastern Kentucky under the strong leadership of their principals and the dedication of

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As lots would say, “Standardized tests don’t necessarily measure a student’s knowledge and skills.

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Standardized tests have been an integral component of the American educational system since the mid-1800s. The use of standardized tests went through the roof with the creation of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2002, which made it mandatory for all 50 states to hold annual standardized tests. Standardized tests are defined by W. James Popham, former president of the American Educational Research Association, as “any test that’s administered, scored, and interpreted in a standard, predetermined manner. These tests often consist of multiple choice questions which are able to be quickly scored by an automated test scoring machine. I do not believe that standardized tests are improving education in America because they are detrimental

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Unfortunately, standardized testing only gives a rough estimate of what a student can do or knows. It is impossible to tell if a student will improve, or even tell if the student just guessed on all of their answers for the test. This explains how standardized tests do not measure the correct information that school’s are actually searching

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