Standardized Testing In The 1800s

American education has involved standardized testing since the mid-1800s, although their use increased dramatically after the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act mandated testing in all 50 states. The debate over whether standardized tests improve education has paralleled education reform throughout the years. Failures in our education system have been increasingly blamed on the ubiquitous use of standardized tests. Historically, they had a good reputation for serving as a test of basic knowledge for admittance into college and providing a structured curriculum for teachers. Nowadays, standardized tests evoke feelings of stress and loathing from teachers and students alike. Critics argue that standardized testing promotes “teaching to the test”,

The high-stakes achievement tests carry significant consequences for schools, teachers, and students. While a low score can prevent a student from progressing to the next grade or lead to the firing of teachers and the closing of schools, high scores are necessary to ensure the continuation of funding. After NCLB was passed in 2002, annual state spending on standardized tests rose from $423 million to almost $1.1 billion in 2008. 1 While colleges look at more than just standardized test scores for college admission, looking at things such as GPA for example, there is such an emphasis on standardized test scores that some claim money can be a determining factor in the future of a student’s academic career. However, the money that is being put into the system does not seem to better students’ education. The US Department of Education found that taxpayers have spent $125 billion dollars on elementary and secondary school education, with no real improvements. 2 The National Assessment of Education Progress found that the average reading scores of 17-year-olds has not increased since the 1970s. This means that currently 60% of twelfth graders read below the proficiency

All students answer the same question under the same conditions. However, not all students have the same ability to take tests. Some students suffer from test anxiety that prevents them from scoring as well as they could, and others’ scores suffer as a result of situations outside of the exam room. There are students who are extremely intelligent and understand the material, but whose scores do not reflect so. This is because standardized tests only test the individual performance of a student on a single day, instead of measuring the overall growth of a student throughout the year. 4 Additionally, many standardized tests require knowledge from one particular type of background, which is why the well-educated, wealthy children score higher on standardized tests than the poorer children with inferior educations. Students with access to and who can afford to hire private tutors and take test prep classes have a significant advantage over those who cannot afford to do so. 5 The National Research Council undertook a nine-year study and concluded that the testing showed little to no progress in education and was detrimental to students. It was found that the system of testing in place penalizes low income and minority students, which in turn lowered their standardized test scores