Standardized Testing Persuasive Essay

Standardized tests are becoming less of the norm for students as colleges recognize that they could be a poor resource for college admissions. They have been around since 1875 and should be altered to conform to today's society. Students' futures should not revolve around these exams. Although standardized tests improve equity when applying for college, these exams should not be the center of the school's curriculum because schools are unable to prepare teachers, leaving the students with unnecessary stress and poor achievement.

Teachers are not prepared to teach everything that standardized tests require you to know. “Up to half of [The Teacher's] salary will be tied to how the students performed on their tests” (Williams 2). This should

For some, these exams are a deciding factor in whether or not they go to college. Therefore the stress builds up. “An individual's score may vary from day to day, due to testing conditions or the test taker's mental or emotional state” (Henningfeld 3). The more stress a student endures, the worse they will do on these tests. There is nothing that can prepare a student to take these assessments. “We’ve asked test scores to carry ever more weight” (Harris 3). With the No Child Left Behind Act coming into play through 2015, now called The Every Student Succeeds Act, standardized testing became the center of students' lives. From the time they were in elementary school taking those exams, to high school, where these tests can determine their future, students never catch a break. Everybody tests differently, not everyone deals well under the pressure of a timed exam, creating unreliable data. “Standardized tests inadvertently create incentives for students to become superficial thinkers” (Harris 3). Students begin to give up and look for quick and obvious answers due to the lack of understanding or care for these exams. Studies show that those with high standardized test scores tend to carry these superficial thinking characteristics. This shows that scores do not measure one's knowledge because those

“There is too little information to produce accurate, comprehensive or detailed results” (Henningfeld 2). A teacher or college needs more than a test score to ensure a student's intelligence. Many other categories go into knowing how a student will perform in their academics. categories that standardized tests cannot measure, such as creativity, critical thinking, and motivation. All of these factors help define achievement. Achievement is “all outcomes that students and teachers attain” (Harris 3). A student's achievement includes all of the aspects of school like your Grade point average, class participation, and motivation to get your work done. Your achievements build up over time; they cannot be represented through a test where you circle the best answer choice. “Multiple choice tests are very poor yardsticks of student performance” (Henningfeld 5). There are no writing skills involved, math work to be shown, or any proof of understanding the material. In the end, teachers cannot rely on a score, and most teachers do not use them to evaluate a student. A teacher's job is to work with students and figure out how they learn best so that they can adjust to every student's learning style, but standardized tests fail to provide information on how a student