The Importance Of Standardized Testing

1741 Words7 Pages
Alison Loesch
Dr. Cahill
ENG 112
2 February, 2018
Why Standardized Testing Is...
42% of teachers agree that standardized tests have a negative impact on their classrooms (NEA 2014). While standardized tests are used to give a framework for teachers (University of Columbia 2013), there should be a different way to accomplish that because the tests are all computerized, students are being taught to take tests, not learn the material, and it puts entirely too much pressure on not only the students but the teachers(Popham #8-15).
Standardized tests give a framework to teachers so that each teacher can stay on track with each other. This also allows teachers, that work in the same grade, to collaborate with each other to improve their lesson plans and overall teaching. They also show what specific areas a student might be struggling in (Popham, 8-15). The tests also allow the School Board to decide if a school needs extra assistance with anything involving Math, Science, and English (VDOE website). Although these are valid reasons to keep standardized testing in place, there are many more reasons why they should be either removed or improved in some way.
One reason why standardized testing should be improved or replaced is that students may understand material but might type an answer wrong or something technical on their test. They are made to feel like they got things wrong even though they might not have. For example, a student taking the Math SOL test for that year has a