The Pros And Cons Of Standardized Testing

Students studying at 1:00am, teachers frantically creating review sheets, all this mental strain just to see a deficient score on a test. This is happening to students all over the country. They are constantly manipulated that doing well on the PSAT is nearly as important as living. Teachers begin to believe preparing students for the upcoming AP Biology Exam is the main focus for the class, and rightfully so. With the influence that standardized tests have on students, why should a teacher be concerned with teaching anything else? (Rhetorical Question) Some argue standardized tests assure teachers and schools are held accountable for providing good teaching to students. However, rather than providing better teaching to the students, this

Additionally, the survey reveals only 15% of the surveyed teachers believe it has a positive impact. The sad reality is since these standardized tests have so much influence for a students future, many teachers decide they have no choice but to teach the test to keep their job. Increasing standardized test’s influence on a student’s future does not result in teachers being held accountable to provide better teaching, rather it creates a dull and stressful classroom that neglects teachers to teach students material outside of

There are many people who understand the content who simply do not perform well on standardized tests. Many students also develop test anxiety which hinders performance. Research from the American Test Anxieties Association states that around 16-20% of students have high test anxiety as well as around 18% having moderately high test anxiety. These statistics show determining whether a student is knowledgeable in the subject by looking at their standardized test scores is not always viable. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there are about 71.1 million students enrolled into schools in the United States as of Fall 2017. If you account for the 38% of students with high to moderately high test anxiety, you have about 28 million students experiencing test anxiety. That is 28 million students who while taking tests are having reduced memory, lower confidence, and increased mistakes. We also have to consider many external factors that are often uncontrollable and can play into test performance. For example, imagine student wakes up the day he is taking ACT with sweat dripping down your face, a runny nose, and a killer headache. (Imagery) There is a good chance the student’s focus levels will be negatively affected. This all translates to lower test scores and an unfair measurement on the student’s true knowledge. So let me ask you this