The Pros And Cons Of Standardized Testing

1.0 Introduction

Standardised testing is the form of testing that has dominated the United States education for many decades. Standard testing was first introduced in American education systems in mid 1880s. This form of testing became integral to American education after the year 2002 No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). These standard test have shown that the US was ranked 31st in the world of 2009. There have been several factors that have been identified that have contributed to the deteriorating education in the U.S .These are tenure policies, rising poverty level and standardised testing. This has resulted into a debate on whether standard testing is a fair and objective method of measuring the ability of students. The opponents believe that standard testing is not the best way to measure student abilities. The effectiveness of teachers is based on how students score on the standardised tests. When the students fail to score high grades, it is translated that the teachers and other school have failed but this is not always the case. The opponents also argue that the tests narrow down the curriculum and deny learning it true purpose. Today ‘teaching to the test’

Furthermore, before standardized testing became normal in 2002, there was not a legitimate way to hold a teacher accountable. Standardized testing increased in 2002 with President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” act, which was passed in 2001 (2004). The increase of standardized testing in America came from America dropping from number one in the world to number nineteen in K12 education. Even after the NCLB (No Child Left Behind Act) was instituted, America dropped even more in the world education ranking. Many countries use standardized testing for many reasons, but do not use the tests until later grades. Other countries do not use the test to determine whether a child passes or