The Pros And Cons Of Standardized Testing

Austin Bullington, a student who is severely dyslexic and mildly dysgraphic, tells the story of how a single standardized test had the ability to derail his dreams. In an interview, Austin stated that his aspiration has always been to teach music, but before he could take the classes he needed to earn his degree, he had to pass a standardized test for teaching; a test that was supposed to indicate his ability to perform in college. Austin graduated high school with a 3.72 GPA and was in the top twenty-five percent of his class. He was even doing very well in college, too, but this single score did not allow him to pursue the career he had always wanted (Bullington). The standardized test was supposed to measure Austin’s aptitude to perform

This widely used practice has unfortunately failed to measure the real success of students and teachers. Standardized tests are intended to measure knowledge of grade level content, but are more likely measuring the ability to concentrate, memorize, and perform. In fact, standardized tests do not accurately evaluate students with disabilities, students who are underprivileged, or the overall effectiveness of a student or classroom teacher and should not be used to evaluate their success.

First, standardized tests do not accurately evaluate students with disabilities. According to Toby Karten, a professor at the College of New Jersey, a variety of disabilities are present in any given classroom and likely include dyslexia, language disorders, down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and autism (Karten, 2015). Many disabilities have factors that impede learning and often prevent test takers from accurately displaying their knowledge. And, while these disabilities do not impact one’s ability to learn, they adversely affect one’s ability to demonstrate what he/she knows. One example is a person with a physical disability. This person would have

Standardized tests only evaluate a small sampling of material that is learned or taught throughout the year. If the material that is on the test was not emphasized during the year, both the teacher and student would look unsuccessful regardless of how much material was taught or learned. If teachers knew exactly what was on standardized assessments and only taught that material, the teacher would look successful according to standardized assessment data, but the students would not be learning all of the material needed for building information from grade to grade, or for succeeding in college, career, or life. Moreover, the data taken from standardized tests can be so easily skewed that it makes it unreliable. If standardized tests assessed all the material learned throughout the year, both the student and teacher could be more accurately evaluated, but because of the lack of all relevant material on tests, it makes accurate evaluation