The Pros And Cons Of Standardized Testing

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Standardized testing is any type of test that requires test takers to answer a set of questions that are the same and then scored in a standard manner, which makes it easier to compare the relative performance of one or more students. Standardized test is primary associated with large scale tests administered to large populations of students. The familiar format of questions is multiple choice, true or false questions, short answers, essay questions or mix of question types. Before standardized test were presented on paper and completed using pencils and some still do, they are increasingly being administered on computers connected to online programs. While standardized tests may come in many types, multiple-choice and true-false formats are widely used for …show more content…

For example, they may be used to determine a young child’s readiness for kindergarten, identify students who need special-education services or specialized academic support, place students in different academic programs or course levels, or award diplomas and other educational certificates. There are many forms of standardized test and the most common ones are Achievement tests which is designed to measure the knowledge and skills students learned in school or to determine the academic progress they have made over a period. The tests may also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of a schools and teachers or identify the appropriate academic placement for a student—i.e., what courses or programs may be deemed most suitable, or what forms of academic support they may need. Achievement tests are “backward-looking” in that they measure how well students have learned what they were expected to