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The Pros And Cons Of Standardized Testing

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A standardized test is a large scale exam technique that schools administer to a large population of their students (PENRC, 2016). This type of exam provides a standard assessment for all students, and its purpose is to measure their academic achievement. The standardized test is scored using a standard grading rubric or a guideline with a set of passing score that decides what grade/performance is considered to be proficient (PENRC, 2016). With this classification technique, it is possible to compare all individual scores, so that the each student can be ranked based on their percentile.
Ever since George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, it has been a mandated annual testing in all 50 states(Goodman & Hambleton, 2014). …show more content…

Although this is a huge change, there are still some concerning issues that follow this new method. For example, more money is being spent on the billion dollar testing industry, according to Texas Education Agency, the state spent an additional 8 million dollars from 2006 to 2008 on testing students (PENRC, 2016). This amount of money should be used for better resources and materials in public schools that are struggling to provide students with the best learning tools and technology. Also, open-ended questions on standardized tests are often graded by underpaid temporary workers with no educational training. Most test scorers make $11-$13 per hour and only need a bachelor’s degree, not related to education, to be a candidate (Pearson, 2014). It is proven that a lot of these scorers do not take their job seriously and are more likely to grade poorly or inaccurately (Pearson, 2014). For this reason, standardized exams should be produced by educators. Also, all educators should also be required to add a variety of assessment tools in their exams along with a steady guideline that is constant throughout each school. Educators at each school should also grade each exam as well as long as no teacher grades their own student’s exam and each student’s name is coded under a serial number to keep the anonymity of each

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Standardized tests are one of the most popular ways schools attempt to evaluate academic intelligence of students, school districts, and teachers. These tests are used more specifically to evaluate student performance in the education system by testing their abilities in mathematics, english and sciences. By giving every student the same test, they are setting a standard idea for how well every student should score on the test, such as the SAT or the ACT, no matter the school or educational process they are receiving. Allowing every student to take the exact same test, gives the state a way to generalize student’s academic intelligence without having to do much work to make the testing one hundred percent fair. Standardized testing in schools should no longer be required because it discriminates against the less wealthy families, does not effectively measure achievement and becomes a distraction to the student’s learning environment.

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We Need to Put an End to Standardized Testing Standardized testing, the disease eating the education system from the inside out. Just about every student has felt their education ’s focus shift to testing. Just about every student understands the weight of an exam with potentially life altering consequences.

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Standardized tests have been an integral component of the American educational system since the mid-1800s. The use of standardized tests went through the roof with the creation of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2002, which made it mandatory for all 50 states to hold annual standardized tests. Standardized tests are defined by W. James Popham, former president of the American Educational Research Association, as “any test that’s administered, scored, and interpreted in a standard, predetermined manner. These tests often consist of multiple choice questions which are able to be quickly scored by an automated test scoring machine. I do not believe that standardized tests are improving education in America because they are detrimental

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