Why Is Standardized Testing Bad

Rough Draft

Why Standardized Testing is Not Good for Schools Standardized testing is a widely used system which all schools across the nation use. Every school uses them for important reasons, such as the evaluation of the school, and its students. With this, tests are used for some positive aspects, but lead to many negative ones. Many details prove this, leading to why standardized testing should be eliminated from schools. The facts supporting this include : teachers teaching to the test, the amount of stress put on the students and staff, student performance, and impersonal testing.

To begin with, standardized testing causes teachers to “ teach to the test”. Many teachers across the US feel the need for their students to succeed on standardized

All students feel stress when something meaningful is tied to them, especially something important, such as tests. The amounts of pressure put on students can cause them to perform poorly, which leads to consequences toward the teacher and even the school. Once stress is put on the students, it can cause them to think negatively of school and learning in the future. Many teachers eventually quit their professions due to the amount of stress put on them to prepare their students for standardized tests. The job of the teacher relies on the students, and if the students don’t perform well, the teacher could lose their job. Once this happens, the school will be put to a disadvantage because they now don’t have an educator for that subject (Columbia University 2). With these facts, large amounts of stress can lead to major health consequences. It can cause the student to experience stomachaches and headaches which can cause the student to not perform to their best abilities on the test. Brain researchers, through years of study, have indeed found that too much stress to be physically and psychologically harmful to all people. Huge amounts of stress, on all students, educators, and staff can be harmful and cause many consequences during testing (Margie

There is a huge range of people that take the test (Carol, Kathleen 2). Each student is going to have a different way of life, family, and thinking which can cause some student’s answers to vary from others. The tests also treat students as if they are all identical people, which can cause unfairness while testing. There is no way of knowing for certain that every child is going to have the same amount of knowledge like other students going into that test (Margie 2). Something one should take into account is : some students do have learning disabilities. Students with dyslexia may not do as well as the student without dyslexia, due to their disability. If a student does have a disability, the test should be able to fit to their capabilities, which is not the case with standardized testing. Many kids have been found to do well with support and motivation, which they cannot get while taking the test. Also, tests do not fit to each student’s learning abilities. A student with a high level of easy understanding is going to have the same test as the student who doesn’t quite understand the topic. If the children perform poorly, then they are punished by failing and being left behind. Impersonal testing is a large factor that plays into a large reason for getting rid of standardized testing (Columbia University