Standardized Testing

By. Hayden Bruce

Standardized Testing-
According to the Glossary of Education Reform, a standardized test is any form of test that
(1) requires all test takers to answer the same questions, or a selection of questions
from common bank of questions, in the same way, and that (2) is scored in a
standard or consistent manner, which makes it possible to compare the relative
performance of individual students or groups of students.
Standardized Testing-
According to the Washington Post, students will take an average of 112
mandatory tests ranging from Pre K to 12 grade.
Pros- Cons-

Tests do not discriminate against Consumes class time preparing for test.
diverse students.
Narrows curriculum.
Focuses on essential content and skills.
Does not allow teachers to teach to
Low cost. their abilities (teaching to the test).

Prepare students for college. Causes severe stress within students

lives.
Gives students less opportunities to
cheat. Do not affect students grades
(promotes students to not put in
Allow administrators to observe a effort).
student's progress before moving
Thesis-
Standardized testing in America is an ineffective way to measure a
student's success based on how teachers not being able to express
unique teaching habits, the high stakes these tests hold for
students, and how much test preparation students are consumed by
to prepare for these tests.
Teachers forced to teach to the test
In 2007, the University of Maryland released a study that found that
teachers are pressured to teach the test which results in not
teaching higher-order thinking and the amount of high cognitive
assignments and thinking in the curriculum are reduced.
Teachers are forced to teach students what will appear on their tests and are unable to help
students gain further knowledge on the subject that could help them later in their
education or life.

The Center of Educational Policy reported that in 2007, 44% of

school districts had reduced the time spent on science, social
studies, and the arts by an average of 145 minutes per week in
order to focus on math and reading.
Proves teachers are unable to teach to their abilities based on such a huge reduction of
Standardized Tests are not teaching-
Standardized testing holds too high of
stakes for
On May 26, students-
2011, the National Research Council published their
findings and concluded that for several decades, policymakers and
educators do not yet know how to use test-based incentives to
consistently generate positive effects on achievement and to
improve education.
Shortly after the No Child Left Behind Act was passed in 2002, the United States mathematics rank
fell from 18th in the world, to 31st. These tests not only force students to learn only what will be
administered on the test but restrict their ability to attain their full educational potential.
Most students do not feel the need to perform highly on standardized tests because these tests do
not appear on their grades, this results in teacher conflict and could even result in teachers
being punished due to their students not performing well.

According to GDK Gallup Poll, 64% of Americans as well as 67% of

public school parents feel their is too much of an emphasis on
standardized testing.
With all sides of the spectrum believing there is too much of an emphasis on standardized tests,
these tests should either be modified and affect the student's grades, promoting them to
perform better, or should be thrown out and implement a new system to measure student and
Standardized testing requires too much
preparation for students-
Schools in America devote more than a quarter of their time to test
preparation for standardized testing according to the Daily News.
This time could be used for valuable teaching time that could be applied to the real world rather a
standardized test that these students will only take once. These tests take costly time from a
student's education that could be applied towards higher education or a potential career.
With the No Child Left Behind Act regulating schools and forcing them to start standardized testing
as early as 3rd grade, it robs young students of their potential childhood. Some schools even
force Pre-K children to prepare for standardized testing in the future. Majority of these children
are still learning the basics of reading and writing and should not be forced to assemble their
skills for future testing.
These students already have enough work to fill their day and should not be deemed a failure at the
age of 6 based on their abilities to test. If standardized testing would conform to how and what
teachers what to teach rather what they force them to teach, it would provide a more effective
system to better analyze a students and teachers progress.
Educators & Policymakers argue that these
tests are non-discriminatory against
students-
Although this is a true statement it does not allow students who are
further ahead, or behind have a test that can challenge them each
uniquely.
By challenging every student uniquely this could potentially open up a teacher's curriculum and
allow a teacher to touch on what they would like to teach rather what a standardized test will
test students on. This problem has narrowed the curriculum in schools around the country.
A 2007 survey of 1,250 civics, government, and social studies
teachers which was conducted by the Knight Foundation released
their findings on the subject, they found that over 75 percent of
these teachers were less likely to teach current events in their
classrooms, narrowing their curriculum, due to standardized tests.
Due to these tests, these teachers can no longer teach students about the development of society which has been found to be a
major key to a students civic engagement within their community.
Conclusion-
These tests have been found to do more bad than good to students
based on how much stress, time, and effort they require.
Testing students should be done so they are willing and comfortable to determine better testing
results. The education in the United States would only rise if they allowed educators to teach to
their own unique abilities and not conform to testing habits.
Students taking standardized tests are not only scared but believe it
to be a unuseful practice due to scoring not showing up on their
grades.
If these tests would allow teachers to score their students individually and place it onto their final
grades it would promote students to perform better on the tests.
Education in America needs to be reformed extensively based on how
many times it has been proven ineffective, reforming standardized
testing would help students prepare for higher education and
careers based on how much it restricts them today. Education needs
to change and it all starts with standardized tests.
Resources-
Concepts, Liberty. Standardized Test Definition. The Glossary of Education Reform, 12 Nov. 2015, edglossary.org/standardized-
test/. Accessed 19 Apr. 2017.

Standardized Tests - ProCon.org. ProConorg Headlines, 2 June 2016, standardizedtests.procon.org/. Accessed 12 Apr. 2017.

Strauss, Valerie. Confirmed: Standardized Testing Has Taken over Our Schools. But Whos to Blame? The Washington Post, WP
Company, 24 Oct. 2015, www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/10/24/confirmed-standardized-testing-has-taken-
over-our-schools-but-whos-to-blame/?utm_term=.06f0d538d931. Accessed 19 Apr. 2017.

Walker, Tim. Poll: Americans Want Less Standardized Testing and More School Funding. NEA Today, 14 Oct.2015,
neatoday.org/2015/08/23/poll-americans-want-less-standardized-testing-and-more-school-funding/. Accessed 12 Apr. 2017.

Walker, Tim. Survey: 70 Percent Of Educators Say State Assessments Not Developmentally Appropriate. NEA Today, 9 Mar. 2016,
neatoday.org/2016/02/18/standardized-tests-not-developmentally-appropriate/. Accessed 12 Apr. 2017.

Linda Valli, and Robert Croninger, "High Quality Teaching of Foundational Skills in Mathematics and Reading, drdc.uchicago.edu.
Accessed 3 May. 2017

Committee on Incentives and Test-Based Accountability in Public Education at the National Research Council,
Incentives and Test-Based Accountability in Education, www.nap.edu. Accessed 3 May. 2017