Standardized Testing Flaws

Standardized testing has been used in the United States since the late 1800s to test students in the subjects they’ve been studying for an entire year and ultimately decide if they pass or fail the year based on the results of these tests. After the No Child left Behind Act the use of the standardized tests increased, but have only negatively affected students in their learning. Backlashes to standardized testing has increased from students, teachers, and parents who deem these tests useless and unnecessary to a child’s education since students are only “taught to test.” Standardized tests should be removed as they offer students no life skills, they cause stress to students and teachers, and they only benefit the multibillion dollar companies distributing these tests. While many people are against standardized tests, many individuals still support these tests.

Students leave school stressed and full of anxiety and its actually making a negative effect on their everyday life. Students get so overwhelmed that harming themselves is in the picture. The state needs to realize that students aren’t giving their 100% and they will never know their actual academic skills. So why give standardized test? Teachers need to focus on the future and teaching them skills they need in their everyday life.

Proponents see standardized testing as a way of making testing more efficient and effective by minimizing cost and increasing people’s accountability for their performance in the system. Opponents on the other hand argue that the systems has limitations based on its very nature on what can be tested and as a result of these standards needing to be met sacrifice some very important aspects of students education experience as well as force onto students and teachers a one size fits all model that has failed to deliver on its promises. After having reviewed all the evidence in detail it becomes clear to me that standardized testing is not an effective system for educating students and does more bad than good

Standardized tests are an unreliable measure of a student’s performance. A study in 2001 by Brookings Institution showed that fifty to eighty percent of test score improvements were not permanent and were because of little changes that did not pertain to anything related to long term learning. Basically, students learned little tricks to help their scores, but did not truly master the skill to apply it critically. 2. High stakes tests are used in job areas such as physicians and lawyers, allowing bosses to ensure their workers have the necessary knowledge for their professions.

The tests narrow down the curriculum to focus on the subjects that are on the test, forgetting about the other subjects. Standardized tests cannot measure all that schools teach like how to be a problem solver. Standardized tests have not improved America’s education system. Every once in a while the world will submit their schools performance and they will be ranked with

Leslie Rayburn is a teacher in Santa Cruz, California, and she, too, believes that this is unfair to students, and to teachers who are graded based on their students’ grades. She explains that, ‘the children who perform poorly on multiple choice standardized tests (but perhaps might perform well on an open-ended form of test) are labeled as “less intelligent’ and the school suffers” (Rayburn) Since progress of a student is mainly viewed based upon the outcome of standardized test scores, the lower-performing students are seen as “not college- ready”, which creates a roadblock to a student about where they may want to attend college. The fact of the matter is that no two students are the same, learn the same, or test the same, so standardized tests are inaccurate measurements of a student’s full learning capability and

In America, there is quite a lengthy history of standardized testing. It all began in 1838 when the American education system began to form ideas of having tests that would be transformed into formal measures of student academic achievement. They were originally created to hopefully show student improvement and academic knowledge, which is also their most common use up to today. The commonly dreaded standardized test, the ACT, was created in order to help more colleges improve their enrollment numbers, and colleges needed a new standardized test in order to do so. But lately, these forms of standardized testing seem to be causing damage to students.

Standardized testing (SATs), in the United States has been present for years and has caused plenty of teachers, students, parents, and other individuals who are informed about it to have different perspectives and opinions on it. Before doing my research on the different opinions people had on standardized tests, I always believed they were encouraged by professors and school facilities. As a student myself and on the behalf of other students, standardized tests were always perceived to be stressful and unjust. Test taking was never a strength of mine especially if the test was timed because it just added more pressure to answer the questions quick. In high school, my teachers never discussed how they felt towards the SATs, which made

The time that students spend outside of class studying for standardized tests could be used for something more productive. The school also has to create a modified schedule so students can take the standardized test- it will most likely result in shorter class periods, cutting away from valuable learning time. These tests waste incalculable hours during the school day and outside of

Although some might say standardized tests are useful metrics for teacher evaluations, the teachers can not make students do well on a test. Standardized testing has a stigma that if one does not do well on the tests then their future will be at stake and they will probably not do well in life. This is simply not true, taking one moment, one day, one hour of someone's life and making them take a test will not show you how well a student will do in the future. The tests

School’s are using standardized testing for the wrong reason. “A standardized test is any examination that’s administered and scored in a predetermined, standard manner. There are two major kinds of standardized tests: aptitude tests and achievement tests” (Popham, 1999). The most common examples of aptitude tests are the SAT and the

Standardized testing brings an added stress on students to score high. If students do not score high on standardized tests it lowers their self esteem. Teachers have to spend plenty of time telling their students how to take a test and not teaching them material that they need to learn for the class. When they are being taught how to take the test they could be learning more information about material in the class. Some people say that standardized testing can

Parents can compare how their students are doing compared to other schools and even other states. Standardized testing allows schools to compare their results against other schools results. Another reason standardized testing is good is because the tests allow the students’ progress to be tracked throughout the year. If these students are taking similar tests yearly, then it is easy to see if they are improving, declining or staying at the same level. This is very important because then a parent can know what’s going on with their child and if they are improving that’s probably good news

The Center on Education Policy has reported that almost half of the school districts in the US has reduced their time in social studies, science, and arts, while increase in math and reading. United States has problem with testing by having mismatch standards in different districts and states, aligning national test. In a multiple choice are straightforward results, students thinking is simplistic, and they also don’t show student’s creativity. While response test shows student critical thinking. Gerald W. Bracey adds that standardized test doesn’t measure motivation, resilience, curiosity, persistence, reliability, leadership, and etc.

According to a New Report on Assessment Finances that says "Standardized-testing regimens cost states some $1.7 billion a year overall, or a quarter of 1 percent of total K-12 spending in the United States". That is money that could be used to increase the teachers’ salaries because at the end of the day, with they are the ones who have spent 9 hours with us or sometimes even more. According to the Pew Center on the States "annual state spending on standardized tests rose from $423 million to almost $1.1 billion in 2008". Although, testing the concept learned throughout the year is a way to have knowledge of what students have learned worldwide. Also, it could be considered a waste of money because, some students won’t perform the same in an exam, rather than in