Essay on Standardized Test

There are a slew of tests that attempt to measure how intelligent human beings are. They all measure different aspects and those factors will be covered here. One of the misconceptions is that the tests measure inborn intelligence. Few of the activities are designed for that purpose. They actually measure a person’s interaction with the environment and what they have learned from that interaction. The most common tested aspect is critical thinking. Instead of straightforward questions, intelligence tests offer questions with a twist. It is assumed that the most intelligent people will see obvious flaws in the obvious answers (Steinberg & Williams, 2015). Some intelligence tests also measure reflexes, both mental and physical. The assumption is quick reaction times reflect an active brain and in the line of thinking, a more intelligent person.

To many students standardized testing has become another part of schooling that is dreaded. Standardized testing has been a part of school since the nineteen-thirties; in those days it was used as a way to measure students that had special needs. Since the time that standardized test have been in American schools there has been many programs that have placed an importance on the idea of standardized testing such as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Evans 1). Over the years the importance of standardized testing has increased tremendously and so has the stakes, not only for teachers but also students. All states in the United States of America have state test in order to measure how much students learn, and help tell how well the

Amy Tan also felt that standardized tests could not accurately determine a person’s intelligence. She effectively makes her argument by using rhetorical devices such as, “I wanted to capture what language ability tests could never reveal: her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her speech and the nature of her thoughts” (Tan 768). When she said that standard tests cannot determine a person's true intelligence, she was trying to say how people have different ways of thinking and different types of intelligence, and yet these standard tests only can measure a certain type of intelligence; therefore it really is kind of unfair, for lack of a better term.

Additionally, Albert Einstein once said, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” There are different forms of intelligence that go beyond what our school system measures. Students are not a unit to be measured, and students cannot be assigned a numerical value to identify their intelligence. Students are diverse—they learn at different speeds, and they learn in different ways. Focusing solely on test scores is hurting our students and deviating away from building our society on success and excellence. Critics are slowly realizing the problems associated with standardized tests—they create anxiety, they are extremely biased, and they do not measure the ability to think deeply.

     Since the development of the intelligence quotient, schools in every part of the world have been using the IQ test to categorize millions of students into three groups. These three groups, which are the gifted, the average, and the retarded, are falsifications that perpetuate in our world culture and cause many gifted students to be deemed retarded and vice a versa. Why then is the IQ test so heavily relied on in our school systems? For schools the answer is simple, an I.Q. test is a reliable predictor of a students later performance in academics. This answer is relatively true, but where the I.Q. test falls extremely short is with testing the multiple

Any child that is in any type of schooling knows what standardized testing is. It is required in every state of America, and not a single child likes it. In recent years a controversial issue has been weather or not standardized testing should be used to judge a person’s

Valid – The test must be shown to measure what it is intended to measure. Unbiased – The test should not place students at a disadvantage because of gender, ethnicity, language, or disability.” Yet, all three requirements for a test to be viable do not apply to standardized testing. Results produced are not consistent, as the day to day lives of students are constantly changing; Issues in the students’ lives may affect their thoughts, emotions, and health that would affect the results of their tests, providing a variety of test scores for one person alone. The validity of the test is also in question as it does not account for differences in students’ backgrounds and personal life so test scores do not accurately measure student’s abilities, but rather, it measures their ability to memorize information and test taking skills. Standardized testing holds a very large amount of bias, as the students of different ethnicities, cultures, and languages, have to confront many biased questions that are present in standardized tests. Therefore, standardized testing, according to Zucker’s analysis of an effective test, should not be used as an effective measure for testing students’ intelligence as it breaks the three requirements that make

According to Nesbitt (2005), other researchers misrepresented standardized tests by associating intellect with heritability. IQ testing to dissimilar cultural groups/people with disability opposes questions as to what IQ really measures. According to Arnold et al (2011), IQ testing generates a floor effect when pertained to people with lower IQ's. Example, in a practice IQ scores beneath a definite cut-off are still being utilized to conclude and categorize an individual’s intelligent disability. An alternative explanation to this matter would be to evaluate people from dissimilar culture groups and or those with mental retardation and incapacities with more than standardized tests. As for the natural bias for the mentally retarded, individuals should be assesses based on their needs, and the atmosphere influenced within their lives.

One reason to eliminate standardized testing, is that standardized testing takes away from creativity and innovation

testing. The primary ideology regarding standardized testing is that a student’s test scores reflect a student’s intelligence and their ability to succeed. People must be educated on the

same IQ test for 100 years. We have had many chances to change the test ,but they think it is fine. This paragraph explains that standardized tests don’t measure all the skills people need in life.

“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will spend it's whole life believing its stupid.” This quote, credited to Albert Einstein, is a perfect example of why comparing students to each other is not an accurate test of intelligence. Standardized testing should not be mandatory, because they cause unnecessary stress for teachers and students; limit standards and undermine students’ success in other, equally important aspects; and drastically narrows the school's curriculum.

All the intelligences can be brought from different types of backgrounds, they can stem from formal schooling, life experiences or just an individual having a certain aptitude towards a certain type of intelligence. Many aspects of the test were influenced through formal education. Five different subtests; mathematics, general knowledge, classification, verbal and pattern recognition are influenced through formal education. School curriculums are designed to train students in subjects such as mathematics, sciences and social studies that seem to overlap in the areas that are tested in the intelligence test. So an individual that isn’t formally trained in these areas if tested would be able to perform better as opposed to students that aren’t formally trained and they are given primarily the same exams that cover the same topics. Logic is the purest type of research that a person is able to display. If an individual lacks logic, they are unable to rationally reach a conclusion. It can be utilized in many areas of life which include but not limited to everyday life such as developing arguments and also being able to solve everyday

Intelligence tests are inaccurate to measures true ability of a person because genes affect how a person responds to their surroundings, the tests cannot measure the person biological makeup or his true potential for being “smart”.

The debate on standardized tests and its adequacy in testing a student’s knowledge about a subject has been going on for many years. Tests, in general, has been around for centuries and without them there would not be progress and no gleams of progress. Students ranging from elementary school to high school have experienced standardized testing. Teachers, educators, and parents are also involved in the students’ lives, which revolves around the tests, one way or another. There are many views on standardized test. However, the three most common views are: educators who are for standardized test which benefits students, educators who are at the other extreme of opposing standardized tests, and educators who view tests are a benefit if done in appropriate amounts.