Arguments Against Standardized Testing

Standardized testing has been ruling over the lives of students, making or breaking them in their education without fair judgement. Tests like the SAT and the ACT count for way too much when applying to colleges, which in turn limits the student 's capabilities to thrive in an environment that would benefit them. There are many problems within a standardized test that deems them to be unreliable as a true test of knowledge. Although designed to test groups of students on intelligence, standardized testing neglects to fairly acknowledge the abilities of each unique student which reflect their true capabilities.

“When we began the map test I knew my students were gonna dread it, I myself dread it, and I am not even taking it. So I decided how about a reward for these kids, if you got above your past score you got 7 extra credit points for the test, which made a lot kids eager to get a good score. They went to sleep early, read before bed, and got a good meal beforehand, everything the test recommends the students to do before taking it. These kids fully ready to take it, mindset clear. When they got their scores back most were shocked because the did not score the same or higher, they got a lower score. All across the room I saw devastated faces because they wouldn’t receive their 7 extra points, and all their hard work was a complete waste. I decided to start an investigation so I called the test company and explained the situation and the only thing they told me was ‘well maybe they lied to you.’ this could not be true, 90% of these kids were A average students in an honors class.

Throughout history, Americans excel in pronounced innovations for society. An important part of American culture comes from its education system. Large sums of American citizens attend public schools in order to prepare themselves for their careers and to better our society. This being said, schools play a crucial element in developing citizens, and should be a top priority for our society. Initial standardized tests were introduced to assess student performance, over the past two decades, however the school system has become consumed with endless testing. Some of these tests dubbed as “Do or die tests”, due to the vast impact the success or failure of a single test on an individual student. The issue isn’t the test themselves, but how much

Many students throughout the American education system struggle due to the fact that they have to take a standardized test. But, this struggle differs for each student, some are too lazy to take them while others are having difficulty performing well on these tests. As a student who learned English as a second language, I could relate with the people who are having trouble performing well on standardized tests. When I was in high school there was nothing more frightening than Standardized tests. There was a lot of emphasize on these tests and they had the power to determine my future in the means of deciding which colleges I could attend. But, I wasn’t alone in this matter, not all students perform to their potential on Standardized tests. No matter how hard I tried to study for these tests, I was just not doing as well as my class mates. It made me feel like I was beneath all my other class mates and I thought they were intellectually superior. But, I met other like me who were not good at taking test and didn’t perform well on these

You may wonder, Why do we have standardized tests? They were created so that the government could keep track of how schools were performing and they wanted to see how the money they gave the schools was being used. “In 1965, as part of the War on Poverty, the Johnson administration sent extra federal funding to low-income schools, and in return asked for data to make sure the money was making an impact.”(Rizga) “Standardized tests have been a part of American . education since the mid-1800s.” (Standardized) Standardized testing has been in our lives for over 150 years and it has been used to keep track of the education level of the citizens. “The modern testing movement began with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), enacted

Most kids might not ever believe that parents don't like test either.Some parents do not like standardized testing, they think that it is to much.The argument between standardized testing is getting hot.Some parents think that we should have standardized testing,but i personally think that we do need testing because the district needs to know if we are learning what we need to be learning or if we are learning anything at all,also to depict if we move on to our next grade also for us to know what we are learning ourselves.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Nobel Prize winning Physicist Albert Einstein, former Vice President Dick Cheney, light bulb inventor Thomas Edison, Oscar winning director Steven Spielberg, creative genius Walt Disney, and Steve Jobs, the visionary behind Apple; these iconic figures are often associated with genius, but were viewed as “slow” or “dumb” during school. These individuals were expelled or dropouts of school, because they were not meeting standards. After years of failing in school, these people went on to revolutionize the world, while inspiring many others to make a difference.

Standardized testing has been practiced in schools across America since the mid-1800’s. Today, they are used to assess where a student is placed in their educational career. Standardized tests commonly test students in the subjects of math, reading, writing, and science. Colleges also partially base their admissions on standardized tests such as the SAT or ACT. 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. (standardizedtests.procon.org) With states spending this much money on these tests, many question how well they actually work. Students are essentially being judged on what they know on the spot, and to many that determines

Standardized testing is an overemphasized aspect of the modern education system. All states use some form of standardized testing, and in recent years, it has become a deciding factor in a student’s ability to graduate. But, how effective are these tests? They aren’t. They don’t test a student’s aptitude, they only test the ability for a student to hold information, not apply it. State testing must be removed on the grounds that it inhibits the critical thinking abilities of younger generations, and it misrepresents a student’s aptitude for learning.

Any person that has ever been in school has taken some kind of standardized test. These tests usually start around third grade and last until students graduate. Every college in the nation requires some type of standardized test for admission, so standardized testing is very important for any student that wants to go to college. Every student remembers sitting, waiting, and taking a test that lasts hours and wanting it to be over as soon as possible, but most students and parents don’t even know what these tests do for kids and if they even help students or not. There are many pros and cons to this topic that have been pondered many times. Questions such as, “Should students even take these tests”, or “what do these massive tests do to help

As a graduate student in a doctoral program, I have a fair share of standardized testing experience. Never have I been exceptionally great on standardized tests but have always willed myself to reach whatever benchmark I was challenged to accomplish. Coming from a home where Spanish was the first language and my parents barely had more than a middle-school level education, I had to discover ways to overcome academic and testing difficulties. Statistically, it is well documented that many of our country’s diverse learners have trouble positively representing themselves on standardized tests for a plethora of reasons; I can attest to this from first hand experience. From language barriers that cause deficiencies in vocabulary development to deficient levels of formal education in the homes, the barriers often compound to enormous heights for children from low-socioeconomic statuses and/or those where English is a second language within the home. Regardless of these facts, testing will continuously remain to be an accountability system that is vital in education. Although, in education we often fall short by using tests and data as the ultimate answer when it can be used for so much more. Through technology and assessment, the ability to pinpoint every single deficiency that student’s have is completely possible. Rather than using testing as the answer, educators must become better at understanding how to use testing as a tool. Furthermore, when stronger testing platforms and protocols can be created and implemented, the more our educational

According to an article on the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development's website, "Employing standardized achievement tests to ascertain educational quality is like measuring temperature with a tablespoon" (Popham). Standardized tests have been used throughout the U.S. for decades to rank schools and students; show progress; and determine eligibility for programs, colleges, etc. However, these tests should not be used at all, let alone for such important purposes. Although many wrongly disagree, standardized tests are overly stress-inducing, more challenging for certain groups, and preventing students from learning vital things in school.

Education is an integral part of any society, and assessing the needs and improvement of students is an important part of any education, however, is constant testing the right way to do it? In this essay I will be exploring the world of testing, specifically the famous standardized test, the good and the bad, the uses and the alternatives. Did we as a society stumble upon the best, most effective way to assess the ability and improvement of our children? Could we implement a better way to help all children reach their full potential? Standardized tests equalize things for students, when not all students learn in the same ways. Does it accomplish more than ranking our nation's children?

For every student wanting to apply to colleges, exempt classes, etc., standardized testing is put into use to measure the amount of knowledge about the subject. There are many biased opinions on why standardized testing should be banned. Many come from unscholarly critics. However, there are some critics who show both sides of a story when it comes to standardized testing. Over the years, standardized testing has shown a wide variety of grades that are not good enough for many students. Some students struggle with what they got on the standardized test simply because they are not adequate test takers. Some however have some critical advantages that “show” that they are capable of taking standardized test and knowing the material. In other words, standardized testing clearly demonstrates no abilities of what a student really has.

Standardized tests do not asses skills when their questions are generalized for an entire population. Most of the time, the tests are not in conjunction with classroom skills and behavior. These tests asses for general knowledge and understanding of students rather that their actual abilities. Since the questions are general in nature, it becomes very difficult for teachers to know how to improve the students understanding of a particular subject based on just general information. This leads to teachers “teaching to test” rather than educating students in a proper way based on the real needs of the classroom. Another reason these tests do more bad than good is the fact that teachers actually have a test booklet instructing them on what to do if a student vomits during a test. Students study so hard for these tests and simply cannot handle the pressure. So in the end, their final scores reflect not their abilities, but the influences of their surrounding factors instead.