Standardized Testing: Success Or Failure?

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.

Pressure to succeed at these tests creates feelings of anxiousness and stress in students that can cause students to dread coming to school at all. Students should be able to enjoy coming to school and learning. Pressure from standardized tests does not allow students to further their education in a stress-free environment. This can be detrimental to the quality of education. Dawn Laborde is a mother of three school-aged children from Florida. She said, “My third grader loves school, but I can’t get her out of the car this year.” (“States Listen as Parents Give Rampant Testing an F”) This demonstrates how even children as young as eight or nine years old can feel the pressures given by standardized testing. It is worrying that young children and teenagers are spending so much of their time in school agonizing over standardized tests and other concerns that accompany them. The pressure to succeed at these tests can also cause students to feel physically ill. Education researcher Gregory J. Cizek states, “...illustrating how testing...produces crippling anxiety in even the brightest students and makes young children vomit, or cry, or both.” (“Is The Use of Standardized Tests Improving Education in America?”) The fact that students are brought to tears or made physically sick due to stress from testing is very disturbing. Schools should be relaxed environments where students can freely learn and grow

Students should not take standardized tests. They cause frustration and stress; also schools are devoted to passing them and spend most of the year

We shouldn’t have to take standardized tests because they don’t provide any feedback on how to perform better. The tests treat everyone who takes them feel identical, they don’t make you feel different. These tests make create a huge amount of stress on teachers and students. Most test takers can handle certain levels of stress but others can’t handle any amount. There should be other options that schools and colleges could use or get rid of the tests all

“The sale of a whole range of screening, intelligence, readiness, and other tests generates in excess of $100 million in revenues in the U.S. (Meaghan and Casas 44)”. Companies that administer these tests like the ACT are making hundreds of millions of dollars to make these tests. These are large corporations that are making money from distributing the test and then once again making more money from grading it. Governments look into ways to save money with education so why don’t they focus on abolishing standardized tests and just focus on a student’s grade point average. A student’s high school transcript gives a college enough information for them to make their selection, doing this may take them longer to choose their potential students. However, the students that they do administer would be better represented because they would have that student’s record of the past four years. Showing how they did in certain classes and even what they struggled in.

Research shows that the use of standardized testing has spanned centuries, some of the earlier studies include data from the early 1900’s. According to Frazier (2009), “there is a significant difference in scores on standardized tests when students have completed a technology education program”. This study shows a correlation between the use of technology within the school system and achievement on standardized tests. Students that are exposed to technology education are more likely to do well on standardized tests.

"If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn't be here. I guaruntee you that." said Michelle Obama, according to brainyquotes.com. Standardized testing is everywhere. Children as young as eight years old take these tests in which all test takers are given the same test no matter what their specific needs are. At some schools, these tests determine whether you move on to the next grade and even if you graduate. However, is this really fair? While some students perform exceptionally, others do not. I think students should not be required to pass a test at the end of the year to move on to the next grade or to graduate because not all students test well. These tests can also add additional stress and anxiety to a student's life, and they are unfair to non English speakers and students with disabilities.

The stress settled in once the word ‘testing’ echoed through the classroom. The students knew what it brought, and they knew how dreadful it would be; sitting in one room, hour after hour and day after day, silent and still, with only the sound of the clock resonating through their heads. Standardized tests are assessments that local and national governments may require their students to take. However, these tests do not properly evaluate their intellect, and only lead to tension and mental strain on a student’s attentiveness. Although many schools believe that these assessments are productive, it is proven that they are not beneficial to students because standardized testing leads to stress and anxiety, it is wasting valuable classroom time,

Alarming is an understatement when it comes to the anxiety and stress standardized testing brings. Students are told how vital these tests can be to college acceptance, class placement, and school ranking, so it is no surprise that they lead students to become stressed out and anxious about taking the assessments. According to education researcher Gregory J. Cizek, "illustrating how testing... produces gripping anxiety in even the brightest students, and makes young children vomit or cry, or both" (2). The affect standardized testing has on students is unacceptable, no students should be anxious and uneasy about going to school due to a test. To continue, the Sacramento Bee reported that "test-related jitters, especially among young students,

Standardized testing causes a lot of stress. Kids should not have to experience so much stress at such a young age. A little boy in third grade developed anxiety due to his school’s required standardized testing(Too Much Stress). Students are tested a lot. Those who have to take a standardized test take, on average, one test a month, but sometimes as frequently as two times a month(Too Many Tests). Tests can turn the most enthusiastic kids into sad, moody, and scared children. I’ve seen my own friends become practically a whole different person because of a huge test they had coming up. Parents were even noticing a change in personality in their

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

To school administrators, these standardized tests evaluate students on their testing ability. To teachers, it is a way to get an idea for how students are learning in their classroom. To students, it creates tension since they do not how to prepare for these exams. After completing the appropriate course, students have the opportunity to take the standardized test during that assigned semester. The schools do not provide much help on the standardized tests for students who have to take them. They have only a few practice sessions. Students could go to tutors, but many students believe they do have the intelligence to pass these standardized tests, but sometimes have too much anxiety. For instance, The Simpsons displays a segment of their own when students have to take the standardized tests in a certain amount of time for each, which causes some to have anxiety. In The Simpsons episode, Lisa is having anxiety when taking this difficult test because Principal Skinner explains to the class about the importance of this standardized test they are taking. Schools make it seem like these standardized tests are the “end of the world” if they do not pass. Being able to succeed is one adventure, but it truly is up to the student of what he makes out of his education in order to build up his

The standardized tests not only affect the students, but everyone else that is involved. It affects students by causing them stress and if they are unprivileged they do not get the tutoring and help that the privileged ones do (Reddell). Privileged children can get tutors to help teach them more about a topic. The unprivileged kids can get free tutoring at school but some are too embarrassed or scared to go ask for help. A kid should not be embarrassed about asking for help on a subject they are having troubles in they should be able to go to any teacher and not have other students around them making fun just because they are getting help because they do not know something. These tests have caused so much stress on not just students but also the teachers (Reddell). Students get more stressed over these tests than teachers do. They know that they need to try their best and it puts a ton of weight on them. Even though they can retake the test that does not mean a senior can. If a senior is to take these tests and fail then they have to come back either for summer school or back for a whole other year. It is not fair to a senior if they fail the test and have to come the next year or even during the summer just because he did not pass. A test should not be the reason he does not get to go to college that year and has to

Working in an elementary school, I hear constant complaining from both parents and teachers about the state's standardized testing. Parents yell that the educators teach to the test and the kids need so much more. Many say that the test has taken the fun out of learning and put too much pressure on students to perform. Teachers complain about the unfair way they are judged based on student performance. And they are unhappy that schools are compared within and outside the district with other schools that don't have a similar population. But the saddest thing about testing for me is the look on the students' faces when they're given another "testing passage" to read, even if they have showed mastery on the skills time after time. Or the

“Teachers should not be forced to spend the academic year preparing students to fill in bubbles on standardized tests,” Barack Obama. W. James Popham of ascd.com says “If a schools standardized test scores are high, people think the schools staff if effective. But if the schools scores are low they assume the schools teaching methods are not effective.” Some believe they can be good because they focus on certain skills and eliminate time wasting activates that make learning enjoyable. Although some may believe them to be beneficial, standardized testing shouldn’t exist because they cause severe stress in students, are unfair, and they do not prepare kids for the real world.