Use of Standardized Tests in Education
“If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn’t be here. I can guarantee you that.” A wise statement made by First Lady Michelle Obama on the effectiveness of standardized testing in our nation’s public schools (Last). The current use of such testing in the United States has proven non-beneficial to student education for the long-term in an unsettling amount of ways, including that of its unreliable measurability and general ineffectiveness at measuring individual student performance. Standardized tests are neither fair nor objective. Their use further promotes a narrow curriculum and a drill-like “teach to the test” mentality, resulting in America’s inability to produce future generations of innovators and critical thinkers.
A 2001 study from Brookings …show more content…
Older students do not take standardized tests seriously because the tests do not affect their grades in most cases. Instead, they are more concerned with their overall work in the class throughout the semester as it actually affects their educational status--and furthermore their acceptance at the university level upon exiting high school.
In recent years, a “teaching to the test” mentality has been making its way into schools across the country, replacing good teaching practices with “drill n’ kill” type learning. A study conducted in 2007 from the University of Maryland found that the pressures teachers were feeling to ‘teach to the test’ for standardized testing were leading to “declines in teaching higher-order thinking, in the amount of time spent on complex assignments, and in the actual amount of high cognitive content in the curriculum” (Jacobs). Such factors are unfortunately only some of the drawbacks to this system of monitoring student
“If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn’t be here. I can guarantee you that.” A wise statement made by First Lady Michelle Obama on the effectiveness of standardized testing in our nation’s public schools (Last). The current use of such testing in the United States has proven non-beneficial to student education for the long-term in an unsettling amount of ways, including that of its unreliable measurability and general ineffectiveness at measuring individual student performance. Standardized tests are neither fair nor objective. Their use further promotes a narrow curriculum and a drill-like “teach to the test” mentality, resulting in America’s inability to produce future generations of innovators and critical thinkers.
A 2001 study from Brookings …show more content…
Older students do not take standardized tests seriously because the tests do not affect their grades in most cases. Instead, they are more concerned with their overall work in the class throughout the semester as it actually affects their educational status--and furthermore their acceptance at the university level upon exiting high school.
In recent years, a “teaching to the test” mentality has been making its way into schools across the country, replacing good teaching practices with “drill n’ kill” type learning. A study conducted in 2007 from the University of Maryland found that the pressures teachers were feeling to ‘teach to the test’ for standardized testing were leading to “declines in teaching higher-order thinking, in the amount of time spent on complex assignments, and in the actual amount of high cognitive content in the curriculum” (Jacobs). Such factors are unfortunately only some of the drawbacks to this system of monitoring student