Arguments Against Standardized Testing

Improved Essays
One common factor of most schools and institutions in America today, is the use of standardized testing. These tests can be considered generic tests, administered in a consistent fashion, used to measure and compare the performance of the students in the nation. The tests usually consist of multiple choice questions and are often timed. According to standardized testing scores in America, children are not learning. Parents, teachers and even the government cannot seem to understand why this is happening. All want our children to have the best education available but none agree on how to accomplish this goal. The debates are many, but the most common and often heard supports standardized testing. The problem though, is that standardized testing …show more content…
Before standardized testing, teachers and schools were measured by the students’ abilities throughout the year. Now, the focus is on how well students do on these standardized tests. This is forcing teachers to stray from their normal methods of teaching and focus mainly on test preparation. They are being motivated to focus on the scores of these tests, in some states, by the reward of more money given to their school if their students score high. Statistically, those students who attend schools in the lower income areas tend to score lower. In the states that have decided to distribute money based on test scores, this causes the lower income areas to repeatedly be denied the financial aid they need, thus creating an inadequate learning environment and starting the vicious cycle all over again. Some would even go as far as calling this method of distribution discrimination, since there are a larger number of minority students in the lower income neighborhood …show more content…
The decades passed have caused people to forget that this is not the only way to measure a student’s abilities and that there do exist better alternatives (Chomsky et al.). Those opposed to the use of standardized test have explored other avenues and have come across more accurate methods of evaluating our students. Performance assessment is the comparison of a child’s school work over a designated period of time. It looks at the work, and how the student created it, and assesses the rate of improvement. Another method of measuring our students is similar to this. It is called portfolio assessment. This approach also assesses a student’s work over a period of time, but it looks at it in more detail. Portfolio assessment includes assessing areas such as a student’s attraction to certain subjects and their ability for self-evaluation. These portfolios could include a child’s own summary of a story they read or teacher notes on a student’s progress. This type of evaluation is effective in improving learning because it is specific to what is and is not working for a student

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In the article “Set Your Own Standards”, the author c32pong makes a very effective argument about how standardized test are not successful. The author states these points: standardized test do not measure the knowledge of a student and is an unreliable way of measuring student performances, it creates a grade conscious mindset and it also pressures educators. This article is about how standardized testing is used in many schools and colleges around the United States. Standardized test requires everyone who is participating in the test to answer the same set of inquiries.…

    • 499 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Education today has sparked many controversial discussions about Standardized testing. Parents, educators, law makers, and even children are stressing the effects that Standardized testing is having on children, teachers, and sometimes even parents in today’s schools. Standardized testing measures the students’ knowledge of what they have learned in school. Some people wonder why schools take Standardized testing, while other schools think it has helped them in a lot of ways. I think that Standardized testing is not as important as some people think.…

    • 647 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Schools in the United States use standardized tests to evaluate the students' in elementary, middle and high school. These tests are also used for entrance into college or even to find out if a student needs to take a particular class over in college. To enter into college, a student usually will take the SAT or the ACT Exams and usually there is a fee for taking these exams. In Indiana, the students' take the ISTEP + Exam.…

    • 1780 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The United States has made standardized testing a major concern across the country. Teachers are now required to prepare students for tests such as the ACT, SAT, KCCT, etc. Students are taught how to take these tests rather than being taught important curriculum that could help them in their futures. Most people don’t see the damage done when students and teachers are preparing for these tests. Students are not becoming more knowledgeable, through these tests, they are learning how to read questions and fill in a bubble based on “the best answer.”…

    • 1266 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Once the standardized tests are taken, scores are published and schools are ranked from highest to lowest. Educators end up "teaching to the test" due to the fear of losing their jobs. According to Scholastic.com, it is unfair for schools to compared because the test-takers are different sets of people, which causes a huge variance in test results. Educators are not teaching students skills that go beyond the classroom since they are busy preparing students to take the standardized tests. Students are also not being taught life lessons that go beyond the…

    • 768 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Standardized testing is very significant in our day and age. To get into a good university they at least want you to have a twenty four, and just for having a twenty four you might have to take extra courses just because it still was not high enough. Why do colleges want scores so high? Why can't a student be based on the grades they have made in high school and not just on a single test? What is even the purpose for the ACT and SAT, students stress over these tests knowing that they have to get a certain score.…

    • 1290 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    My last reason why I disagree with having standardized tests is because they measure only a small portion of what makes education meaningful. Standardized tests only provide skills in math and reading. I believe standardized tests only measure a small portion of meaningful information. Standardized tests provide a lot of useful time of useful information at low cost, and consume little class time. So, standardized tests don't provide skills that are needed other than math and…

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Norman Augustine's "High marks for standardized tests", Augustine emphasizes the necessity of standardized testing for students in America. Throughout his article, Augustine discusses the "three basic arguments" opponents of standardized testing make. After introducing these three arguments, Augustine effectively refutes them. As a whole, Augustine's essay covers and debunks three "misconceptions" of the opponents of standardized testing.…

    • 195 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Fight Against Standardized Testing “If my future were determined just by performance on a standardized test, I wouldn’t be here today. I guarantee you that.” Can you believe that Michelle Obama said that?The reason why students shouldn't take standardized tests is because it takes up too much time, takes money from citizens, and they are hard to prepare and study for. First of all standardized tests take up too much time.…

    • 334 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Standardized testing is not improving education in America. Teachers learn during their training and through experience that each child’s readiness to learn new skills and concepts varies by many factors in addition to age. Students should not be tested to prove how smart they are.…

    • 1301 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Teachers should not be forced to spend the academic year preparing students to fill in bubbles on standardized tests.” (Barack Obama) The number of standardized tests has escalated in the last decade, which has caused the level of stress of students to rise quickly, standardized testing should not be required in public schools. Why have the number of tests escalated in the last ten years? David Whittemore says, “Each time a law is created regarding education, more tests are added to it.”…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What would education be like without testing? Standardized testing, such as the ACT and SAT, has become the sole way to examine the knowledge and growth potential of a highschool student. There are two different views on standardized testing: it is an accurate representation of knowledge or it is not an effective test of knowledge. The success of students, schools, and teachers are all measured by these tests in some way. Teachers’ success as an educator can be determined from the students’ scores.…

    • 1061 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Standardized Testing Cons

    • 887 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Standardized tests are an easy and efficient way to improve a students progress. While standardized tests can boost student achievement, they have many faults. Students all across the country struggle with the stress and anxiety of testing, when in the end the scores are not that important. Schooling and regular tests are already hard enough for students, making them take crazy amounts of state tests is insane.…

    • 887 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    High Stakes Testing Essay

    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages

    During my freshman history college course, our grades were based upon a midterm test and a final exam test. If a particular student struggled taking an exam, they were more than likely to do poorly in this class. Elementary schools in today’s society are very firm believers that standardized tests represent how successful our schools…

    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Standardized testing has changed the educational environment and the performance and attitude of students towards it. It has not only affected the way students run their lives both in and out of schools but also the way their parents or guardian must react to the educational needs of their children. Schools are not far from the curve and have had to adapt to all the different requirements and rules implemented by standardized test developers as well the state's requirements, as a direct result of the tests themselves. Throughout the years, United States students have performed inadequatly when compared to other countries.…

    • 905 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays