Problems With Standardized Testing In The United States

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.” Although some people believe standardized testing is a way to measure a student’s intelligence it often causes problems for both students and teachers.
Some may consider standardized testing to …show more content…
Students dread going back to school because of all the testing they have to prepare for. Learning grammar rules and formulas tend to get old after the first couple years they are taught. Students get stressed out from teachers cramming the content into their brains; which is not a healthy way to learn. Cramming information into minds of students only causes test anxiety for them when it 's time for them to test. Test anxiety only causes students to perform badly and makes them forget some of the content they learned. "Standardized testing evaluates a student 's performance on one particular day and does not take into account external factors" (University of Columbia, 2013). Teacher are stressed out due to the fact that they are given what they are supposed to teach and don’t really know how to teach it. Every year teachers format their material to fit what they have seen on previous tests. Testing doesn’t take part in a student’s future and won’t be significant in their real-world jobs. "Standardized testing causes many teachers to only teach to the test. This practice can hinder a student 's overall learning potential" (University of Columbia, 2013). Teachers spend all their time trying to find ways to teach their lessons so students will understand but in the end they come up with …show more content…
Testing has caused a great narrow in curriculum. Teachers have to organize their curriculum to fit the needs of the test. “The pressure of performing well on these tests causes teachers to structure their curriculum according to the test rather than helping students gain real-world knowledge that will help them succeed in life” (Hicks 2005). Instead of learning how to take a test, students should be learning important life skills. In the different subjects, students should be taught finances; in Math, politics; in History, communication; in English, healthcare; in Science, etc. Learning life skills will teach students to be more self-relying rather than always depending on others. Classes that teach these life skills will be more beneficial to students in their future rather than learning to take a test. We should be focusing more on all the subjects rather than on the two most prioritized subjects such as math and reading. Math and reading scores are usually the only two scores that colleges look at when looking over the test you took. “Standardized tests discourage creativity, innovation, problem-solving, and high level thinking skills” (). Students lack creativity and imagination because testing only allows them to be taught certain content and no “thinking outside the box.” Students also don’t know how to solve their own problems anymore because they aren’t