How Does Standardized Testing Affect Teachers?

In the past, the goal of education was to develop character traits of a citizen and enable them to make politically sound decisions (Maranto). Education has gone through reforms since then and the most recent includes a substantial amount of standardized testing that has criticism from many stakeholders. Does standardized testing accurately evaluate students and the quality of education they receive? The educational lens doesn’t include the economics of test making corporations, psychological aspects, or the historical course of standardized testing but includes teachers, parents, and students perspectives on whether standardized tests are beneficial for use of evaluating students’ academic standing.
Standardized tests were first used to gather national data of students’ standing but has recently been geared to evaluate the quality of education a student receives. The United States adopted this method after the No Child Left Behind Act that The Bush Administration put in place; it increased the use of testing to collect …show more content…
Because of the importance of standardized tests, curriculum is rearranged to improve the scores students achieve. Klein and her colleagues underwent a voluntary survey of teachers in two school districts that examined the impact standardized tests had on their classroom. Authentic instruction and adapting to the individual need of student’s learning styles was overlooked in order to have in class time to prepare for state and national tests. One teacher responds to the question, how testing influences teaching? “It becomes ingrained in the curriculum, so that all activities can promote testable writing/reading and listening sections of the test (Klein).” Standardized testing detracts individuality of learning and content. Time could be used for in-depth engaging lessons that focus on higher-level thinking instead of multiple