Standardized Testing In Schools

Testing and Assessment Education is becoming more and more prevalent. The focus on teachers being accountable for the material that they teach to their students has increased dramatically. Teachers, each and every year are having more and more pressure on them in regards to their students retention of information. The national standard is that each individual child learns the same information and has learned the same information for that level. With thousands of teachers in the United States, with different curriculums and different teaching styles it’s almost impossible to determine if all student are receiving the same quality education and getting to where they need to be. However, standardized and high stakes tests such as the ACT and …show more content…
Standardized tests are deemed to be extremely reliable. Without these generalized tests, officials for each state would have to utilize individual scores from each school district and somehow compare these benchmarks to other districts. There is no way to determine if these tests are all equal and covering the material needed to be covered. So standardized testing has done just that, created a universal benchmark. For example, the MAP test is given to elementary age students each year. The test is the same for each student in that grade level and analyzes where the student is compared to where they should be (Standardized Tests). The ACT and SAT do the same for high school students. These tests are a general overview of what the student should have learned by Junior year in high school. This test offers a broader analysis, as the test is administered across the country, not just one state. These tests carry extremely high stakes, and can determine where a student is eligible to go to school following high school. Many prestigious colleges and universities utilize standardized test scores heavily. This is problematic. Many students who are straight “A” students and have very high GPA’s do not score as high as expected on these high stakes tests simply because they are not very good test takers. These tests are designed to test the students retention but also the teachers teaching, …show more content…
Culture, race and family income affect the accountability approaches for these high stakes tests. School districts in poorer cities and areas, at times, do not have adequate materials to be able to conduct the exact same teaching as private schools and schools in higher class areas. The teachers in these areas are expected to teach the same material, to the same standards as institutions with more materials and resources, without all of those resources. These tests also gear to analyze students wholistically, but this is not possible. More privileged students, are able to take preparatory classes, and are disposed to use many great sources. Some students whose families are in a lower income bracket do not have the monetary funds in order to sign up for preparatory classes, and buy materials that will help them get ahead. This creates a gap between the higher income families and the lower income