Imagine a world where every person receives a number based on their intelligence. Test scores determine one’s number. High numbers mean the person is intelligent, or they cheat, and low numbers would mean the person is unwise, or suffers from test anxiety. What would your number be? Standardized tests came about in 1845 as a replacement to oral exams— given to prove knowledge in paper form. In 1920 the SAT made its debut as the first voluntary standardized test given to those on track for higher education. Forty years after the SAT, 1960, the federal government started to push for higher test scores to ensure a skilled workforce in America. Fast forward another fifty-six years, 2016, the scores are for knowledge and not achievement. The scores
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Standardized tests do not allow any room for students to express themselves. Line Dalile, an author from Dubai, explains in ““How Schools Are Killing Creativity” that, “Creativity isn’t a test to take, a skill to learn, or a program to develop. Creativity is seeing things in new ways, breaking barriers that stood in front of you for some time. Creativity is the art of hearing a song that has never been written or seeing a work of art on empty canvas.” Standardized tests have a variety of questions. Multiple choice questions give the student a limited number of answers to choose from, short answer questions allow the student to write an answer to the question with certain restraints, finally essay questions allow the student to write a response based on a predetermined topic. None of the questions allow the student to fully express themselves without any boundaries. Kyung- Hee Kim, a professor of creativity at William and Mary’s, conducted a study comparing IQ scores and Torrance Tests of Creativity. She found that, “though America’s IQ scores are on the rise, the country’s scores on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking have been declining since 1990” (qtd. In …show more content…
Valerie Strauss, with the National Education Policy Center, states in her article “The Myths of Standardized Testing”, that, “the outsized emphasis on test scores has driven instruction toward items with one clear, right answer.” As previously stated, teachers will spend additional hours at the schools ensuring their pay isn’t cut. The Central Education Program, enacted by President Obama, put pressure on standardized test scores. School systems—students, principles, and teachers— would suffer if scores did not start to rise (“How and Why Convicted Atlanta Teachers Cheated on Standardized Tests”). Consequently, many teachers started to change the answers on their students’ tests to get that one right answer. Strauss explains in “How and Why Convicted Atlanta Teachers Cheated on Standardized Tests”, about 2013 case that involved Atlanta teachers tried for changing their students’ answers. She writes, “An Atlanta jury convicted 11 teachers of racketeering and other crimes . . . not by students but by teachers and administrators who were under pressure to meet certain score goals at the risk of sanction if they failed.” When the families, of those students, receive their scores, they’re thrilled, however the scores were not accurate. The child did not do as well as the scores said. Cheating, between students, can happen as easily as the teachers committed the
Standardized tests do not allow any room for students to express themselves. Line Dalile, an author from Dubai, explains in ““How Schools Are Killing Creativity” that, “Creativity isn’t a test to take, a skill to learn, or a program to develop. Creativity is seeing things in new ways, breaking barriers that stood in front of you for some time. Creativity is the art of hearing a song that has never been written or seeing a work of art on empty canvas.” Standardized tests have a variety of questions. Multiple choice questions give the student a limited number of answers to choose from, short answer questions allow the student to write an answer to the question with certain restraints, finally essay questions allow the student to write a response based on a predetermined topic. None of the questions allow the student to fully express themselves without any boundaries. Kyung- Hee Kim, a professor of creativity at William and Mary’s, conducted a study comparing IQ scores and Torrance Tests of Creativity. She found that, “though America’s IQ scores are on the rise, the country’s scores on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking have been declining since 1990” (qtd. In …show more content…
Valerie Strauss, with the National Education Policy Center, states in her article “The Myths of Standardized Testing”, that, “the outsized emphasis on test scores has driven instruction toward items with one clear, right answer.” As previously stated, teachers will spend additional hours at the schools ensuring their pay isn’t cut. The Central Education Program, enacted by President Obama, put pressure on standardized test scores. School systems—students, principles, and teachers— would suffer if scores did not start to rise (“How and Why Convicted Atlanta Teachers Cheated on Standardized Tests”). Consequently, many teachers started to change the answers on their students’ tests to get that one right answer. Strauss explains in “How and Why Convicted Atlanta Teachers Cheated on Standardized Tests”, about 2013 case that involved Atlanta teachers tried for changing their students’ answers. She writes, “An Atlanta jury convicted 11 teachers of racketeering and other crimes . . . not by students but by teachers and administrators who were under pressure to meet certain score goals at the risk of sanction if they failed.” When the families, of those students, receive their scores, they’re thrilled, however the scores were not accurate. The child did not do as well as the scores said. Cheating, between students, can happen as easily as the teachers committed the