Summary: The Myths Of Standardized Testing

A 10th grade student sits in his desk nervously tapping his foot. His pencil glides across the paper as he final gives up and blindly filled in the letter bubble marked C. He is in hour two of a four hour long test. However you might be surprised that he is not directly affected by how he scores on the test. So why is he talking the test? His teachers and school administrators both pray that he and his classmates do well. Higher scores could mean more funding and an increase in attendance. They need this test! But why would he care, this is the third standardized test that he has taken this year. Why are standardized testing needed for schools? According to "Estimating the cost and Benefits of Educational Testing programs" by Dr.Richard Phelps standardized tests are needed because they are the …show more content…
Standardized tests are only able to measure a few of the many important aspects of what is a meaningful and worthwhile education. In the article "The Myths of Standardized Testing,”by Valerie Strauss,the book The Myths of Standardized Tests: Why They Don’t Tell You What You Think They Do is summerized into a short consensus that standerized testing is not good enough to meat the stander set by the no child left behind laws. "Creativity, critical thinking, resilience, motivation, persistence, curiosity, endurance, reliability, enthusiasm, empathy, self-awareness, self-discipline, leadership, civic-mindedness, courage, compassion, resourcefulness, sense of beauty, sense of wonder, honesty, integrity,"(Strauss) are only some of the things that a standardized test fail to examine. If these tests are only testing one part of the education system then why are they being used to see the progress of a student? Maybe instead of coming up with more and more tests that all measure the same thing, maybe test makers should find a different way to measure other parts that are important to