What's Wrong With Standardized Testing

Evaluating academic performance has long been important at local, state, and national levels. By way of standardized tests, authorities track student progress, using scores and trends to make numerous conclusions and reforms regarding curriculum. Unfortunately, this system contains countless flaws and biases, causing erroneous interpretations and negative consequences for all people involved in the testing program. While standardized tests may occasionally measure a generalized level of knowledge within an acceptable level of accuracy, the flawed exam and the increasing exaggeration of its importance drastically- and negatively- changed how curriculum is taught and learned, causing torment on the sides of both teacher and student. The past was simple. Teachers taught students, who trusted what they …show more content…
Many times, teachers are evaluated based on their students’ performances. In order to optimize efficiency concerning test preparation, instructors narrow the curriculum, focusing primarily, if not exclusively, on topics with a high probability of appearing on the test. Related subject content is discarded so that tested information can be emphasized, and meaningful communication of knowledge is shortchanged (What’s Wrong With Standardized Tests?).
One prominent form of educational compromise lies in mystification of difficult, but necessary topics. Complex content is mystified- that is, given importance for testing, but mentioned vaguely enough so that only the principal facts are noted for the test. This also occurs when teachers know little about the topic, briefly summarizing it to avoid questions that they don’t know the answers to (McNeil 13). Perplexing mathematical processes are given only as formulae, and social sciences often reference large institutions without sufficiently defining their