Why Is Standardized Testing Bad

Imagine being stuck in a bare, silent and chilly room for several hours, nothing but a #2 pencil and a testing booklet to keep you company. This was the reality for many children as, a few days ago, high school students in America sat down to take the PSAT, just one of the many standardized test they will take and have taken throughout their academic careers. A standardized test is a type of test where students are given the same range of questions in similar testing environments in order to judge and compare their scores. Standardized tests are being administered more and more as of late, due to increased funding and acts such as the 2001 No Child Left Behind act which encouraged the use of standardized tests in school. However, there has been much controversy around whether forcing students to take more standardized tests is a good thing, as there is evidence that they are biased, inaccurate, and do the education system more harm than good.
Standardized tests are not a very reliable way to evaluate a student’s intelligence. For instance, studies have shown that standardized tests are biased towards white, middle class students. Low income, black and Hispanic students get significantly lower scores than their middle class, white and Asian counterparts. For example, 70% of …show more content…
Standardized test in general are limited to math and English sections, ignoring other subjects such as Science, Art, History and Languages. Because of this, a student who is exceptionally intelligent in Science but subpar in English will be deemed unintelligent by a standardized test. Additionally, standardized tests only test a students ability to obtain the right answer to a question in a certain amount of time, rather than the process that a student used. Thus, it is clear that standardized tests are not a very trustworthy way to judge a student’s intelligence, because it can be influenced by many