Standardized Tests are the new normal in schools across the country. These tests are designed to make sure that the student is ready for the next grade and if they should be put into a remedial class. However, these tests are damaging our students early on in their educational career due to high stress, the chance of not getting into an elective
class, and making students feel insignificant when not doing well on them.
A standardized test is a test that schools do to ensure that the student can comprehend the material that they have learned that school year. To be more specific, it’s a “form of test that (1) requires all test takers to answer the same questions, or a selection of questions from common bank of questions, in the same way, and that (2) is scored in a “standard” or consistent manner, which makes it possible to compare the relative performance of individual students or groups of students” (Liberty).
These standardized tests may think that they are a good measure of the students learning ability, but they are not. A study was done to show the long-term improvement from these tests and it found that “…. between 50 percent and 80 percent of the improvement in a school’s average test scores from one year to the next was temporary and was caused by fluctuations that had nothing to do with long-term changes in learning or productivity” (Olson). It may let students see what they may need to improve on, but as for long-term improvement, not much has been said.
They also only measure only a small portion of what makes education have meaning. Education is supposed to be a fun learning experience that is always challenging your mind in many various aspects. However, “According to late education researcher Gerald W. Bracey, PhD, qualities that standardized tests cannot measure “creativity, critical thinking, resilience, motivation, persistence, curiosity, leadership, civic-mindedness, courage, sense of wonder” and so many more (Strauss). The tests only mark the very basic of education.
Tests like these also bring a great deal of stress for students. “According to education researcher Gregory J. Cizek, anecdotes about “illustrating how testing…produces gripping anxiety in even the brightest students, and makes young children vomit or cry, or both” (Ohanian). No young person wants to cry in front of people, or cry because of a test. Because of how much pressure is on the individual to do well on these tests, they face stress much greater than they ever should at that age.
To end, these tests are taken too seriously. If we put our students in that much pressure, they are going to undergo more stress than they shouldn’t even be experiencing that young. The tests are also not an effective way to measure the academic accountability of these students. As well as not measuring many other aspects of education. Many students excel at distinct stages and distinct aspects of their education and a simple multiple-choice test is not an active way to understand how well that student has done.
References
Concepts, Liberty. “Standardized Test Definition.” The Glossary of Education Reform, 12 Nov. 2015, edglossary.org/standardized-test/
Olson, Lynn “Study Questions Reliability of Single-Year Test-Score Gains,” Education Week, May 23, 2001, http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2001/05/23/37brookings.h20.html
Ohanian, Susan “Collateral Vomitage,” www.susanohanian.org, Mar. 14, 2002, https://www.termpaperwarehouse.com/essay-on/Annotated-Bibliography-For-Standardized-Testing/281177
Valerie Strauss, “The Myths of Standardized Testing,” Washington Post, Apr. 15, 2011, https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/the-myths-of-standardized-testing/2011/04/14/AFNxTggD_blog.html
