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Standardized Tests

            
             Since the 1920's when "intelligence tests" were introduced through the 1960's when the development of aggregated data on student achievement began standardized testing has played an important role in U.S education. With each expansion the criticism grows about the reliability of the information and its use and misuse ("Testing in Schools", CQResearcher). Standardized tests should not be used for education purposes because they cannot be relied on for accurate information.
             Standardized tests cannot determine what a student is capable of doing, because the differences of race, class and resource for each student are not being considered (Standardized Tests For Children Not Yet! http://users.stargate.net/~cokids/standardtestsNOT.html). Not every student shares the same back round so the outcome of school work and the effort put into it is quite diverse. There are students in classes like ESL who hardly know the language and are involved in classes trying to teach them the basics of the English language and yet they are expected to take a test that even the average American does not understand. It has been said that standardized tests are biased in favor of middle-class students, mainly males in metropolitan areas, this because their parents can afford to send them to upper-class schools where the best educators are there to teach ("Facts on Standardized Tests and Assessment Alternatives" http://homepage.tinet.ie/~seaghan/articles/10.htm). They can also afford to have a private tutor on the side if extra help is needed. The majority of students in the United States unfortunately are not lucky enough to have this offered to them. Therefore, it is not fair to every student to take the test. The odds are against them.
             For the students who are in younger grades, such as kindergarten through fifth grade, it is hard for them to grasp the concept of the standardized test. They do not understand the so-called "importance" of the test.


Essays Related to Standardized Tests

1. The Fall on Education: Standardized Testing

... is being measured by the wrong yardstick, those evaluations are apt to be in error"(Educational Leadership ). The main thing at which standardized tests are effective is rating a school or state against another. When we see how pointless such correlations are, the means by which they ... author Anya Kamenetz wrote a book called The Test. Kamenetz states, " They are making the teachers hate teaching, high stakes standardized tests deprofessionalize teaching because they give outside authority the final say"(20). It is the teacher who went to college to further their education ... truly ...

  • Word Count: 2854
  • Approx Pages: 11
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Standardized Testing

... get inflated while real learning suffers" (Phelps). Performance based assessment guarantees an increased understanding of the growth of individual child. Such understanding reduces the need for currently used standardized tests. Standards for Education and Psychological Testing (American Psychological Association) states the definite standards for assessment by the American Educational Research Association, the American Psychological Association, and the ... the test. Norms show the comparison of the performance of new groups of test takers with the samples of students on whom the test w...

  • Word Count: 1382
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

3. Challenges of Standardized Testing

... like art music and other electives offered. So how do schools fix this? Lower the standards, which then results in teachers, having to make new curriculums. Students have difficulties with standardized tests because while they are great for the students who are proficient at logic, analysis, computation and language, or left-brain thinkers, it has no parts for creativity, arts, visualization, and ... and one student, who finished all but the last subtest, put his head down on the table, and sobbed because he could not finish. said in Standardized Tests: A Teacher's Perspective. Students...

  • Word Count: 1498
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography

4. Why Standardized Testing Doesn't Work

... about are the Earth shattering text messages about this year's prom king and queen, but in reality, students do experience stress. When a teenager's stress the highest? During tests, but more specifically, standardized tests. "A survey by the American psychological association found that nearly half of all teens said school pressures, due to the abundant amount of test preparation, stressed them." ... a student vomits on it. (Cizek) This illustrates how testing produces gripping anxiety in even the brightest students, and makes teens vomit or cry. The stress and anxiety that comes from s...

  • Word Count: 1616
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Standardized Testing and its Social Faults

... the highly esteemed and highly controversial SATs cannot and should not be considered a truthful indicator of a student's academic achievement. It is often stated that statistically females score lower on standardized tests such as the SATs and ACTs. This leads to a disadvantage in being accepted to schools with a minimum SAT requirement and can also lead to a disadvantage in receiving scholarships based ... is over exaggerated. In Christina Hoff Sommers" book The War Against Boys, she closely analyzes published statistics concerning the often stated concept that boys consistently beat ...

  • Word Count: 1787
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

6. Standardized testing: Education's Hidden Evil

... familiar with. It is one on the tip of everyone's tongues, especially beginning in March. For every person somehow involved with this country's educational system, April is synonymous with standardized testing. Standardized tests are used to evaluate student progress, along with which they also evaluate teachers, schools, districts, and so on. Many state boards of education use these results to determine state funding ... know whether they have a fighting chance of getting in or not. The SAT, in addition to showing which students get into which colleges, is also a red flag in showing ho...

  • Word Count: 1406
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography

7. Public Argument on Standardized Testing

... honesty, integrity." Universities have a tunnel vision perception by emphasizing SAT scores, which is an objective learning strategic that does not measure important qualities in a student. By analyzing the context of standardized tests and the emphases that is set on this like SAT and the ACT, it is evident that these types of evaluations are inaccurate, unsuitably adapted, and stressful because of their ... by studying the specific area's of the test. This goal of improvement is only encouraged by the motivation of doing better on the next attempt. "Another complaint against standardiz...

  • Word Count: 855
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

8. The Standardized Testing Craze

... remediation courses in college at the same rates, but this is not the case, according to Ravitch (2011): improved scores on standardized tests do not translate into the kind of proficiency needed even for first-year college courses. Students are still taking remedial college courses in ... large numbers and at staggering costs to states that must shoulder the burden. Standardized tests will continue to decrease the class time spent on history and science and increase the number of skilled test-takers who aren't any ... better at math and reading, despite No Child Behind legislation and...

  • Word Count: 1946
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

9. Why We Give Standardized Tests

... show the quality of education in a school or district. The use of standardized tests to show the quality of education has unfortunately become a problem with increasing concern. The standardized test was not designed to show the quality of education. The tests were designed to compare students across the nation, show growth, and students" strengths ... school and the teacher do not look bad. Some districts are making the teacher's job depend on how well their students do on these standardized tests. That is not a fair way to judge how well a teacher is at his or her job and it is unwarra...

  • Word Count: 1047
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

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