Standardized Testing: a System Focused on Student’s Success, Not Score

All over the world education is looked upon as valuable. But how do you measure educational intake? In schools of all types for K-12 use standardized testing to measure the student's educational ability. Many argue that standardized testing is more harmful than good, while others praise them. In argumentative essay on standardized testing we will reveal whether this kind of testing students is more harmful or beneficial for them. 

Stress

Standardized testing is often looked as a measure of academic success. These tests teaching and learning wise continue to increase doubts among people, the effects it has on students’ physical and mental well-being is troubling. Standardized testing narrows down the curriculum, leads to corruption among teachers and known to ostracize certain demographics. This can cause stress and pressure on students as well as teachers. Theses exams are often time high staked and contributes to stress for many students and there are signs indicating that test related stress has worsened in the years. “Students are spending excessive amounts of time preparing for these tests, creating unnecessary stress and negative attitudes towards schooling. Such stress has been known to cause students to have incidents of vomiting, headaches, sleep problems, depression, issues of attendance, acting out, and anxiety attacks”. These tests are heavily weighted on students’ grade and sometimes gives special opportunities for programs only when tested high enough.

Administration

Students are pressured to memorize and do well on these tests by administration and parental figures. “When standardized testing is heavily emphasized in schools, children are taught in a way that meets the demands of the test rather than a way that meets the needs of the children”. This way of learning can lessen the students’ creativity, overlook their full understanding of the subject or course and doesn’t really teach them deep thinking logic. “Teachers are often judged professionally by their students’ scores on standardized tests. This means that their jobs are sometimes on the lines when it comes to standardized testing”. Teachers are often pressured by administration for their students to test well which causes them to transfer their stress onto the students’. In the early 2000s, 11 Atlanta educators were convicted for altering student test scores. “For many, justice was served when the educators were convicted on charges of racketeering for their role in the high-profile conspiracy to inflate the scores on their students’ standardized tests. The group was presumably motivated by ever increasing pressure from policymakers to fulfill federal and local performance expectations.” Good scoring on testing can lead to raises or promotions for teachers which leads teachers to ‘teach to the test’ not allowing the students’ to get the fullest educational process that they could get. Standardized testing limits the curriculum that could be taught.

Demographics

All students are not the same, because of this there can’t be a test made for all because of certain demographics they may interpret the test differently than others. With race, language, and the social class of a student based on their financial background impacts students’ standardized testing. “A study on a group of elementary students from low socioeconomic status were about one year behind on letters, sounds, and names on testing”. When students are learning the language and have economic issues, they need more help than others to succeed and do well on testing and in the classroom. Many parents want to help their children, but some do not know how. “Studies and test scores show that students do markedly better in middle class, for perhaps self-evident reasons: better teachers, more college prep courses, and peers who believe from an early age they are destined for college”. While parents of higher income mostly can afford private tutors and buy materials like books and school supplies, while those in lower financial levels cannot. Those people who are impoverished are more prone to dealing with social issues like “Dropouts, single parent homes, multiple siblings, fewer children’s books, abuse, teen mothers, and post-natal depression, which are associated with a gap in test scores”. Many students are affected by these factors physically and mentally. “…Teachers and schools are facilitating the idea and widening the achievement gap by treating students from lower socioeconomic back rounds different, demanding less from them, although they are capable of more”. In the United States over thirty percent of the lowest income students are in the lowest percentile on standardized testing.

The Good

There are beneficial effects of standardized testing. They are useful for yearly progress for improved or declining performance. “Standardized test scores are useful because they come from a neutral source and give us data that we can compare to other independent schools across the United States and with other international schools across the globe”. These tests for the most part come from the same source with the same formatting to more accurately assets the students in their educational process. “But also, as a means to help us reflect on our curriculum. We can compare our students to their peers at other schools to determine what we’re doing well within our educational system and where we need to invest more time and resources”. Oftentimes administration uses the test results to put more emphasis on certain subjects, the curriculum as a whole, or to fund special programs to improve them.

Other Countries

Standardized tests can be challenging. They vary widely from country to country, even city to city. “In Finland, it’s not required for their students to take multiple standardized tests. However, it does have one big test that’s important to them in order to graduate high school called the National Matriculation Examination. There is no homework, and they have shorter school days. All schools follow a national curriculum. Students and teachers spend less time in schools in comparison to their American counterparts”. Finland is ranked highly among other countries when it comes to testing. Like Finland, China gives one test that holds a lot of significance. The test is a college entrance exam for seniors in high school. “It’s 12 hours long, multiple choice and is taken over two days. Students are given their grades, which determines what college they will get into and even their earnings potential”. Students who score highly are praised publicly. “In Japan, standardized tests mean a lot too. One of the first big standardized tests middle school students have to take, that will determine if they even get into high school”. This test is so high stakes that many parents begin prepping their kids in kindergarten. India has a standardized high school completion exam called national boards which are sent to colleges and universities. But in addition to these tests, students must also take separate college entrance exams. “The score of the child has become a status symbol, Jaya Samaddar, a mother in India, told The New York Times. ‘If we go to a party these days, everybody asks me, ‘How is your child doing?’ No one asks about my health. The question is, ‘What is your child’s academic status?” Test scores have social implications in India furthermore pressuring students to do well on them. In the United States, students take at least one test a year. “Standardized testing varies across different US states, but 41 US states currently follow the Common Core educational standards. In 2015, the average student had taken 112 standardized tests by the time they left high school, according to the Washington Post”. Standardized testing in the US has faced criticism, it judges all students the same despite income levels, learning disabilities, or simply how they learn and that students in the US are tested at too high

Conclusion

In conclusion, standardized testing causes more harm than useful to students and teachers. They need to be examined and reformed to be about the students and their improvement, not their test scores. Therefore, it is a system focused on student’s success, not score, and all students can benefit.