Imagine… You are sitting at a desk, just coming back to reality from a nice day dream about the beach, when the instructor informs you that you may begin. It takes a second for you to focus in and realize why you have been sitting in the same hard seat staring at the same egg shell colored walls when all of a sudden you realize you should actually start your work. Ahhh yes, standardized testing.
Whether you are thinking of a state-wide test you had to take or the SATs, we all got in to school because we participated in standardized testing. Now that we are in college, this does not really effect us all that much, but it is still a controversy in schools across the nation.
Standardized testing is obviously beneficial in some ways or tests like these would no longer be utilized. The School and Child Care Search Services at Columbia University listed that first and foremost, testing like this keeps schools responsible and accountable. I definitely agree with this. If there is a standard that schools must meet, teachers will strive to keep on track with the curriculum and meet these set standards. Knowing that their students have to take these tests, and if they do not do well it falls back on the teacher, it sets up a designated timeline and standard structure for material to teach.
Another good side to standardize testing is that it makes comparison amongst students easy. I think it is important to focus on personal improvement, but sometimes it is necessary to know where one falls in comparison to others. This was especially important for me in high school because I wanted to know what type of schools I could reasonably apply to attend for college. I think this is something parents are certainly interested in as well, especially when their children are younger. Parents should have an easy way to see if their child is falling behind compared to others or greatly exceeding expectations and standardized testing provides this.
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Just as there are positives to testing on a grand scale, there are negatives as well. Critics of standardized testing and an article from procon.org state that tests force educators to “teach to the test”. There is so much more to learning than what is on a standardized tests, but teachers may end up focusing on the small fraction of things that are tested on an exam. This could also cause classrooms to compromise time that would otherwise be spent learning other topics that should be covered in a class.
These tests can also cause unnecessary stress on students. If they know there is a high expectation to perform a certain way on these exams, young kids could end up stressing out over these tests.
A long used argument is also that testing is only a measurement of how a student performs on one day. In professional sport playoffs, like hockey, teams play 7 game series. If a team has a bad game, they are not judged solely on that day’s performance, so why should we judge a student’s proficiency on one single day. Some students may have all the knowledge they need to perform well on a test, but they may just not be a good test taker. It’s hard to say that how a student does on a test is a perfect representation of their abilities and how their teacher is doing.
There are definitely different ways to track student progress and teaching performance.
Photo Credit: Center for Teaching Quality
Some may say there are better ways, but it does not seem like standardized testing will go away anytime soon. I agree that testing is not a perfect system. I know really smart people that do not test to their full potential. I also think a teacher should not solely be judged on how his or her students succeed on a test. At the same time, I think that testing is overall good, as it allows schools to get a general idea on overall school success, and it gives people the ability to compare talent with others. Especially for parents, I think it is necessary to know how a student is falling amongst his or her peers and others around the same age. Knowing that your child is falling behind would allow you to give them the extra help they need to stay on track, or in the case that your child is going above and beyond, you could look in to enrichment opportunities for their education.
Standardized testing should not be stopped completely, but I do think that it should not be the definitive answer for any questions. Just as colleges do not only ask for your SAT scores, but want transcripts, recommendations, and essays, schools should look at standardized test scores in addition to other things. Although no one really thinks they are enjoyable, they are definitely a beneficial component of education.
Personally, I’m not a huge fan of the concept of standardized testing. In 11th grade, I did a research project on the SAT/ACT and found that they do not predict future success. Instead, these scores tend to reflect the socioeconomic status of the test takers because not everyone has the ability to access the same resources to study, which then reflects poorly in their scores. That being said, I do not mind standardizing testing in high schools. I feel that AP testing and similar standardized tests help to keep the teachers on track and forces them to teach the most important information in a limited time period. Even if they are “teaching to the test”, they’re still teaching valuable and useful information to students.
I feel that this blog post is very relevant to discuss, especially to a group of people of our age. The past three years have been so centered on standardized testing, and for that reason especially, I can definitely understand all of the pros and cons you mention here. I feel that standardized testing should not be the calculator of your knowledge, especially when it comes to picking between which colleges you should be able to attend. SAT’s takes months of preparation before you put what you learned to the test. Meanwhile, your GPA is a score that you have been working towards for four years with classes and exams based on the subjects that are more catered to your knowledge and interests. I feel that standardized tests in general should not be held at the level of importance that it is held at now. It definitely is important to use those tests to keep students and teachers in line with curriculums, but when it is time to make a decision about your future such as where you go to college, admissions advisors should also take GPA’s and overall high school grades into greater consideration.
To some students (like me) the word “standardized tests” strikes a cord. When I was in high school, I struggled with the SATS and ACTS. I took both of them more than twice and suffered through countless hours of private tutoring to end up with minimal improvements of my scores. This process continued on until the spring of my senior year. While the testing process was nothing short of frustrating, I did end up at a school I love. Deciding whether to keep or eliminate test scores from the admission process is a controversial decision. Personally, I think they should be eliminated completely. In my opinion, a 4 hour test does not come nearly close to displaying what you’ve learned over the course of the 4 years during high school. A better reflection of this is shown in the GPA and other things. Overall though, this post does a great job factually discussing these tests.