Bridgett HUTCHINSON

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Standardized Testing: What Is It Doing to the Education American?
Bridgett Hutchinson
North Carolina Wesleyan College
April 28, 2014
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What are standardized test? "Any test that's administered, scored, and interpreted in a
standard, predetermined manner." (American Educational Research Association) The tests often
have multiple-choice questions that can be quickly graded by automated test scoring machines.
Some tests also have open-ended questions that require human grading, which is more
expensive, but computer software is being developed to grade written work also. I will reflect
on three areas concerning standardized testing. First: The Pro & Con of standardized test.
Second: Are we pushed academically to the extent that children feel too much stress and pressure
at a young age, due to standardized tests? Third: Are standardized tests improving or damaging
the education in the United States, and what other alternatives do we have to assess students
achievements.
Many people have different opinion, and questions about the subject. Proponents say
standardized tests are a fair and objective measure of student achievement, which they ensure
teachers and schools are accountable to taxpayers, and that the most relevant constituents
parents and students approve of testing. Opponents say the tests are neither fair nor objective,
that their use promotes a narrow curriculum and drill-like "teaching to the test," and that
excessive testing undermines America's ability to produce innovators and critical thinkers.





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PRO
1. 93% of studies on student testing,
including the use of large-scale and high-
stakes standardized tests, found a
"positive effect" on student achievement.
According to a peer-reviewed, 100-year
analysis of testing research completed in
2011 by testing scholar (Richard P.
Phelps).
2. Standardized tests are reliable and
objective measures of student
achievement. Without them, states would
have to rely on tests scored by individual
schools and teachers who have a vested
interest in producing favorable results.
Multiple choice tests, in particular, are
graded by machine and therefore are not
subject to human subjectivity or bias.
3. Standardized tests provide a lot of
useful information at low cost, and
consume little class time. Standardized
tests cost less than 0.1% of K-12
education spending, totaling $5.81 per
student per year. Hoxby, C.M. PhD, and
Bommer, D. Professor in Economics at
Stanford University,
4. Teacher-graded assessments are
inadequate alternatives to standardized
tests because they are subjectively scored
and unreliable









CON
1. Standardized testing has not improved
student achievement. (NCLB) Despite
using them for several decades,
policymakers and educators do not yet
know how to use test-based incentives to
consistently generate positive effects on
achievement and to improve education.
2. Standardized tests are not objective. In
the Fall 2002 edition of the peer-reviewed
Journal of Human Resources stated that
scores vary due to subjective decisions
made during test design and
administration: "Simply changing the
relative weight of algebra and geometry
in NAEP (the National Assessment of
Educational Progress) altered the gap
between black and white students."
3. Standardized testing causes severe
stress in younger students. Gregory J.
Cizek, an education researcher
"illustrating how testing... produces
gripping anxiety in even the brightest
students, and makes young children vomit
or cry, or both."
4. The multiple-choice used on
standardized tests is an inadequate
assessment tool. It encourages a simplistic
way of thinking in which there are only right
and wrong answers, which doesn't apply in
real-world situations.




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Are our children pushed to the point of stress?
Standardized tests have been a part of American education since the mid-1800s. In January 2002
when President Bush sign No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), these test has been mandatory in
all 50 states. NCLB requires all public schools in the US receiving federal funding to administer
a state wide standardized test annually to all students. All students will take the same test under
the same conditions. After NCLB the US students slipped from 18th in the world in math in
2000 to 31st place in 2009, with a similar decline in science and no change in reading.
(Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Failures in the education system have
been blamed on rising poverty levels, teacher quality, tenure policies, and increasingly on the
pervasive use of standardized tests. Basically, it goes back to nature and nurture with NCLB. If
we lived in an imaginary, utopian world no child would be left behind, but that is not reality. No
one person is born with the exact same interest or level of intelligence and does not learn at the
same rate as someone or process taught material in the same manner. Some students learn better
when given visuals. Others may learn better through hearing or performing hands-on task, and
some students require all three learning styles in order for learning to take place. Also, depending
on how a child is nurtured or pushed academically may make him or her feel stress. I strongly
agree with "a better strategy is to provide an environment in which learning is encouraged but
not pushed."(Elkind Much too ear 2011)
The United States is trying to compare our children with the children in other countries like
China and Asia. These other countries put a strong emphasis on math and science, where the
children in the US are being taught common core. We may ask why, are the US children testing
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lower then children in other countries, and there are number of reasons. We can start as early as
preschool. The first reason being that United States decision on education in the preschool is
made by the state or local school district. Second is the US has no tradition of preschool, unlike
some other countries with preschool children have been involved in formal program for decades.
Third the status of preschool in the US has been very low. (Feldman, 2014, p. 233)
Different countries have different opinions about early learning. Many countries have a national
policy on preschool education, yet the United States does not.
Over the past years, schools in the U.S. have become so focused on test scores that students dont
worry about learning. Instead, they worry and feel pressure about the grades they will get.
According to former elementary teacher Joan Sykes, she says that academic pressure and stress
can be seen as early as third grade. In North Carolina, the first end-of-grade (EOG) test is given
in third grade. By middle school, students realize academic success is determined by your grades
and test scores. There is even more pressure in high school when preparing for the SATs.
Students that are applying to colleges feel the need to rank high in their class and score
extremely well on standardized test. But the key word there is standard. What makes it standard?
Who are we comparing the standard to? Which brings me to me next, final point?
Who is often hurt by these standardized tests?
All students are entitled to the same opportunity in the classroom, but it is very clear that certain
groups have more educational advantages than others. One of the most indicators of this reality is
the relationship between educational achievement and socioeconomic status (SES). Middle- and
high-SES students, on average, have higher grades, score higher on standardized tests of
achievement, and complete more years of schooling than students lower-SES homes. Students
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from low-income and minority-group backgrounds are hurt in most from these tests, because,
children living in poverty lack many of the advantages, and resource that other children have.
Their nutrition and health may be less adequate. These children may live in crowded conditions
and attending inadequate schools, some homes may lacking the books and computers. As they
grow older, their school performance may continue to fall behind. There is also an achievement
differences between ethnic and racial groups in US education. Because a higher proportion of
African American and Hispanic families live in poverty than the proportion of whites, their
economic disadvantage may be reflected in their school performance. Study shows African
American and Hispanic students tend to perform at lower levels, receive lower grades, and score
lower on standardized tests of achievement than Caucasian students. In contrast, Asian American
students tend to receive higher grades than Caucasian students (Feldman, 2014, p. 367). Another
factor in the differential success of various ethnic and racial group members has to do with
attributions for academic success.
If we do not use standardized tests, how will we know how students and programs are doing?
Standardized tests can be one part of a comprehensive assessment system. However, they offer
just a small piece of the pie. Better methods of evaluating student needs and progress already
exist. Careful observation and documentation of student work and behaviors by trained teachers
is more helpful than a one-time test. Assessment based on student performance on real learning
tasks is more useful and accurate for measuring achievement, and provides more information for
teaching, than multiple-choice achievement tests.


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References
American Educational Research Association (2009). American Psychological Association, and
the National Council on Measurement in Education Retrieved from:
http://www.aera.net/EducationResearch/tabid/10065/Default.aspx
Center for American Progress Herman, J, S Post, and S. OHalloran The United States Is Far
Behind Other Countries on Pre-K. (2013). Retrieved from:
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education/report/2013/05/02/62054/the-united-states-is-
far-behind-other-countries-on-pre-k
Feldman, R. S., PhD. (2014). Development across the life span (7
th
ed.)
General Education Journals. Liston, D, J Whitcomb, and H Borko, Journal of Teacher
Education. (2013)
http://www.questia.com/library/p4495/journal-of-teacher-education
Chartock , R.K. Educational Foundations An Anthology( 2nd ed.)
Much Too Early Elkind, D. Education Next. (2011). Retrieved from:
http://educationnext.org/much-too-early
Slavin, R.E. Educational Psychology Theory and Practice (10th ed.)