Unreliability of Standardized Testing in Education

People assume that standardized tests are a good way to compare performance levels of various students from different schools and locations. Without standardized exams, this would not be possible. What supporters do not know is that standardized tests are an unreliable way of measuring the success of a student. “Proponents of traditional intelligence testing argue that it is still the most accurate and useful way to measure human mental ability...advocates say...that such testing is scientifically valid and can aid research efforts in fields such as education and psychology.” (“Intelligence Testing” pg.2).This quote shows that some people believe standardized tests are a good way to measure a students mental abilities. While standardized tests

Lyndsey Layton has been covering nation education since 2011, she has written on many different topics in education, and has been employed by the Washington Post since 1998. In her article about standardized testing she states, “...students should be judged by multiple measures, including student work, written teacher observations and grades. And they overwhelmingly think teacher quality is the best way to improve education, followed by high academic standards and effective principals.” (Layton pg.1). This quote shows that standardized tests only judge certain measures of a student's intelligence. Students should be graded in multiple areas not just how well they can answer multiple choice problems. Standardized tests only grade students on one way of thinking and discourage creative, out of the box thinking. Kira Zalan is an editor for the U.S. News Weekly, she first appeared in September of 2011, and has been writing since. Zalan states, “...there are multiple paths to the same outcome and that engagement is an extremely important aspect of the equation.”(Zalan pg.1). Standardized tests only allow for one path of thinking. There can be multiple different ways to find an answer, but if students do not answer the “correct” way they will be graded as wrong. Because these tests are graded by machines and not people, the participants answers

Many times after taking a standardized test, neither the teacher or student are able to see the test to determine what questions the examinee got correct or incorrect. Because of this, teachers and students do not know what areas need more more practice. Each year money is wasted on standardized tests that could be put towards more useful things to help excell a student in their education. Andrew Ujifusa is a reporter for Education Week. He covers education policy at the federal and state levels and writes for the Politics K-12 blog. He states, “The report...calculates that the test spending by 44 states and the District of Columbia amounted to $65 per student on average in grades 3-9 based on the most recent test-cost data the researchers could gather.” (Ujifusa pg.1). Each year schools around America are wasting money on standardized tests for no reason. The money spent on standardized testing should be used for more pressing education matters, not wasted away on a single test for each student. Standardized tests cost schools about a quarter of 1 percent the total k-12 spending, or $1.7 billion annually. (Ujifusa pg.1). Schools are spending an unnecessary amount of money on standardized tests, often times these tests can be scored inaccurately. There is no point in wasting money on standardized