Why Is Standardized Testing And Accountability

This is due to a variety of factors such as examiners' errors, over interpretation of the tests' data, failure to include certain age groups of students, and marketability (Czubaj 1). There are obvious errors in the standardized testing of our students, yet these tests are still used to determine things that are crucial to a student future. These tests can place a student in an advanced class or put them in a class for challenged students. Using these evaluative standards that are inaccurate isn’t fair to our students. A bad test result can ruin a students motive for education, and if this is done unnecessarily, this is a terrible thing.

Critics of the No Child Left Behind Act say that there is immense pressure on school officials, teachers, students, and parents. That pressure to succeed creates a poor environment for learning—an environment of fear, rather than discovery. Such tests reward quick answers to superficial questions. They do not measure the ability to think deeply or creatively in any field. Their use encourages a narrowed curriculum, outdated methods of instruction, and harmful practices such as grade retention and tracking.

First, tests don’t fully measure all important aspects of education, and second, tests only measure small parts of students ' knowledge (Philp Harris). Standardized testing cannot truly measure achievement correctly because there are no specific rules to what achievement really consists of and can only measure small parts of knowledge because of these inaccurate measures of knowledge students begin to feel anxious. There are many studies showing how testing causes high anxiety for students therefore causing a drop in performance when taking tests. Test taking can cause students to experience psychological issues that result in a failing grade on the test. Test anxiety can also affect the students` motivation to learn and because of this I believe the stakes for standardized testing should be

The primary purpose of standardized tests is to evaluate students and show whether or not the standards of the standardized test was met in the school. However, the risks of these tests outweigh the benefits. A standardized test is not the sole test that determines the level of the student’s intelligence. Standardized tests place pressure on teachers to instruct a group of diverse students who are all on different academic levels. When students score poorly on standardized tests, school districts are coerced to lose federal education f... ... middle of paper ... ...ngle test that does not even measure the entirety of a student’s intelligence.

An article by Greg Jouriles helps explain why we don’t need these tests. He claims, “Standardized tests are unnecessary because they rarely show what we don’t already know” (Jouriles, Greg). He also goes on to explain that one’s test score isn’t reliable and that we should trust the teachers when grades are published. A school system can accurately judge the students in the school on what they are good at better than the standardized tests do. They can break down many different aspects of what students need to improve on and what they are already knowledgeable of.

(Ravitch). Standardized test scores might make students lose faith in their goals. When trying to become an expert at specific careers, many skills are required to students that the standardized testing does not provide (Brown). For instance, students do not learn creativity, perspective, and creative thinking on the tests and according to Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel, never learning these skills can impede the success of these students in real life (“Standardized Testing”). Standardized testing lacks skills such as creative thinking, compassion, and perspective (Sternberg).

Instead of getting the students to regurgitate information when it is test day. In conclusion standardized testing is not an accurate measure of a student’s educational success. One reason is because with all the different factors of student’s teachers and situations identical tests cannot correctly measure how much the student is learning. Also the consequences of preparing and teaching for the test causes severe stress and anxiety to some children. The tests also have many flaws, some may be fixed but it would be a high cost.

In addition to Price believing this fact, Kahl also articulates against standardized testing. In his article that analyzes The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Kahl is aware of the fact that ... ... middle of paper ... ...ort and a motivation behind the tests may as well perform better than those who are not. Whatever the reason may be, many people, including Price, Kahl, and Ayers do not support standardized testing. These authors all have one opinion in common; they are all against testing for the sake of the children, because of the pressures kids already endure without the pressures of testing. They all claim that tests may be an unfair way to rank children in the world today due to: teachers not teaching children the right material in preparation for the test, family upbringing, and even worrying the children would affect the test results.

However, a testing error may occur. A testing error is when a student gets an answer correct of information they did not actually know or an answer incorrect, they may have actually known (Gellman, 30)The people who create these tests want straightforward measures. However, test designers do not design these tests to measure what a student can do academically (Fusaro, 1). Large testing companies produce tests and sell them all over the country. This causes the test to be not specialized for the school or county and students do not do as well as they could have if the test was specialized (Popham, 4).three possible ways of testing a student’s knowledge exists: multiple choices, answer in essay form, or they are asked to perform a task and then graded on the performance (Merrow, 5).

Also giving students a reason to cheat because they think if the stakes are high it’s “ok” to cheat on the test. In conclusion, standardized testing shouldn’t be a way to measure students’ knowledge through reasons like standardized tests do not measure student’s leadership, self-awareness, or class participation, or how multiple choice tests are not as effective as they might think. Standardized testing should be measured through student’s leadership, self-awareness.