Standardized Testing

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Standardized Testing

Every year thousands upon thousands of children, ages seven and upwards sit down to take their scheduled standardized tests. This generation has been classified as the most tested in history. 'Its progress through childhood and adolescence' has been 'punctuated by targets, key stages, attainment levels, and qualifications' ('Stalin in School' 8). Each year the government devises a new standard and then finds a way to test how each student measures up to this standard. They have come to the conclusion that the easiest way to chart the success of school reform is to follow the results of standardized testing. But rating education strictly by the numbers is the wrong way to measure a process as complex as learning, and teaching kids how to memorize facts and remember dates is an altogether different achievement from teaching them how to make sense out of new ideas and experiences.

This system of testing currently used is based on academic standards. These academic standards are clearly written expectations of what every child should know and be able to do at specific grade levels. They usually only test the core school subjects such as math, science, language arts, and social studies. For example, 'in Wisconsin, the standards were written for English/Language Arts, Math, Social Studies and Science at the 4th, 8th, and 12th grade levels' ('Standards and Assessments Q&A'). These standards are usually written by educators, and parents serving on special committees and sometimes by commercial test makers. However, as you will see these standards do not cover true learning.

True learning involves teaching the students to think logically and form their own conclusions based on facts and inferences, not memorization and regurgitation of facts. These facts would be useless to the students if they were not able to use logic to connect these facts and make educated decisions. Nevertheless, the core school subjects do not include this. According to Brady, ?School subjects are just convenient organizers of information. As all effective teachers know, the real challenge isn't to stuff kids' heads with secondhand information, but to teach them to think, to draw inferences, generate hypotheses, formulate generalizations, explore systemic relationships, make defensible value judgments, and so on.? Education is not about how well a student can me...

... middle of paper ...

...terns, evaluate situations, and make inferences and logical decisions based on facts and observations. And furthermore rating education and a student?s progress strictly through numbers is the wrong way to measure a process as complex and intricate as learning.

Works Cited

Brady, Marion. 'Not-yet-answered questions about standardized testing.' Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service 28 Jan. 2003: K.

Clarke, Kevin. 'Why students are feeling so testy.' U.S. Catholic July 2000: 27.

Gallagher, Tom. 'The Case Against Standardized Testing: Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools.' The Progressive Aug. 2001: 44.

'How Standardized Testing Damages Education.' FairTest: The National Center for Fair and Open Testing.

Moon, Tonya, Catherine Brighton, Carolyn Callahan. ?State standardized testing programs: friend or foe of gifted education? (On Gifted Students in School).' Roeper Review Wntr 2003: 49.

Morse, Jodie. 'To Test and Test Not.' Time 6 Oct. 2000. 27 Mar.2003.

'Stalin in School.' New Statesman 17 June 2002: 8.

'Standards and Assessments Q&A.' Advocates for Education of Whitefish Bay.2002. 27

Mar.2003. < http://www.fairtest.org/arn/wislet.html>.

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