Standardized Tests: Do They Really Work for Raising the Rank of the US in World Education?

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The United States has persistently been ranked at the bottom when it comes to education among developed countries. They have tried to come up with strategic ways to change their ranking, like standardized tests. This is an administered test over certain subjects like Math, English, History, and Science, and the form is the same for all test takers. They were not the first country to develop this method; in fact, this method was inspired from other countries that appeared to be doing better than them and still remain ranked at the bottom.

In 2002, President George W. Bush passed the “No Child Left Behind Act” which tied in schools’ public funding to standardized tests and enforced the tests in elementary and high schools every year by state education departments. This law also began to put more emphasize on standardized tests which has diminished our level of education and the law “made standardized test scores the primary measure of school quality” (Diane Ravitch 28). Bush hoped this law motivated more students to do well on these exams and teachers to help them prepare better, but it ended up hurting many schools in the process. These exams like the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) should not play such a prominent role in schooling and the government should not make tests the main focal point.

“More than half of public school students in New York City failed their English exams,” (Medina). There are so many students that are continuously failing these exams and being held back from the next grade level or from graduating high school. These exams are doing more harm than good since students are failing to actually learn information. The students are so worried about passing the exams that they just try to re...

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Kohn, Alfie. What Does It Mean to Be Well Educated? and More Essays on Standards, Grading, and Other Follies. Boston, MA: Beacon, 2004. Print.

Medina, Jennifer. "New Standards Mean More F's In State Testing." The New York Times. The New York Times, 28 July 2010. Web. 19 Apr. 2014

Ravitch, Diane. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education. New York: Basic, 2010. Print

Robinson, Rachel. Personal interview. 26 Apr. 2014.

Sacks, Peter. Standardized Minds: The High Price of America's Testing Culture and What We Can Do to Change It. Cambridge, MA: Perseus, 2000. Print.

Story. "StoryCartoons.com.": Cult of Standardized Testing. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.

"Study Finds Standardized Tests Hurting Students." Chicago Tribune. 16 Oct. 1992. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.

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