Severe Disadvantages Of Standardized Testing

Einstein once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” (Goodreads). Knowledge defines what we know and understand. Imaginations are what will discover in the future. Standardized testing was created in the 1920s, by Alfred Binet. Standardized tests are given to students in a consistent matter. This means each student is given the same question, the same amount of time to complete the test, and is also scored on the same scale for everyone. These questions could be true and on multiple questions. However, there is an ongoing argument on whether standardized tests are a valid method to determine a student’s level of knowledge. People who support standardized testing argue that this is a valid way to eliminate bias in grading, and that identifies where a student is struggling the most. While many institutions standardized testing, it is not a reliable measure to determine a student’s performance.

As a college student, I have personally gone through standardized tests. Standardized tests do not measure true progress, as it is a one-time test. According to my research and conducting data. Almost 98% of educators and students firmly believe standardized testing is not a good way to assess their knowledge. Because there are other ways to assess knowledge. Some schools will only, “teach the test” Meaning that no other curriculum is taught, instead the focus is on teaching what will be on the test. This defeats the purpose of getting an education and holds a negative impact instead. Some students are not the best test takers or not best at memorizing facts. However, some students are creative thinkers and hold more imaginative skills. The curriculum should be designed to include all students, not just be based on the test.

Students and often teachers feel a great amount of stress during the period of these tests. Students tend to get caught up in the stress and as a result, begins focusing more on passing rather than learning the concepts. On the other hand, teachers focus on showing that they are “a good teacher”, which bumps up their school ranking. Schools need to focus on the development of the student, not the ranking.

An Article published in USA Today, states that stress is a dangerous side effect caused by standardized testing, and it only leads to low performance (Lewis). This justifies why one-third of a student who passes the test does not think it’s the best way to assess their knowledge; there were only 85% of students who voted it’s not fair and effective. This test is only designed to compare other students with state-level district-level, and federal level.

Along with stress, students tend to experience great amounts of anxiety as well. The purpose of getting an education should be to gain knowledge and life skills. However, the current education system has created so many added issues creating a barrier in their learning. According to an article in the Washington Post institutions have “misused and overused” standardized testing which has “damaged” the education system (Strauss). Many can parents and students can agree with this as it is a constant issue they must deal with before the test. The caused by the test also results in low test performance. This again, defeats the purpose of the test to begin with.

On the other hand, there are people who claim standardized testing is good way to measure the quality of the curriculum. These people argue that the results of standardized testing allow the education system to pinpoint exactly what they need to change. This would be true; however, the fact is that schools use results from these tests to determine whether the student has passed or failed. This then, defeats the purpose of improving the quality of the curriculum.

Standardized testing is a billion-dollar business. The test itself costs about $900 million just to administer. For example, The Texas Education Agency has gained $90 billion dollars from there fiscal revenue which are taxes, fees, and products and basic revenue. Our government should pay less attention of the financial view of the test, rather they should focus on how we can ensure every student success. Tests are a tool to predict a student’s knowledge, not how funding should be spread in schools.

In conclusion, standardized testing is hurting the education system. It is not an accurate measure of a student’s intelligence. Instead, it has only added extra anxiety for students. Standardized testing should be taken out of schools and be replaced with something better. For example, portfolios can be used to evaluate ability and are more reflective of the students. It’s time that we give our children, the proper set of skills to succeed and that cannot be achieved through standardized tests.