Sydney Snyder

Professor Barnes

English Comp 1201

22 March 2019

The truth about Standardized Testing

Standardized testing has just become another thing about school that is dreaded

by both teachers and students. The test that began so simple has increased in

importance over the years and have raised the stakes for everyone involved. When it

comes to these test there are no positive outcomes, the tests don’t show the students

true abilities, it causes high-stress levels, teachers end up teaching to the test, we don’t

focus on real learning, and it causes students to only focus on the 4 core classes.

These tests have so many negative outcomes that there is no good reason to continue

to use them. This is a test that we have used for centuries and as the times have

changed we need to change what we do. In the words of the man who invented these

test “These tests are too crude to be used, and should be abandoned.”

These tests have been used throughout history to compare students to one

another and how to measure how well they know the curriculum they have been taught

through the year of schooling they have been through. Unfortunately, these tests have

also been used as a way to make huge decisions about students futures, such as being

able to graduate and which colleges they can get accepted to. The tests require

students
 Snyder 2

to remember information for that one semester and if they can’t then they are forced to

retake the class. The bad thing is that one bad tests can throw a whole semester of

studying and working hard away. How is it right for a student to work so hard for months

but then with one test they lose all the progress and hard work they put in? This is why it

is unfair to judge students based off of one tests instead of from a whole semester of

work. All it takes is for a student to have a bad day, bad educational background, or to

just be bad at taking tests and all of the progress they made is for nothing. We don’t

judge our employees for the one day that they do a good job if they normally do awful,

so why do we judge our youth on how they do on tests one day vs how they do for a few

months?

Standardized testing may not seem that stressful but for teenagers, it means

everything to them to get a good score. Teenagers have been told since day one that to

get into college they must do good on these test and when these tests come around

everyone has their future sitting heavily on their mind. The American Psychological

Association did a survey in 2014 on teens, ages 13-17, and out of these teens 83% of

them said that school was a source of stress for them, 69% said that “getting into a

good college or deciding what to do after high school” (APA, 2014). These kinds of

studies have shown that students have an enormous amount of stress that not only

comes from school but from standardized testing being held to such a high standard. By

getting rid of
 Snyder 3

this level of stress we would be able to watch teenage mental health improve and even

see better interactions between our youth.

Being a teenager is already hard, you are trying to figure out who you are and

what you want to be, so why are we adding so much stress onto them? There have

been many studies done to show how stress can affect students and in 2013 the

American Psychological Association did a study on our youths stress. In this study, they

found that 32% of students experience headaches due to stress, 26% end up having

changes in their sleeping habits, 21% get an upset stomach or indigestion, and 23%

end up skipping meals due to stress (APA 10). Stress on our students doesn't just make

them worry, it causes them to have actual changes to their body. This leaves negative

effects on our youth for so many years instead of helping them grow and become the

people they are destined to be.

Teachers even have negative effects from these tests because these tests are

used as a way to grade the teachers. When teachers are graded off standardized tests

they want their students to do their best on it no matter what. Teachers will do reviews

for weeks leading up to the test to make sure their students know all the material but

still, the test scores aren’t accurate. Since these test in no way affect the students they

don’t take it seriously, they will get the test done as fast as they can so that they can

enjoy the rest of their bell doing nothing. Teachers have even started making their

students retake
 Snyder 4

the test if they don’t get a certain score to ensure that they get good evaluations. This

has been made into such a big problem that teachers have even gone on strike to try

and get rid of these tests. Teachers in Seattle went on strike about these unfair tests

after 60,000 families opted their children out of taking them during one school year. And

based on these kinds of events it proves that at the end of the day, these tests cannot

give accurate information and therefore have no real purpose in being used to judge

how well teachers are doing in their classrooms. So how is it we still use these test as if

they give accurate readings for how well out teachers are doing.

When students take these tests to show the knowledge that their teachers have

given them they don’t get any gradings off of it. So why would students who are already

stressed and worried about so many other things take the time to do good on something

when they aren’t affected by it? The answer is that there is no reason for them too. I

have personally seen teachers make their students retake these tests because they

didn’t get a high enough score or seen teachers spend their own money on snacks and

small rewards so that their students will actually take the test and even after all those

things students can still not do their best. On top of that students will do worse on the

tests when it is a teacher they hate vs a teacher they do, they do this with the hopes

that by getting bad scores for their teachers it will cause them to lose their job. These

are just a few reasons why this is such an unfair way for the school system to rate their

teachers.
 Snyder 5

Since the school system puts such high stakes on standardized testing it forces

teachers to rush the students into learning certain topics. Teachers are forced to make

sure that they have time to cover all the information on the test so they will have to rush

through the small subjects to make sure that the students can learn the big topics that

will be covered on the test. Students will struggle to learn the basics because they will

be rushed into learning the higher levels, this is why teachers teach to the test instead

of actually teaching their students the topics that they need to know and make sure that

they fully understand them. This makes it harder for students to continue to get good in

a subject because they don’t fully understand the basics, this is why it is so important to

make sure teachers can take the time to teach out youth correctly. Schools these days

only focus and push students in the 4 core classes but what these classes will never

teach them is how to mortgage their house, how to invest their money, or how to do

taxes. Those types of skills are the things that our children need to learn but instead,

they learn about Pythagorean theorem and photosynthesis because that is what they

will be tested over.

Standardized testing has been around for so long that people look at it as normal

when in reality nothing good comes from it. These tests and the way the school system

runs hasn’t changed in so many years it has become almost like a tradition to people.

People always say “if it isn’t broke, then don't fix it” but this has now become an excuse

for people to stop trying to better the way things run and it shows so evidently in our

Snyder 6
school systems when it comes to standardized testing. Just because it hasn’t broken

doesn't mean that it is working correctly for these future generations. We need to

change the way we think and do these tests before it ends up hurting our future

generations and our future leaders. We need creative thinking to come back and

problem-solving not just people who follow every rule they are given just because

someone older has said it. It is time to give our youth their own voice and give them the

opportunity to change the way we see things.

Teachers are being forced to teach kids how to take a test instead of actually

teaching their students to learn how to think for themselves. Since these tests are held

to such high standards students will study and memorize the information they need to

know instead of actually learning about the information. The fact that all it takes to get a

good score is to memorize answers shows that these tests don’t even show everything

that our students have even learned. This ends up resulting in tests scores that just

show how good students can memorize their notes instead of actually obtaining the

information. There is a new Common Core Standard that “could move the nation away

from rote memorization and towards a writing-intensive system that gives students the

reasoning skills they need in the new economy” (Naureckas 6). We need to focus on

making sure that students are obtaining information instead of just reciting it, when they

don’t actually learn the material then they will never be able to apply it to their lives.

Snyder 7
 These tests are built for one kind of mind, the kind of mind that can recite facts

back quickly. So what happens to students who need a few moments to figure out an

answer? Well, they don’t have enough time to finish the test. The demand to produce

answers quickly can give students a disadvantage who need more time to think about a

concept from many different perspectives before they can give the proper response.

The test isn't built for everyone and it tries to shape the mind of our youth into the same

mind which is the last thing we want to do to our children and to this country.

When it comes to our school systems everybody wants their kid to get the

education that they will need to be able to survive in the real world, that is why we must

fight for our kids to be given every chance for them to succeed, whether it is in English

or theatre. Standardized testing focuses in on just the four core classes in high school, it

leaves out every art class or music class. This forces the students to have to put aside

their creativity, their youth, and their adventurous thinking so that they can get good

grades and learn every form of science and all of our country's history. Since history is

one of the core classes I thought we would know that the reason we learn our past is so

we can make a better future, but how can we do that when we are taking away the new

generations way of thinking? As psychologist Peter Gray says “If we love our children

and want them to thrive, we must allow them more time and opportunity to play, not

less. Yet policymakers and powerful philanthropist are continuing to push us in the

opposite direction- toward more schooling, more testing, more adult direction of

children, and less

Snyder 8
opportunity for free play.”. We need to start focusing on raising our youth to change the

future and all the problems in it rather than teach them how to think the same way and

follow every direction. For our future to change we have to change how we raise our

future leaders.

Standardized testing has outlived its need in our school system and it is time for

a new and improved system to be put into place. These tests may have been effective

decades ago but as the times change it is time for us to do away with these tests so that

we can better prepare our future generations. These tests don’t help teach our youth but

instead just shapes the mind of our youth into the same thing instead of letting them

grow and be creative. Getting rid of these tests won’t be easy but with all the negative

effects we have to try and change things for the sake of our youth. As Welby Ings said,

“Don’t give up belief, because it’s the only through belief that you can change things.”.

(Gillmore)
Work Cited:

American Psychological Association, “Stress in America. Are Teens Adopting Adults

Stress Habits?”, February 11, 2014,

https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2013/stress-report.pdf

Bhattacharyya, Sumita, Junot, Mary, Clark, Hillary, “Can You Hear Us? Voices

Raised against Standardized Testing by Novice Teachers”, 2013. Vol.4, No.10,

October 2013, https://file.scirp.org/pdf/CE_2013100710574825.pdf

Gillmore, Megan, “The Problem with Standardized Testing” , Techmag.com,

2018, http://teachmag.com/archives/9990
Hagopian, Jesse. “They’re Robbing Kids of Critical Thinking”, 18 September

2015, https://fair.org/home/theyre-robbing-kids-of-critical-thinking/

Prince Ea, Kidspiration, “He Just Sued the School System”, 12 months ago,

https://www.facebook.com/kidspirationsocial/videos/2091961057715847/

Naureckas, Jim. “The Other Education Crisis”,1 December 2013,

https://fair.org/extra/the-other-education-crisis/

Procon, “Is The Use Of Standardized Test Improving Education In America”, 23

October 2018, https://standardizedtests.procon.org/