Standardized Testing Negatively Impacted Public Schools

Another issue with using standardized tests is that several students experience extreme stress or nervousness about the test. This automatically causes students to perform inadequately on the test. Several people who in any other circumstance would be brilliant at a subject would now earn a poor score as a result of them performing poorly on tests. This is not fair to the people who are exceptionally knowledgeable in a subject and just become stressed easily. Furthermore, this proves that standardized tests are not an accurate measure of educational quality.

As Michelle Obama once declared, “If my future was determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn’t be here. I guarantee you that.” The performance of a school’s organization is based off of the results of standardized tests taken by students (Walberg). Standardized tests are a guide to the board of education on how a school can improve its curriculum in a way that is most beneficial to students (Walberg). “The scores of standardized tests are not the same as student achievement” (Harris).

After students have taken the standardized tests, their scores are then averaged up and published and the different schools are then ranked from highest to lowest score. Because of this, teachers and professors end up teaching to the test due to the terror of losing their jobs. According to Scholastic.com, “it is unfair for schools to be compared because the test-takers are different sets of people, which cause a biased manipulation in statistics.” Educators neglect to teach students the appropriate skills that go beyond the classroom and tests, since they are now too caught up in preparing their students for these standardized tests. Educators are now using their time explaining the topics that will be a part of the tests, which leads them to forget to teach the students life lessons that go beyond the classroom walls.

Also, students are not truly learning, since test companies do not give any feedback on how to do better and improve test scores. Another negative aspect of standardized tests is that they declare everything a student has learned and experienced over the years as a single number, the student’s score. The poor scorers would then lose self-esteem, while the well scorers are pressurized to keep scoring well, many of whom completely lose time for fun. Those well scorers might not even be as smart as they were thought to be.

The typical grading system allows teachers to see what specific lessons students are struggling with. Also, the typical grading system allows room for the students to improve. Furthermore, these new requirements are setting the students up for failure. Reasons being, that students cannot be expected to excel in a class if the teacher only assigns

(FairTest). Standardized tests do not allow students to think creatively and encourages teachers to teach to a constricted curriculum instead of more depth of knowledge. Most students are able to achieve a proficient score to meet requirements, but for some it has become a hurdle that has kept them from achieving their diploma. Some at risk students feel overwhelmed and defeated and choose to drop out of high school without receiving a diploma. Trying to be meet a “standardized” test score now limits these students in achieving their full academic potential and may limit their career

Standardized testing does not fairly consider the differences between students, they can cause anxiety for the students, and standardized tests lead to teachers changing lessons and teaching to the test because standardized tests are not the most beneficial option for students education and emotional health. Overall, Standardized testing has not improved students education and has caused many negative effects including greater stress levels among students, teachers cutting out important lessons and limiting students creativity, and the test are unfair because they are not made specifically for different: ethnicities, races, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Standardized tests have not caused an increase in the United States ranking in the world in fact the United States has gone down from 18th in the world in math to 31st since they have mandated them nationwide, So are these inaccurate unfair tests really worth the stress and educational suffering of America 's

In Massachusetts, administering standardized tests is a fiercely debated topic that most students oppose. There is a widespread debate around whether or not taking standardized tests is valuable to students’ education. Especially in Massachusetts, many students find that standardized testing is invaluable and unfair. They believe that standardized tests are biased because only students who are skillful at taking tests will do well on these exams. However, this perspective is false.

Teachers seem to be the most affected by the need for students to score well on their assessments. This is true due to our school system today which has forced many into a rigid teaching guideline that is meant to prepare students for their big test that will ultimately reflect upon themselves as well as the students. This problem distracts from the teacher’s wishes and wants for their students curriculum. This does not even mention the large class portions taken up by test prep and test taking tips that distract from meaningful learning, making for more problems than a test would solve. This just goes to show once more that standardized testing is not the way to go under our current

Homework takes too much time out of kids lives, it causes anxiety for students, and it’s not healthy. Even though some will argue that homework teaches kids time management, responsibility, and strategy skills, many sources show that they can learn these skills in other ways. Overall, homework is not necessary for students to be doing. Educators need to understand that kids have other things going on in their lives and homework is just too

Does Standardized Test Define You As A Person? School isn’t about learning anymore it’s about teaching us to pass a test! To expect the average student to manage their already challenging schedule while simultaneously studying for the ACT or SAT is unrealistic and unfair. American students are spending most of their school hours preparing for standardized tests rather than learning quality stuff. Some American schools test over every subject putting even more pressure students.

Firstly, tests are unreliable. “A 2001 study published by the Brookings Institution found that 50-80% of year-over-year test score improvements were temporary and "caused by fluctuations that had nothing to do with long-term changes in learning..." This shows that the information collected from the test can not really provide accurate information for teachers because of the inconsistent data. The data cannot show what students need to learn because of the fluctuations, making the standardized tests inaccurate and unreliable. This will only ruin the recent grades because the teachers do not know what to teach the students.

They are inaccurate in evaluating a student’s performance and intelligence. The test ignores other talents a student possesses, and just focuses on reading, math, and writing. It takes out the creativity and forces students to think inside the box. Every student is different and special in their own way; when a whole nation of students’ have to take the same exact test, results are going to be skewed and biased, because everyone isn’t taught the same nor think the same. Education across America is unequal; there are students who have the resources, opportunities, and teachers by their side to succeed.

Another problem with standardized tests is that may be discriminatory. There is statistical evidence showing standardized tests are not a sufficient indicator of a student 's knowledge (Wade, 2012). In an article written by Big Think (2011), experts state that after enough practice, one can recognize patterns. In the chart located below, it can be seen that test

Students face different situations every day. Occasionally they might be facing problems in their homes or at school, making them have an off day which makes their performance suffer. Stated in the article ‘Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing’, standardized testing evaluates a students performance on one particular day and doesn’t take into account the external factors. Numerous students understand the content of the material, nevertheless they do not do well on the test (Envy at Work, 1). This makes it difficult to positively determine if the child showed their true abilities or not.