The Effectiveness Of Standardized Testing

Around the world, we use standardized testing to evaluate the skills of many young minds. However, is this really the most accurate way of assessment? Children all around the world are constantly put under pressure by these sort of tests, whether from their parents, peers, or even their very own teachers. Not to mention, in other countries, there are much more gruesome tests especially in Asia. As well, standardized testing really isn’t an accurate representation of the student’s skill. Each student has a variety of skills they each manifest in, whether it’s creativity, IQ, the arts, etc… However, standardized tests never includes all of these traits that we all possess. Even though standardized tests don’t represent these traits, they are

Generally, these tests can only represent your reading, writing, math and logic. Traits such as being artistic, creativity, public speaking, etc. aren’t even regarded in these sorts of tests. Even though these tests are set to determine your future life, a large quantity of jobs require these sorts of traits, especially oral communication. Meaning that this test only really represents maybe ½ of the applicable real life jobs. Not to mention that most jobs require social interactions with one another. Even if you can remember 10000 digits of pi, or you average a 98, really nobody will be successful if you are socially awkward. Not only do standardized tests not represent other traits, they can also be countered by cheating or guessing. On average, in multiple choice questions, the percentage that you will get the question right even when guessing is usually 20%. This means that students could potentially even pass the test, without knowing much about the given subject. Another example of this is cheating. Since students know that this test does determine the future of their life, they might be tempted into cheating their way throughout the tests. However, the most common act of cheating on standardized tests is actually by the teachers and staff of the schools. This is what it is for a variety of reasons. Websites such as Fraserinstitute.ca rank each school in the province from best to worst according to their EQAO (Education Quality and Accountability Office) results. Being the head of the school and all, principal’s might be at least tempted to cheat on this test to give their school a little bonus and credit. This was proved in the states where 75% of them were caught cheating. This standardized test was meant to see the progress of students by each state, to see which one was doing the best. By these circumstances, standardized testing isn’t an accurate nor