Arguments Against Standardized Testing

In today’s education system standardized testing is widely used. Every year, according to Columbia University, students take more than 100 million tests (Clovis). In 2002, President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into effect. No Child Left Behind requires annual standardized testing in the third through eighth grades. In 2015, President Barack Obama signed the Every Child Achieves Act. This act replaced No Child Left Behind and reformed many areas of the education system. The yearly testing established in No Child Left Behind still stands under Every Child Achieves. Standardized test were put into place in an attempt to improve the education system; however high-stakes standardized testing is failing to be a positive asset in the school systems in America.

Large amounts of class time are spent “teaching to the test, to the practice tests and the pre-practice tests” (Mora 3). Teachers put their primary focus on what they think will be on the standardized test. Watson, Johanson, Loder, and Dankiw quoted Jones in their article; He wrote “…science, social studies, and the arts are subjects that are pushed aside and taught only if there is extra time left in the schedule” (2). Standardized testing causes students’ education to be narrowed. Instead of having a broad education with many areas to achieve, students are forced to concern themselves with only math and