The Pros And Cons Of Standardized Testing

Since elementary school, standardized tests have impacted my life negatively. In second grade, I took a standardized test to determine what pace I was moving at in mathematics and English. In both subjects, I was one point away from being in the Duke Tip honors program.. After second grade, the tests were more tedious. They took longer because the problems were harder. I could miss an entire week of school doing nothing but testing. This test week causes stress amongst teachers and students. During my freshman year of high school, I took the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). There are not many things I can detail from my freshman year of high school, but I remember the PARCC assessment. I missed class

At most, students have week to cram, however, no students have a clue what to study. It is impossible for students to look over everything they have learned in the past two or three years. Although I was in accelerated classes, I still felt as though I wasn’t smart enough. I succeed in the classroom, making all A’s and B’s, but standardized tests made me question my abilities. Telling a student they are “advanced”, “proficient”, or “below level” can be demeaning and will stick with a student for a long time. Students work ethic demonstrates how students perceive their test results. Some students believe they do not have what it takes to succeed. As a result, many students work harder to prove their teacher wrong, while others give up because they do not believe in their

Research conducted by Noah Berlatsky, an editor who writes about popular culture proves that standardized testing is unethical. In his article, “Teachers Take an Ethical Stand Against Testing”, Berlatsky shows that testing a child’s abilities based off of one test does not provide a true representation of the student’s abilities. There could be outside factors involved, such as a student’s poor health or income inequality poverty (Berlatsky). One test does not provide enough information to inform a teacher or parent about a student’s progress in a subject. The student may have had a bad day, or not been feeling well. There are many variables with standardized testing. Therefore, there is no way to know for certain if a student’s performance on a test was their