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Gillian Pratt

Professor Bevill

ENGL 1301-PHS 3

30 October 2017

The Effectiveness of Standardized Tests

Standardized tests are tests that challenge students knowledge of math, science, and

reading. These types of tests are also used in different fields of careers like physicians, lawyers,

real-estate agents, and pilots where the information is used to test their abilities. These tests,

which were invented and introduced into the public-school systems in the nineteen-eighties,

are used to determine if students are learning the necessary information to go to the next grade

and if teachers are teaching well enough for their students to be ready for the next grade level

(Standardized Tests). The debate over the importance of standardized testing has become

relevant because testing has become the central focus of content in middle and high school

required subjects and is argued to be discriminatory against areas with a higher concentration of

poverty.

Standardized tests are the most important tests in public school systems since there are

several consequences, good and bad, to them. Students are required to take these tests starting in

third grade, which is tested on reading, all the way up to junior year of high school which tests

on English. The purpose of these tests is to determine if a student is ready to progress from one

grade to another, which reflects on a school districts success in teaching children (Standardized

Tests). These tests that the students are required to take are graded based on multiple choice

questions, which isnt always the most useful in determining if a student is proficient enough to
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proceed to the next grade. Factors like test anxiety do not play a role into the grading process

which may obscure results because not all students are the best test takers. The best students who

excel in normal public-school classes but fail to pass the standardized tests because of test

anxiety which is a combination of physiological tension and somatic symptoms, along with

worry, dread, fear of failure, and catastrophizing, that occur before or during test situations.

When students fail these standardized tests, which are now called staar tests in the state of Texas,

students have a chance to retake the test they failed and try to pass it the second time, but if they

fail again then that student must go to summer school or repeat the grade. The grades are then

used to compare to a students previous years to see if they have progressed throughout their

years of schooling. Based on the scores from the student body as a whole, the students are

analyzed, the teachers are judged, and the schools themselves are judged by the academic

success of the students (Standardized Tests). The school districts use the data from the results

of the tests to evaluate if the teacher from each subject are adequately teaching the students

(Standardized Tests). The information from these sources shows how the tests that the students

are required to take are effective since they are used to access students abilities, teachers

capabilities, and the academic success of school. However, the majority of parents do not agree

with the district use of student scores to evaluate teachers abilities, as shown in Figure 1.
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(Figure 1 is a representation of results from a poll)

Figure 1 one shows statistics about how parents feel about certain aspects of

standardized testing and about how the data is used. Parents of students in the U.S. believe that

there is too much investment into drilling students for the standardized tests. Standardized tests

have also been connected to the rising poverty levels in the U.S. (Standardized Tests). Areas of

poverty tend to be less educated, so these areas tend to score lower on the standardized tests

which is why these regions are then blamed for the failure of the tests. These students who live in

poverty, the ones who struggle to have essential supplies to survive, most of the time have to

help out their families to stay alive so these students tend to perform lower. Compared to the less

poverty-stricken areas, these areas with more concentrated poverty populations are less educated

so they lower the success rate of the standardized tests, which also affects the effectiveness of

these tests.

The effectiveness of standardized tests has also been proven to be non-effective. Since

these tests are only testing a limited amount of content, students creativity, critical thinking,

resilience, motivation, persistence, curiosity, endurance, reliability, enthusiasm, empathy, self-

awareness, self-discipline, leadership, civic-mindedness, courage, compassion, resourcefulness,

sense of beauty, sense of wonder, honesty, integrity are not able to be tested because the tests

are so limited (Standardized Testing). These qualities and traits that are suppressed by these

tests affect students learning time. Suppressing these traits prevents students from thriving

which prevents students from expanding their knowledge and deeply understanding the content

they are learning. Suppressed learning skills leads to decreased knowledge of learning skills

which lead to unsatisfactory grades that can lead students to retaking grades or at the most

extreme even dropping out. Also, since standardized testing is the main focus of schooling in
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students, standardized tests have been proven to cause stress in [young] students (Standardized

testing). The pressure put on the kids of having to perform at a certain level causes kids who are

brilliant to even get nervous. This again causes students to perform lower which results in lower

scores. Standardized tests can be useful, but in some cases they can be detrimental to a students

mental health and to their grades.

The debate over the effectiveness of standardized testing has become increasingly more

popular with the changing of the role of these tests in public school curriculum. They have been

proven to be effective, but only in certain areas or districts. These different districts are different

in the poverty population levels. However, these tests are useful in studying how proficient

students are. Overall, standardized have their pros and cons, but the pros outweigh the cons.
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Works Cited Page

"No Child Left Behind Act of 2001." Gale Encyclopedia of Everyday Law, edited by Gale, 3rd

edition, 2013. Credo Reference,

http://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/galegel/no_child_left_behind_act_of_200

1/0. Accessed 15 Oct 2017.

Poll: Americans Want Less Standardized Testing and More School Funding. NEA Today, NEA

Today, 14 Oct. 2015, neatoday.org/2015/08/23/poll-americans-want-less-standardized-

testing-and-more-school-funding/.

"Standardized Tests." ProCon, edited by ProCon.org, 2017. Credo Reference,

http://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/procon/standardized_tests/0. Accessed 15

Oct 2017.

"Standardized Tests." The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide,

edited by Helicon, 1st edition, 2016. Credo Reference,

http://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/heliconhe/standardized_tests/0. Accessed

15 Oct 2017.