Standardized test

A standardized test is a test that is administered and scored in a consistent, or

"standard", manner. Standardized tests are designed in such a way that the questions,
[1]
conditions for administering, scoring procedures, and interpretations are consistent
.[2]
and are administered and scored in a predetermined, standard manner

Any test in which the same test is given in the same manner to all test takers, and
graded in the same manner for everyone, is a standardized test. Standardized tests do
not need to be high-stakes tests, time-limited tests, or multiple-choice tests. The
Young adults in Poland sit for their
questions can be simple or complex. The subject matter among school-age students
Matura exams. The Matura is
is frequently academic skills, but a standardized test can be given on nearly any standardized so that universities can
topic, including driving tests, creativity, personality, professional ethics, or other easily compare results from students
attributes. across the entire country.

The opposite of standardized testing is non-standardized testing, in which either

significantly different tests are given to different test takers, or the same test is assigned under significantly different conditions (e.g.,
one group is permitted far less time to complete the test than the next group) or evaluated differently (e.g., the same answer is
counted right for one student, but wrong for another student).

Most everyday quizzes and tests taken by students typically meet the definition of a standardized test: everyone in the class takes the
same test, at the same time, under the same circumstances, and all of the students are graded by their teacher in the same way.
However, the term standardized test is most commonly used to refer to tests that are given to larger groups, such as a test taken by all
adults who wish to acquire a license to have a particular kind of job, or by all students of a certain age.

Standardized tests are perceived as being fairer than non-standardized tests, because everyone gets the same test and the same grading
system. This is fairer and more objective than a system in which some students get an easier test and others get a more difficult test.
The consistency also permits more reliable comparison of outcomes across all test takers, because everyone is taking the same test.[3]
The prevalence of standardized testing in formal education has also been criticized for many reasons.

Contents
Definition
History
China
UK
United States
Australia
Design and scoring
Scoring issues
Score
Standards
Evaluation standards
Testing standards
Importance of testing
Reflection of testing
Public policy
 Advantages
Disadvantages and criticism
Educational decisions
See also
Major topics
Other topics
References
Further reading
External links

Definition
The definition of a standardized test has somewhat changed over time.[4] In 1960, standardized tests were defined as those tests in
which the conditions and content were equal for everyone taking the test, regardless of when, where, or by whom the test was given
or graded. The purpose of this standardization is to make sure that the scores reliably indicate the abilities or skills being measured,
[4]
and not other things, such as different instructions about what to do if the test taker does not know the answer to a question.

By the beginning of the 21st century, the focus shifted away from a strict sameness of conditions towards equal fairness of
conditions.[4] For example, a test taker with a broken wrist might write more slowly because of the injury, and it would be more fair,
and produce a more reliable understanding of the test taker's actual knowledge, if that person were given a few more minutes to write
down the answers to a most test. However, if the purpose of the test is to see how quickly the student could write, then this would
become a modification of the content, and no longer a standardized test.

History

China
The earliest evidence of standardized testing was in China, during the Han Dynasty,[5] where the imperial examinations covered the
Six Arts which included music, archery, horsemanship, arithmetic, writing, and knowledge of the rituals and ceremonies of both
public and private parts. These exams were used to select employees for the state bureaucracy
.

Later, sections on military strategies, civil law, revenue and taxation, agriculture and geography were added to the testing. In this
form, the examinations were institutionalized for more than a millennium. Today, standardized testing remains widely used, most
famously in the Gaokao system.

UK
Standardized testing was introduced into Europe in the early 19th century, modeled on the Chinese mandarin examinations,[6]
through the advocacy of British colonial administrators, the most "persistent" of which was Britain's consul in Guangzhou, China,
Thomas Taylor Meadows.[6] Meadows warned of the collapse of the British Empire if standardized testing was not implemented
throughout the empire immediately.[6]

Prior to their adoption, standardized testing was not traditionally a part of Western pedagogy; based on the skeptical and open-ended
tradition of debate inherited from Ancient Greece, Western academia favored non-standardized assessments using essays written by
students. It is because of this, that the first European implementation of standardized testing did not occur in Europe proper, but in
British India.[7] Inspired by the Chinese use of standardized testing, in the early 19th century, British "company managers hired and
promoted employees based on competitive examinations in order to prevent corruption and favoritism."[7] This practice of
standardized testing was later adopted in the late 19th century by the British mainland. The parliamentary debates that ensued made
[6]
many references to the "Chinese mandarin system."
It was from Britain that standardized testing spread, not only throughout the British Commonwealth, but to Europe and then
America.[6] Its spread was fueled by the Industrial Revolution. The increase in number of school students during and after the
Industrial Revolution, as a result of compulsory education laws, decreased the use of open-ended assessment, which was harder to
mass-produce and assess objectively due to its intrinsically subjective nature. For instance, measurement error is easy to determine in
standardized testing, whereas in open-ended assessment, graders have more individual discretion and therefore are more likely to
produce unfair results through unconscious bias. When the score depends upon the graders' individual preferences, then the result an
individual student receives depends upon who grades the test.

More recently, standardized testing has been shaped in part, by the ease and low cost of grading of multiple-choice tests by computer.
Though the process is more difficult than grading multiple-choice tests electronically, essays can also be graded by computer. In other
instances, essays and other open-ended responses are graded according to a pre-determined assessment rubric by trained graders. For
[8]
example, at Pearson, all essay graders have four-year university degrees, and a majority are current or former classroom teachers.

United States
Standardized testing has been a part of American education since the 1800s, but the widespread reliance on standardized is largely a
20th-century phenomenon. For instance the College Entrance Examination Board did not begin standardized testing in connection to
higher education until 1900. This test was implemented with the idea of creating standardized admissions for the United States in
northeastern elite universities. Originally, the test was also meant for top boarding school in order to standardize curriculum.[9] With
origins in World War I the Army Alpha and Beta tests developed by Robert Yerkes and colleagues.[10] Before then, immigration in
the mid-19th century contributed to the growth of standardized tests in the United States.[11] Standardized tests were used in
[12]
immigration when people first came over to test social roles and find social power and status.

Originally the standardized test was made of essays and was not intended for widespread testing. The College Board then designed
the SAT(Scholar Aptitude Test) in 1926 for a broader IQ test. Notably, the Army IQ tests were what the first SAT test was based on in
order to determine a student’s intelligence, problem solving skills, and critical thinking.[13] In 1959, Everett Lindquist offered the
ACT (American College Testing) for the first time.[14] The ACT currently includes 4 main sections with multiple choice questions to
[15]
test English, mathematics, reading, and science, plus an optional writing section.

Large population state testing began in the 1970s, and in the 1980s America began to assess nationally.[16] In 2012, together 45 states
is annual spending on assessments cost $27 per student and $669 million overall. However, once test involved administrative costs
were included the cost per student increased to $1100.[17] The need for the federal government to make meaningful comparisons
across a highly de-centralized (locally controlled) public education system has also contributed to the debate about standardized
testing, including the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 that required standardized testing in public schools. U.S.
Public Law 107-110, known as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, further ties public school funding to standardized testing. The
goal of No Child Left Behind was to improve the education system in the United States by holding school and teachers accountable
and attempting to close the educational gap between minority and non-minority children in public schools. Students' results on
standardized tests were used to allocate funds and other resources such as teachers and administrators to schools. This policy does not
provide a federal standard for schools, but allows each state to set their own standards.[18] The Every Student Succeeds Act replaced
the NCLB. It was signed into law by President Obama on December 10, 2015. This act was created in order to revise the provisions
[19]
of the NCLC in order to further allow student achievement and success.

Standardized testing is a very common way of determining a student's past academic achievement and future potential. However,
high-stakes tests (whether standardized or non-standardized) can cause anxiety. When teachers or schools are rewarded for better
performance on tests, then those rewards encourage teachers to "teach to the test" instead of providing a rich and broad
curriculum.[20] In 2007 a qualitative study done by Au Wayne demonstrated that standardized testing narrows the curriculum and
encourages teacher-centered instruction.[21] As a result, standardized testing has become controversial in the United States.
[22]

An additional factor to consider in regards to standardized testing in the United States education system, is the socio-economic
background of the students being tested. Research has shown that children from low-income and poor families do not receive the
same emphasis on education from their parents as those students from higher income families. According to the Nation Center for
Children in Poverty, 41 percent of children under the age of 18 fall into the category of lower income. (Kobal, H. and Jiang, Y., 2018)
This is a large percent of the student population who start behind the learning curve and require specialized attention to get to where
[23]
they need to be in order to perform well on the standardized test.

Australia
The Australian National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) standardized testing was commenced in 2008 by
the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, an independent authority "responsible for the development of a
national curriculum, a national assessment program and a national data collection and reporting program that supports 21st century
learning for all Australian students".[24]

The testing includes all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 in Australian schools to be assessed using national tests. The subjects covered
in these testings include Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (Spelling, Grammar and Punctu
ation) and Numeracy.

The program presents students level reports designed to enable parents to see their child's progress over the course of their schooling
life, and help teachers to improve individual learning opportunities for their students. Students and school level data are also provided
to the appropriate school system on the understanding that they can be used to target specific supports and resources to schools that
need them most. Teachers and schools use this information, in conjunction with other information, to determine how well their
students are performing and to identify any areas of need requiring assistance.

The concept of testing student achievement is not new, although the current Australian approach may be said to have its origins in
current educational policy structures in both the USA and the UK. There are several key differences between the Australian
NAPLAN and the UK and USA strategies. Schools that are found to be under-performing in the Australian context will be offered
financial assistance under the current federal government policy
.

Design and scoring

Standardized testing can be composed of multiple-choice questions, true-false
questions, essay questions, authentic assessments, or nearly any other form of
assessment. Multiple-choice and true-false items are often chosen because they can
be given and scored inexpensively, quickly, and reliably through using special
answer sheets that can be read by a computer or viacomputer-adaptive testing. Some
standardized tests have short-answer or essay writing components that are assigned a
score by independent evaluators who use rubrics (rules or guidelines) and
benchmark papers (examples of papers for each possible score) to determine the
grade to be given to a response. Not all standardized tests involve answering
Some standardized testing uses
questions; an authentic assessment for athletic skills could take the form of running
multiple-choice tests, which are
for a set amount of time ordribbling a ball for a certain distance. relatively inexpensive to score, but
any form of assessment can be
Most national and international assessments, however, are not fully evaluated by
used.
people; people are used to score items that are not able to be scored easily by
computer (such as essays). For example, the Graduate Record Exam is a computer-
[25]
adaptive assessment that requires no scoring by people except for the writing portion.

The term "normative assessment" refers to the process of comparing one test-taker to his or her peers. A norm-referenced test (NRT)
is a type of test, assessment, or evaluation which yields an estimate of the position of the tested individual in a predefined population.
The estimate is derived from the analysis of test scores and other relevant data from sample
a drawn from the population. This type of
test identifies whether the test taker performed better or worse than other students taking this test. A criterion-referenced test(CRT) is
a style of test which uses test scores to show whether or not test takers performed well on a given task, not how well they performed
compared to other test takers. Most tests and quizzes that are written by school teachers can be considered criterion-referenced tests.
In this case, the objective is simply to see whether the student has learned the material.
Scoring issues
Human scoring is relatively expensive and often variable, which is why computer scoring is preferred when feasible. For example,
some critics say that poorly paid employees will score tests badly.[26] Agreement between scorers can vary between 60 and 85
percent, depending on the test and the scoring session. Sometimes states pay to have two or more scorers read each paper; if their
[26]
scores do not agree, then the paper is passed to additional scorers.

Open-ended components of tests are often only a small proportion of the test. Most commonly, a major academic test includes both
human-scored and computer-scored sections.

Score
There are two types of standardized test score interpretations: a norm-referenced score interpretation or a criterion-referenced score
interpretation.

Norm-referenced score interpretationscompare test-takers to asample of peers. The goal is to rank students as
being better or worse than other students. Norm-referenced test score interpretations are associated with traditional
education. Students who perform better than others pass the test, and students who perform worse than others fail
the test.
Criterion-referenced score interpretationscompare test-takers to a criterion (a formal definition of content),
regardless of the scores of other examinees. These may also be described as standards-based assessments, as
they are aligned with thestandards-based education reformmovement.[27] Criterion-referenced score interpretations
are concerned solely with whether or not this particular student's answer is correct and complete. Under criterion-
referenced systems, it is possible for all students to pass the test, or for all students to fail the test.
Either of these systems can be used in standardized testing. What is important to standardized testing is whether all students are asked
equivalent questions, under equivalent circumstances, and graded equally. In a standardized test, if a given answer is correct for one
student, it is correct for all students. Graders do not accept an answer as good enough for one student but reject the same answer as
inadequate for another student.

Standards
The considerations of validity and reliability typically are viewed as essential elements for determining the quality of any
standardized test. However, professional and practitioner associations frequently have placed these concerns within broader contexts
when developing standards and making overall judgments about the quality of any standardized test as a whole within a given
context.

Evaluation standards
In the field of evaluation, and in particular educational evaluation, the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation[28]
has published three sets of standards for evaluations. The Personnel Evaluation Standards[29] was published in 1988, The Program
Evaluation Standards (2nd edition)[30] was published in 1994, andThe Student Evaluation Standards[31] was published in 2003.

Each publication presents and elaborates a set of standards for use in a variety of educational settings. The standards provide
guidelines for designing, implementing, assessing and improving the identified form of evaluation. Each of the standards has been
placed in one of four fundamental categories to promote educational evaluations that are proper, useful, feasible, and accurate. In
these sets of standards, validity and reliability considerations are covered under the accuracy topic. For example, the student accuracy
standards help ensure that student evaluations will provide sound, accurate, and credible information about student learning and
performance.

Testing standards
In the field of psychometrics, the
Standards for Educational and Sample scoring for the history question: What causedWorld War II?

Psychological Testing[32] place Student answers Standardized grading

standards about validity and reliability,
along with errors of measurement and
issues related to the accommodation of
individuals with disabilities. The third
and final major topic covers standards
related to testing
credentialing, plus testing in program
evaluation and public policy.
Non-standardized
grading
No grading standards.
Each teacher grades
Grading rubric: Answers
however he or she wants
must be marked correct if
to, considering whatever
they mention at least one of
factors the teacher
the following: Germany's
chooses, such as the
applications, invasion of Poland, Japan's
answer, the amount of
invasion of China, or
effort, the student's
economic issues.
academic background,
language ability, or attitude.

Importance of Teacher #1:

I feel like this answer is
testing Teacher #1: good enough, so I'll mark it
This answer mentions one correct.
Standardised testing considered Student #1:
is
WWII was caused of the required items, so it Teacher #2:
important and these tests do assess what by Hitler and
is correct. This answer is correct, but
is taught on the national level. They are Germany invading
Poland. Teacher #2: this good student should be
used to measure objectives and how
This answer is correct. able to do better than that,
schools are meeting educational state
so I'll only give partial
standards.
credit.
There are three primary reasons for
Standardized tests: Comparing among Student #2:
WWII was caused
test takers, Improvement of ongoing
by multiple factors,
instruction and learning, and Evaluation including the Great
Teacher #1:
of instruction.[33] Depression and the Teacher #1:
general economic I feel like this answer is
situation, the rise of This answer mentions one
Considering the information presented national socialism, correct and complete, so I'll
of the required items, so it
above, students undergoing the testing fascism, and give full credit.
is correct.
have been told to not spend copious imperialist Teacher #2:
Teacher #2:
expansionism, and
amounts of their own time to study and unresolved This answer is correct, so
This answer is correct.
prepare for the tests, although students resentments related I'll give full points.
to WWI. The war in
believe they need to do well to ensure Europe began with
they don't let down their school.[34] the German
invasion of Poland.
Standardized tests put large amounts of
pressure on students. Some children Teacher #1:

who are considered at the top of their Teacher #1: This answer is wrong. No

class choke when it comes

to Student #3: This answer does not points.

standardized tests such as the citywide. WWII was caused mention any of the required Teacher #2:
by the items. No points. This answer is wrong, but
assassination of
Archduke Teacher #2: this student tried hard and
Reflection of testing Ferdinand. This answer is wrong. No the sentence is
Parents and community activates credit. grammatically correct, so I'll
around the country explain that the give one point for effort.
education system are failing student.
Standardized testing is included in
efforts to improve the education system. Standardized testing gives a detailed account of how student improvement and teach
effectiveness are evaluated, which can show howthe school effectiveness sits on a national scale.
Public policy
Standardized testing is used as a public policy strategy to establish stronger accountability measures
for public education. While the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) has served as an
educational barometer for some thirty years by administering standardized tests on a regular basis to
random schools throughout the United States, efforts over the last decade at the state and federal levels
.[35]
have mandated annual standardized test administration for all public schools across the country

The idea behind the standardized testing policy movement is that testing is the first step to improving
schools, teaching practice, and educational methods through data collection. Proponents argue that the
data generated by the standardized tests act like a report card for the community, demonstrating how A past standardized
well local schools are performing. Critics of the movement, however, point to various discrepancies testing paper using
that result from current state standardized testing practices, including problems with test validity and multiple choice
questions and
reliability and false correlations (seeSimpson's paradox).
answering them in
the form as shown
Critics also charge that standardized tests encourage "teaching to the test" at the expense of creativity
above.
and in-depth coverage of subjects not on the test. Multiple choice tests are criticized for failing to
assess skills such as writing. Furthermore, student's success is being tracked to a teacher's relative
performance, making teacher advancement contingent upon a teacher's success with a student's academic performance. Ethical and
economical questions arise for teachers when faced with clearly underperforming or underskilled students and a standardized test.

Critics also object to the type of material that is typically tested by schools. Although standardized tests for non-academic attributes
such as the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking exist, schools rarely give standardized tests to measure initiative, creativity,
imagination, curiosity, good will, ethical reflection, or a host of other valuable dispositions and attributes.[36] Instead, the tests given
by schools tend to focus less on moral or character development, and more on individual identifiable academic skills.

Advantages
Offers Guidance to Teachers. Standardized tests will allow teachers to see how their students are performing
compared to others in the country. This will help them revise their teaching methods if necessary to help their
students meet the standards.[37]
Allows Students to See Own Progress.Students will be given the opportunity to reflect on their scores and see
where their strengths as well as weaknesses are.[37]
Provide Parents Information about their Child.The scores can allow parents to get an idea about how their child
is doing academically compared to everyone else of the same age in the nation. [38]

Let's Government Know What Areas Need to be Improved.Tests that are taken by everyone can help the
government determine where students are struggling the most. With this information, they can implement solutions
to fix the issue, allowing students to learn and grow in an academic environment. [37]

One of the main advantages of standardized testing is that the results can be empirically documented; therefore, the test scores can be
shown to have a relative degree of validity and reliability, as well as results which are generalizable and replicable.[39] This is often
contrasted with grades on a school transcript, which are assigned by individual teachers. It may be difficult to account for differences
in educational culture across schools, difficulty of a given teacher's curriculum, differences in teaching style, and techniques and
biases that affect grading. This makes standardized tests useful for admissions purposes in higher education, where a school is trying
to compare students from across the nation or across the world. Examples of such international benchmark tests include the Trends in
International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS).
Performance on these exams have been speculated to change based on the way standards like the Common Core State Standards
(CCSS) line up with top countries across the world.

There are three metrics by which the best performing countries in the TIMMS (the "A+ countries") are measured: focus, coherence,
and rigor. Focus is defined as the number of topics covered in each grade; the idea is that the fewer topics covered in each grade, the
more focus can be given to each topic. The definition of coherence is adhering to a sequence of topics covered that follows the
natural progression or logical structure of mathematics. The CCSSM was compared to both the current state standards and the A+
country standards. With the most number of topics covered on average, the current state standards had the lowest focus.[40] The
Common Core Standards aim to fix this discrepancy by helping educators focus on what students need to learn instead of becoming
distracted by extraneous topics. They encourage educational materials to go from covering a vast array of topics in a shallow manner
to a few topics in much more depth.[41]

Standardized tests also remove teacher bias in assessment. Research shows that teachers create a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy in
their assessment of students, granting those they anticipate will achieve with higher scores and giving those who they expect to fail
lower grades.[42]

Another advantage is aggregation. A well designed standardized test provides an assessment of an individual's mastery of a domain
of knowledge or skill which at some level of aggregation will provide useful information. That is, while individual assessments may
not be accurate enough for practical purposes, the mean scores of classes, schools, branches of a company, or other groups may well
provide useful information because of the reduction of error accomplished by increasing the sample size.

Opponents claim that standardized tests are misused and uncritical judgments of intelligence and performance, but supporters argue
that these aren't negatives of standardized tests, but criticisms of poorly designed testing regimes. They argue that testing should and
does focus educational resources on the most important aspects of education — imparting a pre-defined set of knowledge and
skills — and that other aspects are either less important, or should be added to the testing scheme.

Disadvantages and criticism

Validity, efficacy, and predictive power. Many contend that overuse and misuse of these tests harms teaching and
learning by narrowing the curriculum. According to the groupFairTest, when standardized tests are the primary
factor in accountability, schools use the tests to narrowly define curriculum and focus instruction. Accountability
creates an immense pressure to perform and this can lead to the misuse and misinterpretation of standardized
tests.[43] FairTest says that negative consequences of test misuse include narrowing the curriculum, teaching to the
test, pushing students out of school, driving teachers out of the profession, and undermining student engagement
and school climate. Critics say that t"eaching to the test" disfavors higher-order learning. While it is possible to use a
standardized test without letting its contents determine curriculum and instruction, frequently
, what is not tested is not
taught, and how the subject is tested often becomes a model for how to teach the subject.

Uncritical use of standardized test scores to evaluate teacher and school performance is inappropriate, because
the students' scores are influenced by three things: what students learn in school, what students learn outside of
school, and the students' innateintelligence.[44] The school only has control over one of these three factors.
Value-added modeling has been proposed to cope with this criticism by statistically controlling for innate ability
and out-of-school contextual factors.[45] In a value-added system of interpreting test scores, analysts estimate an
expected score for each student, based on factors such as the student's own previous test scores, primary
language, or socioeconomic status. The difference between the student's expected score and actual score is
presumed to be due primarily to the teacher's ef forts.
Some teachers would argue that Standardized e Tst only measures a student’s current knowledge and it does not
reflect the students progress from the beginning of the year .[46] A result created by individuals that are not apart
of the student's regular instruction, but by professionals that determine what students should know at ferent
dif
ages. In addition, teachers agree that the best test creator and facilitator are themselves. They argue that they
are the most aware of students abilities, capacities, and necessities which would allow them to take a longer on
subjects or proceed on with the regular curriculum.
Notable Opponents. In her book, Now You See It, Cathy Davidson criticizes standardized tests. She describes our
youth as "assembly line kids on an assembly line model," meaning the use of the standardized test as a part of a
one-size-fits-all educational model. She also criticizes the narrowness of skills being tested and labeling children
[47] Widespread and organized cheating has been a
without these skills as failures or as students with disabilities.
growing culture in today's reformation of schools. [48]

Education theorist Bill Ayers has commented on the limitations of the standardized test, writing that
"Standardized tests can't measure initiative, creativity
, imagination, conceptual thinking, curiosity
, effort, irony,
judgment, commitment, nuance, good will, ethical reflection, or a host of other valuable dispositions and
attributes. What they can measure and count are isolated skills, specific facts and function, content knowledge,
[49] In his book, The Shame of the Nation, Jonathan
the least interesting and least significant aspects of learning."
Kozol argues that students submitted to standardized testing are victims of "cognitive decapitation." Kozol comes
to this realization after speaking to many children in inner city schools who have no spatial recollection of time,
time periods, and historical events. This is especially the case in schools where due to shortages in funding and
strict accountability policies, schools have done away with subjects like the arts, history and geography; in order
to focus on the contest of the mandated tests. [50]
 Testing Minorities. Monty Neill, the director of the National Center for Fair and Open esting,
T claims that students
who speak English as a second language, who have a disability , or who come from low-income families are
disproportionately denied a diploma due to a test score, which is unfair and harmful. In the late 1970s when the
graduation test began in the United States, for example, a lawsuit delayed that many Black students had not had a
fair opportunity on the material they were tested on the graduation test because they had attended schools
segregated by law. “The interaction of under-resourced schools and testing most powerfully hits students of color”,
as Neill argues, “They are disproportionately denied diplomas or grade promotion, and the schools they attend are
[51]
the ones most likely to fare poorly on the tests and face sanctions such as restructuring.”

In the journal The Progressive, Barbara Miner explicates the drawbacks of standardized testing by analyzing
three different books. As the co-director of the Center for Education at Rice University and a professor of
education, Linda M. McNeil in her bookContradictions of School Reform: Educational Costs of Standardized
Testing writes “Educational standardization harms teaching and learning and, over the long term, restratifies
education by race and class.” McNeil believes that test-based education reform places higher standards for
students of color. According to Miner, McNeil “shows how test-based reform centralizes po wer in the hands of the
corporate and political elite-- a particularly frightening development during this time of increasing corporate and
conservative influence over education reform.” Such test-based reform has dumbed down learning, especially for
students of color.[52]
On a student and educator level.There is criticism from students themselves that tests, while standardized, are
unfair to the individual student. Some students are "bad test takers", meaning they get nervous and unfocused on
tests. Therefore, while the test is standard and should provide fair results, the test takers are at a disadvantage, but
have no way to prove their knowledge otherwise, as there is no other testing alternative that allows students to prove
their knowledge and problem-solving skills.

Some students suffer from test anxiety. Test anxiety applies to standardized tests aswell, where students who
may not have test anxiety regularly feel immense pressure to perform when the stakes are so high. High stakes
standardized testing includes exams like the SAT, the PARCC, and the ACT, where doing well is required for
grade passing or college admission.
Standardized tests are a way to measure the education level of students and schools on a broad scale. From
Kindergarten to 12th grade, students participate in required test taking. In that amount of time, the average
student takes 112 standardized tests, which equates to about 10 tests per year .[53] At this rate, the average
[54]
amount of testing takes about 2.3% of total class time. Although standardized tests were designed to improve
the education system, they are creating many negative ef fects on students and teachers.

Standardized tests have caused the quality and depth of the educational curriculum to diminish (Rooks, Noliwe, and Noliwe Rooks).
Instead of teachers developing a curriculum that addresses the needs of the actual students in their classrooms, they end up using the
required material which they did not take any part in creating. The required material often contains pacing guidelines which regulate
when substance should be taught and scripted lessons which often limits the teacher’s abilities to make relevant decisions in a
classroom. The tests have narrowed the curriculum to a lot of schools, usually squeezing out classes such as art and music simply
because they are excluded in the tests, then they are wiped out of the curriculum. Teachers are then forced to teach subjects that only
influence the literacy level and comprehension ability of a student and leave out the ones that often require talent or skill.

Standardized testing places a lot of stress and pressure on children and teachers. Teachers are put under a lot of stress because the
better students do on the test the more federal funding that school and district will receive. This causes teachers to teach to the test
rather than teach to the life skills children will use and need. In some cases, schools have shortened or removed recess so that more
time can be spent preparing and practicing for the standardized tests. The pressure of this and the removal of a stress outlet, recess,
means that children, along with teachers, are going to become depressed and sleep-deprived. Being depressed and sleep-deprived
causes children to act out more than usual which places more stress on the teachers. Teachers do not get the results back until the end
of the summer which means they will not be able to use those results to help those children because they will already be on to the
next grade. Standardized tests place an unnecessary amount of stress on teachers and students without yielding any information in a
timely manner.

Standardized testing puts pressure not only on students, but on teachers as well. New Jersey Governor Chris
Christie has proposed educational reform in New Jersey that pressures teachers not only to "teach to the test,"
but also have their students perform at the potential cost of their salary and job security
. The reform calls for
performance-based pay that depends on students' performances on standardized tests and their educational
gains. However, students vary based on cognitive, developmental, and psychological abilities, so it is unfair to
teachers with students with difficulties on the test.[55]
In an April 1995 "meta-analysis" published in the Journal of Educational and Psychological Measurement, Todd Morrison and
Melanie Morrison examined two dozen validity studies of the test required to get into just about any Masters or PhD program in
America: the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). This study encompassed more than 5,000 test-takers over the past 30 years. The
authors found that GRE scores accounted for just 6 percent of the variation in grades in graduate school. The GRE appears to be
"virtually useless from a prediction standpoint," wrote the authors. Repeated studies of the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) find
the same. The SAT's maker, the Educational Testing Service (ETS), now claims the SAT is not an "aptitude" test but rather an
assessment of "developed abilities."[56]

Finally, standardized tests are not inexpensive. It has been reported that the United States spends about 1.7 billion dollars annually on
these tests.[57] In 2001, it was also reported that only three companies (Harcourt Educational Measurement, CTB McGraw-Hill and
[58]
Riverside Publishing) design 96% of the tests taken at the state level.

Educational decisions
Test scores are in some cases used as a sole, mandatory, or primary criterion for admissions or certification. For example, some U.S.
states require high school graduation examinations. Adequate scores on these exit exams are required for high school graduation. The
General Educational Developmenttest is often used as an alternative to a high school diploma.

Other applications include tracking (deciding whether a student should be enrolled in the "fast" or "slow" version of a course) and
awarding scholarships. In the United States, many colleges and universities automatically translate scores on Advanced Placement
tests into college credit, satisfaction of graduation requirements, or placement in more advanced courses. Generalized tests such as
the SAT or GRE are more often used as one measure among several, when making admissions decisions. Some public institutions
have cutoff scores for the SAT, GPA, or class rank, for creating classes of applicants to automatically accept or reject.

Heavy reliance on standardized tests for decision-making is often controversial, for the reasons noted above. Critics often propose
emphasizing cumulative or even non-numerical measures, such as classroom grades or brief individual assessments (written in prose)
from teachers. Supporters argue that test scores provide a clear-cut, objective standard that minimizes the potential for political
influence or favoritism.

The National Academy of Sciences recommends that major educational decisions not be based solely on a single test score.[59] The
use of minimum cut-scores for entrance or graduation does not imply a single standard, since test scores are nearly always combined
with other minimal criteria such as number of credits, prerequisite courses, attendance, etc. Test scores are often perceived as the
"sole criteria" simply because they are the most difficult, or the fulfillment of other criteria is automatically assumed. One exception
to this rule is the GED, which has allowed many people to have their skills recognized even though they did not meet traditional
criteria.

See also

Major topics
Concept inventory
Educational assessment
Evaluation
List of standardized tests in the United States
Psychometrics
Standards-based assessment
Test (assessment)

Other topics
Alternative assessment
 Campbell's law
Criterion-referenced test
High school graduation exam
IBM 805 Test Scoring Machine
Norm-referenced test
Standards-based education reform
Volvo effect

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Further reading
FairTest, "What's Wrong With Standardized Tests," Fact Sheet.
 Ravitch, Diane, "The Uses and Misuses of Tests", in The Schools We Deserve (New York: Basic Books, 1985),
pp. 172–181.
Huddleston, Mark W. Boyer, William W.The higher civil service in the United States: quest for reform
. (University of
Pittsburgh Press, 1996)
Phelps, Richard P. The Effect of Testing on Student Achievement, 1910–2010, International Journal of Testing, 10(1),
2012.
Phelps, Richard P., Ed. Correcting Fallacies about Educational and Psychological esting.
T (Washington, DC:
American Psychological Association, 2008)
Phelps, Richard P., Standardized Testing Primer. (New York, NY: Peter Lang, 2007)
Harris,Smith and Harris The Myths of Standardized eTsts: Why They Don't Tell You What You Think They Do,
Rowman & Littlefield 2011
Phelps, Richard P. The Role and Importance of Standardized T esting in the World of Teaching and Training
Strauss, Valerie. [2]

External links
Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation
Standardized Testing in School
The Standards for Educational and Psychological eTsting
Definition of Standardized Test from National Council on Measurement in Education

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