Health Benefits Of Standardized Testing

Standardized testing skyrocketed after 2002 No Child Left Behind Act. By definition, a standardized test is any form of testing that requires test takers to answer the same questions to compare the relative performance of individual students or groups of students. The question whether or not standardized testing is beneficial to children's education has been around for quite some time. Studies show that on average, in America's public schools, students take around 112 tests from kindergarten to twelfth grade (“Are Exams Bad.” 1). Many teachers, parents, and students are becoming reluctant and question whether or not these tests are beneficial to one's learning, or harmful.
For many years, people have thought of standardized tests to be beneficial
to one's growth and success. Nowadays many parents, teachers, and students are looking deeper into the testing process and trying to decide whether or not all the time, money, and stress spent on testing the youth of America is helping them to succeed. Equality issues have been brought up repeatedly. Studies show that the current testing regime does nothing to address racial and economic inequalities; which is a major problem in low-income neighborhoods because they can't get the proper help to pass the required tests. (Exams are bad for children, 4). Some students also have a higher stress tolerance than others and performing well on a test is not a problem for them at all. However, for other students, being nervous for a test may result in them scoring poorly; even if they may know all the material in a classroom environment. This is especially a problem for younger students where some test booklets even tell teachers what to do if a student vomits on his/ her test.
(Standardized Tests, 3). Students are losing out majorly in the long run. Many standardized tests include a written portion where students do not fill out a tiny bubble but instead are made to write a short response. However, these responses are not graded fairly either. Many written parts are graded by people with only a bachelor's degree which do not need to be related to education at all. Many factors can affect how a student does on a written part, it could be that the grader had a bad day, or that one grader has higher expectations than another. (Standardized Tests, 20). Standardized testing is a huge money pit and political machine. Since the NCLB act passed in 2002, annual state spending on standardized testing rose from $423 million to $1.1 Billion (Standardized Tests, 1). The act being passed and the huge increase in spending were meant to raise America's test scores but in global regards, they've only fallen. In global testing, Shanghai and other parts of Asia left the U.S. in the dust (Standardized Tests, 15). For all this spending, teachers can not even see the tests until months after the students take them and no information is given on how to improve
these scores. Standardized tests exist for all the wrong reasons. Test companies make billions, politicians get elected by promising better scores, and administrators get funding by boosting test scores. Everyone wins except for the children (Thomas Armstrong, 14). Testing is very harmful to students especially high schoolers taking high stakes tests. Knowing that these scores can affect the rest of their life means they will do anything necessary to pass with flying colors. Many incidents of cheating and the use of performance-enhancing drugs have been reported, not to mention the late nights and hours of cramming is not good for a student's health either (Thomas Armstrong, 2). Over the years, the curriculum has narrowed drastically. More time is spent focusing on reading and math while subjects like history, world language, and other programs get little to no funding (Straus, 3). There are many things that standardized tests cannot show such as creativity, critical thinking, persistence, empathy, courage, honesty, and so much more; and students are starting to lose these traits at a young age due to the push and pressure put on them by standardized testing (Standardized Tests, 4). The negatives definitely outweigh the positives in the means of standardized testing but some parents, students, and teachers may feel differently about all of this.
The words “standardized test” has struck fear into many parents, students, and teachers.
This means late nights cramming material from the beginning of the year, teachers making sure they prepare you with everything you need to know, and parents waiting anxiously for the results. If these tests were taken seriously by the test makers themselves they would be very beneficial but the time spent grading them, who grades them, and the amount of questions that end up as “invalid” is a joke. Testing should not be taken away completely but reduced or started at a later grade. Companies that write the tests and test booklets should not have to include instructions on what to do if a child throws up on their test nor should a parent have to be informed that something like that happened. This is not the way we should be preparing today's
youth.
Test scores throughout the world are increasing with the exception of the United States. Finland came on top in reading and math and their schooling system is very different from ours but hopefully, we may be able to adopt new ways of teaching from them (Standardized Tests, 15). For example, Finland uses very little standardized testing, students have very light homework loads, school is not started until the age of 7, and diagnostic testing is done early so if children need extra help they can get it as soon as possible and not fall behind (Standardized Tests, 15). Trying to recreate the Finnish schooling system may turn out to be beneficial to students in the U.S. and help increase America's test scores. The NCLB act certainly helped a bit but a change is in need. Parents, teachers, and students in some states have begun to disgrace testing and think very poorly of it. Another way standardized testing could become less of a burden for people everywhere is to have the government look into these large companies that so much of our money goes into and make sure the tests children are given are fair and taken seriously. Everyone should have a fair chance to succeed and be given the right tools and resources to do so. Tests should show equity and equality.
If something is not changed about the way students are measured by their academic ability, children will grow up and be completely capable of finding, or guessing an answer, and filling in a bubble, but it does not mean they will be able to translate those skills into real life situations. Without action, testing will only get harder and start at an earlier age. Young children should be able to spend their childhood on a playground, not in a cramped classroom preparing for a bubble sheet to be placed in front of them.