Standardized Testing

Standardized tests have always determined the future of many students, parents, and everyone else. For some, it created a downfall in their long run and, on the other hand, it had no effect on others at all. The Standardized test has been made part of the American culture for more than 50 years and it is time to revise our standards (Fletcher). The NCLB Act, also known as the No Child Left Behind Act is one of the foundations that Standardized tests are built on. Rather than this Act working in favor of the students, it is actually diminishing the value of learning (Fisanick). The reality of standardized testing is that it is negatively affecting students through using their scores to determine their future, assessing a few skills and more
When the NCLB act was created, it caused the purpose of standardized assessments to change. Currently, their main goal is to assess the teacher's instructional capabilities and to rate the school. On the contrary, colleges use the test scores to assess the student’s capabilities; and many times there are many factors create a score and mislead colleges. A statement from the “Transformative assessment” states that “The sad reality is that almost all of today’s educational accountability tests are instructional insensitive, incapable of detecting the difference between effective and ineffective instruction. Even sadder is the fact that so few educators realize this reality” (Popham 123). The problem here is that everyone receives the same test no matter what kind of teacher they have or how hard they study. Especially, if the teachers are not able to cover the curriculum or even skills that the students are being assessed in the test. It could also be that it is a bad teacher. Like this, there are many other cases which caused the score. Moreover, these scores are using too many variables, such as student achievement, teacher’s competency or even outside programs (Harris). This makes it harder for education professors to understand what was the cause of the high or low score. The reasons for the scores are endless and yet it used to assess the capabilities of students. As a result, the standardized
Standardized assessments create a negative influence in the student’s education. Especially, if the “Pressure to raise test scores can force state- and district-level officials to make decisions that may run contrary to what's best for students” (Sadowski). Cases such as rushing the information could negatively affect a student's understanding. They could even harm how a student learns and his bucket of knowledge. More importantly, these tests makes the student’s “...gains appear to be mainly in rote learning, not conceptual understanding or problem solving” (Fisanick 27). This further lowers the process of learning. The student becomes incapable of applying his or her skills to areas in the world where there is no model to follow and you have to be innovative. They also affect their creativity and thinking skills. (Harris). All of these factors only increase the burden on the student’s life and learning. Furthermore, these scores create a disadvantage in a student's life and cause the student to learn and hone their skills in a critical and a later stage. Eventually, standardized tests do not help the students and even negatively influence their intellectual and creativity