Standardized Tests Shape, And Limit: Student Learning

Standardized tests are customarily defined along with “high-stakes;” however, the test themselves are not in high-stakes. They are frequently used for high-stake purposes such as “determining which students will pass or graduate, which teachers will be fired or given raises, and which schools are reorganized and given more funding,” (NCTE). In the short research brief, “How Standardized Tests Shape – and Limit – Student Learning,” standardized testing has been shown to have three fundamental effects which includes: changing the nature of teaching, narrowing the curriculum, and limiting student learning. Standardized tests change the nature of teaching because the teachers are required to prepare the class for testing; therefore, teacher will
Standardized testing neglects many qualities that are imperative to a student’s success. Excessive testing may teach children to be good at taking tests, but it does not prepare them for productive adult lives (ProCon). Research has proven that “GED recipients perform about as well as high school graduates on standardized tests, but have much worse life outcomes because they lack important soft-skills,” (NCTE). Soft-skills are non-cognitive abilities such as curiosity, conscientiousness, perseverance, and sociability. Because testing occupies time, educators have less class time to teach their students to develop the necessary soft-skills. Not only does standardized testing discourage non-cognitive skills, it bolsters a simplistic way of thinking. Because most standardized tests are in a multiple-choice format, students believe that the answers are either right or wrong (ProCon). This binary attitude and mentality does not apply in real-world situations because in the real world, other solutions may be present only if they decide to be creative and think “outside the
She unveiled that a typical student takes “112 mandated standardized tests between pre-kindergarten classes and twelfth grade,” and that does not include quizzes or tests created by classroom teachers. Even with the large number of time used for testing, many countries continue to outperform the United States on international exams. These countries only test their students three times during their school careers (Layton). Layton has been writing articles covering the nation’s education system since 2011. In one article, she wrote about President Obama’s pledge to reduce testing overload. “In moderation, strategic tests can help us measure our kids’ progress in school, and it can help them learn,” Obama claimed (Layton). President Obama, along with many parents, worry about the effects of too much testing. The nation’s average eighth grader spends over 25 hours during the school year taking tests, and testing also effects students as early as the pre-K class, who are being given 4 standardized tests (Layton). In a 2009 research from the Alliance for Childhood, it showed that most public kindergarten’s time for play has dwindled to the vanishing point and replaced by lengthy lessons to get the students used to taking tests. (ProCon). Over