Synthesis Essay On Standardized Testing

Standardized testing is a pivotal part in our education as a way of measuring a child's academic knowledge and growth has been present in the United States education system for nearly a century now and doesn't plan on leaving our education system anytime soon. In fact, in the past decade the amount of state issued exams has actually increased. While assessments can be a beneficial way in evaluating some forms of a student's performance in school tests despite, its history and significance, the effectiveness and requirements of these exams have been a constant source of controversy for both of the parties involved. Not only does it affect the teaching and learning that occurs in the classroom. Standardized testing can also have a negative impact
on how some students may perceive their academic abilities based upon one test score. Standardized tests also lack the ability to fully measure every child's intellectual ability. States need to reconsider the use of their state mandated test such as STAAR (State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness) to evaluate student, teacher, and school performances and improve how they measure success.
To begin with standardized tests are designed to measure a child’s academic knowledge and are a way to hold public schools accountable. Schools that get funding from the state are required to administer these assessments to their students. In the state of Texas alone, public schools are obligated to implement a sequence of state-mandated standardized tests known as the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR). STAAR is designed to measure a student’s grade-level knowledge attained throughout the school year. Other prominent examples of test-based accountability policies are The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSS), which have been in effect for the past few decades. Since the implementation of the No Child Left behind Policy in 2002 by President Bush and the reward and punishment system that follows along with it there's been an emphasis on student and teacher success based upon the results gained from standardized testing. Because of the accountability, teachers and schools face educators now feel the need to "teach to the test" meaning Texas educators follow and execute a curriculum aligned to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). In Source A it mentions "The emphasis on testing has forced teachers to narrow the curriculum to test-taking strategies in core subject areas while simultaneously deemphasizing the arts and other enriching subjects" (e.g., Barlow, 2003). Due to the effects High Stakes testing leaves behind on not only schools but teachers, curriculum instead must strictly focus and revolve around their student's ability to navigate through the standardized exams with ease while obtaining passable score. In Source B it mentions "educators do pay attention to what is on the tests--but the consequences are not necessarily the intended ones" (David). Educators within the last decade have not only lost their flexibility to teach in their own methods and learning styles that could inspire students, they’ve often lost their motivation and drive to continue a career in education due to the high amounts of stress and pressure they face from their own school district. States need to reconsider the use of their state mandated test to evaluate schools and teacher effectiveness in the classroom.
Furthermore, not only do standardized tests such as State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) affect schools and teachers but the students often face dire consequences from the overload of testing in American public schools.
Students are constantly drilled and overworked to master the skills (TEKS) needed in order for them to successfully complete their states issued assessments.
The constant drilling and repetitiveness in class can often cause kids to grow bored and gain a disinterest in school related matters. In Source A it says " student engagement is potentially stifled in the current education model that emphasizes high-stakes testing and accountability systems in urban schools" (Cavendish). "As decreased student engagement is related to a decreased likelihood of graduation and consequently severely limited postsecondary education and employment opportunities" (National Research Council, 2004). It is important for children to maintain an interest in their education. Not only does the current curriculum cause a boredom amongst students in school's according to Sir Ken Robinson, in Slon's (2013) article, "by the time they get to be adults most kids have lost the capacity" to be creative due to the fact that experimentation and creation are not a fundamental part of the standardized testing mechanisms. Instead children are now being taken away from time where they could be learning about the world around them to a structured implementation of standardized tests as the main focus. In a study done by Caneige-Knight Task Force they found that "the intensive time required to "teach to the test"--to prepare students for mandatory in the nation's public schools – is stealing time away from
students to discuss and study the news, and ultimately be educated about and engaged in their country and their world" ("Mandatory Testing and News in the Schools" 2). In other studies that were conducted on state testing and "teaching to the test" they learned that when teaching is focused on test-based curriculum it eliminated activities that motivated students and teachers to exert more effort, and instead pushed skills and essential content for exams.
Alongside that many students face an emotional and mental weight on them.
Since many colleges and universities have become dependent on the results they received from standardized tests rather than looking into other talents or the grade point averages students were able to maintain throughout the school year many students feel the pressure to place high on their tests in order to attend their dream college. In Source C its mentioned that "it is important to acknowledge that for some children, testing exacts an emotional toll in the form of anxiety and stress" (Lazarín).Students only feel more pressure upon themselves to score above and beyond on their placement exams. But not every student is able to excel in tests despite how well they may preform inside the classroom and when students fail an exam the natural response for many kids is to lose complete in interest in pursuing studying and high grades. Again, in Source C it says "there is a culture of testing and test preparation that does not put students first" (Lazarín) This refers to the high demand for standardized and placement exams students are often forced to take by their own district due to the fact that many districts are administring benchmarks before Standardized Tests in order to gather an idea on how schools are preforming. In Source C its mentioned that "despite the perception that federally mandated state testing is the root of the issue, districts require more tests than states and, students are tested as
frequently as twice per month and an average of once per month" (Lazarín).

Another issue we face with standardized tests is how biased they turn out to be for students taking these exams with the most convincing data comes from the tests themselves.

When researched they found out that Hispanics and Black students tended to have lower average scores with there being a percentage of 38 Hispanics and 48 Blacks scoring far below and below average. Asian and White students on the other hand had higher scores with there being 60 percent of Asians and 90 percent of Whites passing their standardized exams. This goes on to show that "standardized tests can also be biased or unfair because questions on these tests necessitate understanding and abilities that typically children from advantaged families have" (Kohn, A, 2000). While students from areas with less resources aren't exposed to the same backgrounds and tend to not be able to understand what the test could be asking for. Which goes back to the concept on how standardized tests can affect a student's outlook on their academic abilities.
State Testing doesn't just have a negative effect on students, teachers and schools in fact they prove to be beneficial in certain circumstances. For example, state testing makes it a lot easier to compare results between schools in the district and to have an exam that is equivalent for all students around the state it is also reliable as an objective measure on student achievement. To begin "policy makers would have to rely on tests scored by individual schools and teachers who have a vested interest in producing favorable results"(ProCon.org) in Source D the author mentions "accountability proponent Margaret Spellings, U.S. secretary of education from 2005 to 2009 and now president of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, defends the testing regime as a critical source of information, for educators as well as the public, and argues for holding the line" ("Assessments Are Vital for Healthy Schools").
But in the end standardized testing had no effect in improving student achievement. They are still an unreliable way for states to measure a student's academic ability and replaced good teaching methods for a "drill and kill" method instead. So, since mandatory Standardized testing is here to stay we should improve them so they do measure what matters, and so that what matters gets taught in our publics schools" we need a better system of assessments" (Wei, Ruth Chung, Raymond L. Pecheone, and Katherine).