Why Is Standardized Testing Wrong

“Standardized Testing: Hurting or Helping the Education of Today?” Standardized testing has been embedded in children from the time they first enter kindergarten all the way through grade school and high school years and finally ending in college and graduate school. It has become so frequent that it is no longer questioned why these tests are necessary, and by the time a person is finally through with school, they have taken an average of twenty to twenty-two tests. Although countless generations of Americans have had to sit through these tests, never have they played such a prominent role in schooling. Usually these exams were used to administer a child’s performance in the classroom and what he or she has learned so far, along with where
In Georgia, children from first through eighth grade are required to take the Criteria Referenced Competency Test (CRCT). High school students are required to take a various number of standardized tests throughout their years of high school including End of Course Tests (EOCT), Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), some type of graduation test, and most importantly the SAT and/or ACT. The EOCT is a standardized test that students are required to take and pass in some classes in order to receive credit for the course. The PSAT/NMSQT is a pre-SAT test that all tenth graders are required to take with a chance of receiving a scholarship if their scores are high enough. Usually in eleventh grade, students are required to take a graduation test consisting of English, Math, Science, Social Studies, and Writing which they need to pass in order to graduate. Beginning around tenth and eleventh grade, students begin taking the SAT and the ACT which is administered several times throughout the year. Excelling on the SAT and/or ACT can result in receiving scholarship money and grants and being accepted into prestigious colleges. Pressures from the anticipation of taking these tests have been shown to cause students to become stressed out, worrisome, and even in some cases depressed “The constant
Author Alfie Kohn explains that, “Research has repeatedly found that the amount of poverty in the communities where schools are located, along with other variables having nothing to do with what happens in the classrooms, accounts for the great majority difference in tests scores from one area to the next”(7). A factor such as resources available to the school as well as the level of affluence of the community in which the school is located contributes to these students setbacks. Test results show primarily socioeconomic status and available resources. In other words they tell us how the students’ houses are. One educator suggested that a way to save time and money would just be by asking a single question: “How much does your mom make?...OK, you’re on the bottom” (Kohn 7). Though that statement is slightly exaggerated, it does have some truth to it. Students, teachers, and schools should not be punished because of test scores especially considering all the socioeconomic factors included. Statistics and facts show that schools in better communities have more successful students while students who attend schools in more urban, low income areas are less successful when compared to students living in better economic communities. This is not the fault of the children therefore they should not be held accountable or punished by not receiving money and grants just because tests scores