Standardized Tests

By: LaKeisha

Are standardized tests really beneficial to our kids?

                                        

I was recently asked how I felt about standardized tests as an upcoming teacher. I sat there puzzled trying to form the words to express how I felt. I know they are used to indicate what a student knows and the areas that they may be challenged in, but I’m unsure as to why they hold so much value.

Think to yourself as an adult, could you sit down and focus on a test in the midst of death in the family, not having dinner the night before because mom and dad had to make sure the lights didn’t get cut off, or even because you didn’t get enough sleep because you were too worried about the big test tomorrow. But remember we are talking about children taking these tests so how do you think you would feel as a child?

Standardized tests are being used in grades as early as pre-kindergarten. Even though standardized test do not effect whether the students passes to the next grade, it still plays a major part in the students’ education. Data is used to compile judgment on the students’ abilities and predetermine how they are expected to develop. Standardized test do not take into consideration the individuality of each particular student (Gilrain-McKenna, Wing, Fivek, Salon, John).

In Louisiana, starting in kindergarten, students begin the whirlwind of being tested. Students are expected to sit for long periods of time to take a test that will biasedly assess them. With the introduction of the No Child Left Behind Act, the number of standardized tests that are given sky rocketed (http://standardizedtests.procon.org/#background). With this act, tests scores would determine if a student moves forward to the next grade level as well as how much funding that school and district would be given.

Across the nation, there are 1,610 such inconsistencies in standardized test scores (http://www.bestmastersineducation.com/teaching-to-tests/). While the demand for testing continues to increase, this makes teachers unable to truly teach, so they begin to teach for the tests. An American educational reformer by the name of John Dewey believed that “education is life,” (Dewey) and that learning is acquired day to day in accordance with the social structures around us. So think about the day of the big test and the fact that everyday after this test is giving each child will learn day to day, more and more.

References

Freeman, D. J., Kuhs, T. M., Porter, A. C., Floden, R. E., Schmidt, W. H., & Schwille, J. R. (1983). Do textbooks and tests define a natural curriculum in elementary school mathematics? Elementary School Journal, 83(5), 501–513.

Gardner, H. (1994). Multiple intelligences: The theory in practice. Teacher's College Record, 95(4), 576–583.

Gilrain-McKenna, A., Wing, A., Fivek, E., Salon, M., & John, R. Assessment in Primary and Secondary Education.

ProCon.org. (2015, April 3). Standardized Tests ProCon.org. Retrieved from http://standardizedtests.procon.org/