As a high school student with hobbies, interests, important classes and homework, it seems like standardized tests are issued excessively, wasting a significant amount of school time when the high school curriculum is already incredibly tight. In fact, according to the Washington Post, American students take an average of 112 standardized tests by the time they graduate high school. And for what? So politicians can make empty promises about improving education when many want to privatize education altogether? So testing companies can make more money? Capitalism is at the core of America, but should we prioritize dollar signs over the success of students and teachers? Standardized tests are useless, uncompromising, and extremely unfair.
Standardized testing companies can gather all the surveys they want by asking students and teachers if they believe their tests improved their education, but at the end of the day, there is no solid evidence to prove that standardized tests are good for students or that they improve their education. After all, it isn’t an educational system, it’s just a test. It could, in theory, test the knowledge a student has, if they adapt perfectly to the rigid testing environment, but no matter how perfectly a student takes a test, there are certain aspects tests can’t measure. For example, colleges love to know valuable information about students, like readiness, resilience, self-motivation, creativity, problem-solving, critical thinking and artistic abilities. No standardized test has ever shown this information. In fact, they don’t even provide feedback on how to improve a student’s knowledge. It simply shows how much a student knows. These tests ignore diversity and values uniformity in a country built upon combining values, cultures and ideas. Furthermore, standardized testing wastes valuable classroom time as the teachers feel forced to “teach to the test”. In fact, according to Education Advanced, the average student lost more than 2 hours of teaching time in these disciplines to focus on standardized exam topics like reading and arithmetic. However, standardized tests have been used in the American education system since the mid-1800s. If the worst-case scenario is wasting valuable time and money, why should the American education system change?
In addition to being seemingly useless, standardized tests are also uncompromising. Students are forced into a stressful environment that frankly doesn’t reflect reality in any way: students are timed, crammed into desks for hours and unable to talk or ask questions. In what way does this reflect the real world? There are also very few accommodations for students; they are all treated the same as if students are parts being produced in a factory, used only for politicians and test companies to make money. According to Cross River Therapy, 1 in 5 children in the U.S. have learning and thinking differences such as ADHD or Dysl
exia. But even for students without learning differences, the negative effects of stress and low self-esteem creep up upon the most prepared students. According to Edutopia, “Teachers and parents report that high-stakes tests lead to higher levels of anxiety and lower levels of confidence on the part of elementary students.” Additionally, I challenge the idea that one day and one test is an accurate reflection of an entire year of learning.
Furthermore, standardized tests are not as fair as they are presented to be. Not only does each state create its own test (meaning standardized tests are not comparable across state lines), but the tests are all designed for white, middle-class students, so cultural or linguistic differences put students at a disadvantage. According to ASCD, “Test companies (a multi-billion dollar a year industry) not only manufacture the tests, they also manufacture the courses and programs that can be taken to ‘prepare for the test.’” Standardized tests weren’t made to improve education; instead, they were invented for administrative, political, and financial purposes. Standardized tests help give more money and influence to already privileged structures like test companies, politicians and administrators. The information from standardized tests can be manipulated to send any message needed. How does this help students?
A better alternative to standardized tests for colleges and schools is a Grade Point Average. Whitby.org quotes The Vice President of Education Data and Policy at the Urban Institute, Matthew M. Chingos, as saying, “Earning good grades requires consistent behaviors over time—showing up to class and participating, turning in assignments, taking quizzes, etc.—whereas students could in theory do well on a test even if they do not have the motivation and perseverance needed to achieve good grades. It seems likely that the kinds of habits high school grades capture are more relevant for success in college than a score from a single test.” BritannicaProCon.org also claims Elaine M. Allensworth (PhD, Lewis-Sebring Director of the University of Chicago Consortium) said, “GPAs measure a very wide variety of skills and behaviors that are needed for success in college, where students will encounter widely varying content and expectations. In contrast, standardized tests measure only a small set of the skills that students need to succeed in college, and students can prepare for these tests in narrow ways that may not translate into better preparation to succeed in college.” Clearly, Grade Point Averages are a better indicator of how prepared a student is for college.
Standardized tests have never been shown to improve education and learning, rather, standardized tests help test companies, politicians and administrators, at the cost of student’s futures and mental health. Although standardized tests have been the norm for decades, the cost and waste is apparent and should not be ignored, just so privileged, private, billionaire companies can continue to infest the public system.
