Dehumanization Of Standardized Testing

Since elementary school, students have been sharpening their No. 2 pencils, preparing to fill in the bubbles on their standardized tests. To younger children, these tests aren’t a very big deal. But little do they know that the tests they take in elementary school are practice for the biggest test they will take in their lives. This test is the ACT, or the SAT. These tests are a huge deal. Students’ results on these tests could change their plans for the future, and that’s a lot of pressure. So are these tests really all that they are made out to be? Are they really that important enough to stress about so much? Many people have started to say that standardized tests are hurting American schools, and that they put too much pressure on students.

Standardized tests hurt students. Standardized tests provide parents and teachers with a false sense of security, they create stress, and they are dehumanizing.
36 and 2400. These two numbers are the most important numbers to students who are taking standardized tests. Standardized tests have been a part of an American student’s life for more than 50 years. The earliest record of standardized testing comes from China. The most famous standardized tests are the SATs, the Scholastic Aptitude Test, and the ACTs, American College Testing. The ACT test measures what a student should have already learned. On the other hand, the SAT test is more like a test to see what a student is able to learn, it may have material that the student has not learned yet. Although both of these tests are meant to test the students’ learning, many people say that they are not accurate. They provide parents and teachers with false information, a false sense of security. In an ABC article, John Allen Paulos wanted to see how predictive SAT test scores really were. He wanted to see the correlation between high school SAT scores and first-year college grade point averages. Most of the studies found that the correlation between SAT scores and first-year college grades is not overwhelming, and that only 10 percent to 20 percent of the variation in first-year GPA is explained by SAT scores.
Generally, if a student scores well on a test, it assumes that they know the material. However, this assumption may not be true at all. The student may have just memorized the fact, formula, equation, etc., that was necessary to do well on the test. This also brings up the fact that some students are just naturally gifted in taking standardized tests, while others are not. Standardized tests do not even provide any feedback to students on how they can perform better on their next tests. The results are not given back to the teachers and students until months later. When these results come back, there are not any instructions provided by the test companies on how the student can improve these test scores. “All the SAT measures is how well you take the SAT. It does not reveal how smart a person you are. The SAT does not measure the skills needed for college, and it certainly does not predict how well I am going to do in college classes. In fact, studies have shown that high school grades are a better predictor of grades in college than an SAT score.” (Amanda Chan, 1)
For most students, stressful is the one word to describe standardized tests. Brain research has suggested that too much stress is psychologically and physically harmful. This also goes back to the fact that some students are just better test takers than others, and this fact could greatly affect students’ scores. When stress becomes too overwhelming, the brain shifts into a “fight or flight” response. If the brain is under too much stress it chooses to either fight with what it is facing or flight, give up on it. Shifting to this place can make it is impossible to engage in the higher-order thinking processes that are necessary to respond correctly to the standardized test questions. The responses to these questions affect the students’ future. They put so much pressure on themselves to do well because their mind set is on the fact that their score will affect what college they get into, what career they will be able to pursue, what their parents’ reactions will be like, and what their future will turn out to be. Since students know that test scores may affect their future lives, some of them do whatever they can to pass the tests. Ways to pass these tests include cheating and taking performance drugs. Because teachers know that test scores may affect their salaries and job security, they also cheat. Teachers are spending more and more time “teaching to the test.” Instead, of teaching students interesting, compelling, useful, or favorable subjects that are going to help build up the development of a student’s understanding of the world, teachers take time preparing students for the tests which shuts out the possibility of learning anything new or important. There is also stress involved after taking the test. Students who do well on the test get caught up on a cycle of great achievement. They have to continue keeping up with the cycle. They stress over keeping up the cycle at all costs through at least sixteen years of schooling. Students who don’t do too well stress about how well they’ll do on the next test they will take. They stress about what they are going to do with their life next.
Standardized tests are dehumanizing.

The world is no longer concerned with educating whole human beings, but instead, it is focused on collecting “data.” “Standardized testing robs students and teachers of using their creativity and critical thinking. It holds everyone accountable for meeting this one standard when that is nearly impossible to do. It turns us into robots, dehumanizing both teachers and students.” (Gettysburg College, 1) Standardized test are given to schools by the government. The problem with that is that the government is not in the classroom with students every day. They do not know what the students need. Standardized testing takes away time from student learning experiences where they are not able to think critically or be creative. Standardized tests take place in an artificial learning environment. They are timed, students are not allowed to ask questions, use references, talk to another student, and they cannot even get up and move around. All of these things do not mirror the reality of the real world at all. These tests are reducing the richness of human experience and human learning to a number/ set of numbers. A student may have a deep knowledge of a particular subject, but receive no acknowledgement for it because their test score may have been low. Maybe if students could draw a picture, lead a group discussion, or make a hands-on project, they could show all the knowledge that they really have. They cannot do any of these things in a standardized test. As stated before, testing also creates “winners” and losers.” The “winners” get to move on with their life, but the “losers” often suffer from loss of self-esteem and the damage of “low expectations.” Standardized tests do not value diversity either. There are a wide range of differences in the people who take standardized tests. People have different cultural backgrounds, different levels of proficiency in the English language, different learning and thinking styles, different

family backgrounds, and different past experiences. These tests treat everyone as though everyone is identical, which is far from the truth.
There is so much emphasis and pressure put on standardized tests. They come with costs, stress, and pressure, but they are a norm in America. There needs to be a better source of education for students. Standardized tests provide parents and teachers with a false sense of security, they create stress, and they are dehumanizing. 36 and 2400. Are these numbers really worth aiming for?