Standardized Testing Informative Essay

“We live in a test-conscious, test-giving culture in which the lives of people are in part determined by their test performance.” This quote by Sarason SB helps to explain the relevance of standardized testing in our day and age (Reteguiz 415). A standardized test requires all those taking the test to answer the same questions, and then the tests are scored in a standardized method in which the scores can be compared. Standardized tests are now used to compare students on academic levels, mental states, personality traits, and much more. The most common way in which standardized tests are used for are to judge students on their academic knowledge, and compare the scores to those of other students, classes, schools, states, nations, and worldwide.

Standardized tests became more prevalent during the Industrial Revolution when many of the children transitioned from workers to students. The influx of children in school resulted in the need to assess mass amounts of students’ learning level. During the early 1910s to 1920s, researchers began to develop official standardized tests to be taken on a national scale. The SAT, the Scholastic Aptitude Test, was the first main standardized test, and was founded in 1926 by the College Board. It wasn’t until 1959 that Everett Lindquist, an education professor at the University of Iowa, developed the ACT as a competitor to the SAT. Note that these competitor tests were geared toward different elements; SAT is geared toward testing logic, while the ACT is considered more a test of accumulated knowledge.

The general purpose of standardized tests is to compare students based off of their test scores. The variables in which students are compared on can vary greatly. Different categories of tests test for different factors such as, diagnosing learning disabilities, determining college/ higher education preparedness, assessing primary and secondary students’ learning and their teacher’s teaching abilities, and many more. The need for test comparisons did not truly develop until competition for college acceptance, job security, and school funding became