The Influence Of Standardized Testing

“Sometimes, the most brilliant and intelligent minds do not shine in standardized tests because they do not have standardized minds.” – Diane Ravitch.

Standardized testing has become a dominant element in the education world. It is now used not only to judge a student’s knowledge but to judge the effectiveness of a school system’s teaching. Standardized testing is not an accurate or efficient way to judge a student’s intelligence or a school system’s instructional abilities.

A standardized test is any form of test that requires all test takers to answer the same questions in the same way and is scored in a “standard” or consistent manner. This makes it possible to compare the performance of students or a group of students. First off, there

are two major types of standardized tests. The first test is an aptitude test, this assessment predicts how well students are likely to perform in a subsequent educational setting such as the SAT-I or ACT.

The second type of test is an achievement test, which is what school board members use to judge a school’s effectiveness.

Test creators consider a test item effective if it is answered correctly by about half the students. A test item that is correctly answered by ninety percent of the test-takers is considered inefficient because too many test-takers are answering it correctly. Test items that are answered correctly by eighty percent or more by students will most likely not make it past the final cut when the test is first developed and they are reviewed when the test is revised (Brain Connection). The goal of the creators of these standardized tests is to create assessment tools that allow someone to make a reasonable inference about the knowledge and skill set of a student in a specific subject area compared to other students the same age or grade level throughout the nation.
Next, let’s acknowledge what standardized tests are used for. Standardized tests are used to permit relevant information about a student’s intellectual level based on only a small collection of items. They are now the main tool that test scorer’s use to judge how well a student is thriving in a subject. Grades throughout the school year are not given much thought or looked into very thoroughly. Most inferences that are made about a student’s educational quality is bound to be invalid. Using how well a student did on these tests to judge their knowledge and a school’s educational quality is like measuring temperature with a tablespoon. Tablespoons have a different measurement objective than expressing how hot or cold something is. In the same way, standardized tests have a different measurement objective than expressing how good or bad a school is (ASCD). State tests should be used to make the comparative analysis that they were intended to make. Another point to look into is that these regulated tests will always consist of information that is not taught in a particular setting. In 1983, Michigan State University held an important study over this by Freeman and his colleagues. These researchers selected five national standardized tests in mathematics and studied their contents for grades four through six. They then viewed the information throughout the textbooks for grades four through six. The researchers found that fifty to eighty percent of the information that students test over do not receive attention in the textbooks. Michigan State researchers say, “The proportion of topics presented on a standardized test that received more than cursory treatment in each textbook was never higher than fifty percent” (qtd in ASCD).
A student’s ability to perform well on a standardized test is profoundly influenced by three factors and only one is linked to instructional quality.

The three factors are what’s taught in school, student’s native intellectual ability, and a student’s out-of-school learning. First, let us talk about what is taught in school. Most of the information students learn is taught to them in school. Few parents spend time teaching their child about certain subjects so the child has to rely on what they learn in a classroom setting. Next, let us talk about a student’s native intellectual ability. Some children are born with the ability to learn and execute certain subjects easier than others. Children born with less of a tendency dealing with quantitative and verbal tasks might attain greater interpersonal or intrapersonal intelligence but these latter abilities are not tested on standardized tests. Lastly, let us talk about out of school learning. The most troubling items on tests assess what students have learned outside of school. This is known as testing bias, and it is almost impossible for it to be completely rid tests of it altogether. Testing bias is a test which shows provable and systematic differences in the results of people based on group membership. For example, if a test question asks, “How many points does a football team have if they scored four touchdowns?” Some students may not be exposed to football games at home, and because of that they would be at a huge

disadvantage because they wouldn’t know how many points a touchdown is worth.
Next, let’s explore into how standardized testing causes an immense amount of stress on both students and educational staff. First off, stress is the body’s general response to any intense physical, emotional, or mental demand placed on it. For example, a reminder from a teacher that there is an exam coming up may cause stress in a student that triggers the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous and endocrine systems, according to Nicky Hayes, editor of Foundations of Psychology (Brain Connection). Now, let’s talk more about how stress works so that you can have a better understanding of it. Stress is processed in at least three separate brain regions. All three of these regions have an essential role in how the brain processes stress in the form of fear. The prefrontal cortex, which specializes as a psychical and emotional area, participates in the interpretation of sensory stimuli. This leads researchers to believe that it is the site in the brain where the potential for danger is first acknowledged. The second area that is involved in processing fear in the brain is the amygdala. The amygdala is a “primitive” area of the brain called the limbic system, this includes the hippocampus. The wider and more generalized limbic system and the smaller, more specialized amygdala are both areas of the brain where anxiety is initiated. The third area is located at the base of the brain and is known as the hypothalamus. This expanse of the brain responds to signals sent from the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala and coordinates the release of hormones that drive a person’s motor responses to potential threats. Now that you’ve been exposed to how each region works, I am going to explain how they all work together. The stress signals coming from the limbic system and other cortical regions cause the hypothalamus to emit a corticotrophin-releasing hormone. This is a liquid protein that prompts the pituitary gland to transmit adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). In turn, ACTH causes the adrenal gland to release cortisol and, in so doing, prepare the body to defend itself (Brain Connection). Now that we’ve covered how stress works in the brain, let’s talk about how it can effect students in a classroom and in an everyday setting. Extreme regulated assessments not only cause stress in students but may also undermine learning. Anecdotal reports from educators combined with an increase in prescriptions for medications such as Ritalin and Prozac suggest that students are experiencing increased stress in the classroom. Some researchers suggest that schools that essentially rank students on their test scores are the root of the problem. Common feedback to exam stress includes disturbed sleep patterns, tiredness, worry, irregular eating habits, increased infections, and an inability to concentrate. Education analysts have recorded stressed students showing “acting out” behavior that go beyond “exam stress” symptoms that were described earlier. Tim Urdan, an assistant professor of psychology at Santa Clara University states, “Stressed elementary students in grades