What Are The Pros And Cons Of Standardized Testing

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“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid” (Quotation attributed to Albert Einstein). This quote describes the horror that is standardized testing. These tests do not properly evaluate a student’s educational success level. They strain students to extremes and cause substantial learning consequences. The encumbrance of standardized tests has put too much pressure on students to succeed. All students are expected to take identical tests to determine how much they have learned, even though they are educated in different ways. These tests have several flaws and are not as credible as we believe them to be.
A standardized test is any type of test in which all aspects are identical, such as the questions, scoring method, and format. They are used to compare schools, students, and measure intelligence (Standardized Tests). The tests are formed by state educators who decide the information, and abilities important for each student. The result of these decisions are unfortunately “curricular wish lists” rather than “realistic targets” (Popham, James). This can be troublesome, with such requirements teachers do not have the time to teach the students each standard thoroughly enough for them to master it before the test. This also poses a problem for the students, as a student you are learning what your teacher feels is important and maybe not what the state educators feel. Also with different types of students there are different learning methods, backgrounds, and cultures (Popham, James). And the tests do not take into account the other factors that can hinder learning such as a bad home life which needs to be considered if "no children are to be...

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...fluences higher level thinking, creativity and strategies for solving problems (Popham, James). Instead of getting the students to regurgitate information when it is test day.
In conclusion standardized testing is not an accurate measure of a student’s educational success. One reason is because with all the different factors of student’s teachers and situations identical tests cannot correctly measure how much the student is learning. Also the consequences of preparing and teaching for the test causes severe stress and anxiety to some children. The tests also have many flaws, some may be fixed but it would be a high cost. If these tests put such a strain on students, and do not measure intelligence correctly, they should not be as predominate a source for gauging educational growth. These things may never be changed but it is a big issue in today’s school systems.

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