Standarized Tests: Exposed

Standardized testing has swelled and mutated, like a creature in one of those old horror movies, to the point that it now threatens to swallow our school whole. Of course, on the late, late show no one ever insists that the monster is really doing us a favor by making its victims more “accountable.” In real life, plenty of people need to be convinced that these tests do not provide an objective measure of learning or a useful inducement to improve teaching, that they are not only unnecessary but highly dangerous. (Alfie Kohn, 2000)

 

This quote perfectly sums up what standardized testing has done. Standardized tests have always been something that bothered me. Why should one test determine the rest of your life? Standardized test have been given way too much power throughout the school systems. They should not be the main source that colleges look to when they are looking to give out scholarships and scout new students. Colleges should be looking at how the student has done throughout the four years of high school, not how they did on one test one day.

 

Standardized tests do not prepare you for adulthood, also known as the “real world”. Excessive testing may teach students how to be good at taking tests, but does not prepare them for adult lives. Students spend hours upon hours of studying for these tests, and in the end they don’t retain it.  They just learn it for the test and then forget the material. Why should students work from 1st grade to 12th grade when in the end all that is going to matter is what they score on the standardized tests? Standardized tests should not have as much power as they do.

 

Standardized tests are what schools thrive on. They can make or break you. While schools are focusing on teaching towards the tests, they are doing the students a disservice by not preparing them for the real world. Schools need to focus on the student’s talents and what they are good at, not what are on these standardized tests.