The controversial debate of whether or not standardized testing in schools is effective has been growing since the 1990’s. Standardized testing has become a main advocate in getting into college and representing high schools. Recently, politicians and businesspeople have become determined to raise expectations of scores on standardized tests. By raising the expectations on test results, a lot of added pressure has been placed on students to higher their scores. With so much at stake for just one test, it is questioned whether standardized tests may be accounting for too much. Standardized testing has caused teachers to alter the way they teach in order to increase their students performances on these tests, given unfair advantages to those who can afford tutoring, and have become a factor in determining which schools are granted federal funds.
Standardized tests have become such a large part of measured success in public schools that it is taking away from its initial purpose. Many of the leading tests were not intended to change the way teachers teach or to determine if students were on track with their grade level. The original purpose of standardized testing was to gain a general consensus from schools (Kohn, 40). The overall score from a school was not supposed to become a competition of who can obtain the highest scores or change teachers teaching styles. Standardized testing has become so crucial to schools reputations that teachers use their students scores on these tests to measure their academic successes over much morereliable sources, Kohn agrees by saying, “ To begin with, they can be given written descriptions (“narratives”) from the teacher – or, better yet, they can participate in conversation with the teacher. What teachers are reporting is, in turn, based on continuous observations of children and their activities” (Kohn, 41). If schools focused more on the actual creativity, conceptual thinking, and efforts of their students instead of the concern of scores on a test that is merely based on content knowledge, then teachers wouldn’t feel the need to alter their way of teaching.
Standardized tests are considered of equal reliability and validity due to their almost identical test questions. The problem with this assumption is that standardized test questions are generally aimed toward the middle class (Solley, 32). This gives unfair advantages to those who can afford to hire tutors and take prep classes prior to taking a standardized test. These tests have singled out low-income and minority students in particular, and have created a barrier in place of their “equal” chance to do just as well on a standardized test, if they were given an equal chance in receiving the preparation needed. Kohn brings up the bias in standardized testing when asking, “Since all students have been exposed to classroom instruction, what’s a good way to ensure that not everyone will be able to answer a given question?, and answers by saying, “Simple: Design it so that knowledge gained outside of school provides a big advantage. Naturally, such knowledge is more likely to be acquired by students whose parents are affluent and well educated, students who have attended a good preschool, own a computer, overhear thoughtful conversations about current events, are taken on interesting trips and so on” (36). When a test is given to a school in an affluent town and the same test is given to a school in an inner city the reliability and validity of the outcomes are not equal.
Standardized test scores not only take part in the ranking of schools, but also take part in the decision as to where federal funds go. As of 2001, the No Child Left Behind Act has been put into affect to determine, based upon success, where this money goes (Holder, 1). This is not a fair way of distributing federal funds because the funds are being granted after the fact. If a school is granted funds based on their success because they were better able to prepare their students for the tests through altered teaching styles and having more money to do so then there is a flaw in this system. It has been proven that schools have lowered their standards in order to raise their overall scores on standardized testing to gain more funds (Proctor, 6). These competitive actions in schools would not exist if it were not for standardized tests.
While schools are depending so heavily on their students to do well on one test taken in a year, the stress for students rises and the way teachers teach is altered. Instead of the usual study plan and unlimited test time many teachers have changed their way of teaching to up scores on standardized tests. Also, teachers have been known to give out standardized tests from years before so students could see what they look like and what kinds of questions they should be aware of. If all students are supposed to have an equal chance of doing well on these tests then it is not fair if some students have already seen a similar version of the test prior to taking it.
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