The Connected Curriculum - Challenge #20

Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing

Although standardized testing is nerve-racking and time-consuming, it is can also be very valuable. Today I am examining some of the positive and negative considerations regarding this hot topic. Standardized testing is an issue that many people feel strongly about. Most individuals either think that it is the preeminent way to assess students’ competences or it is a stress-raising nightmare for all those involved.  Nevertheless, if you step back and consider it objectively, it’s well-defined that it is neither. Standardized testing has mutually positive and negative properties and when used effectually can play a substantial role in enhancing the education of our students. The secret, of course, is to utilize the results effectively. There are many who believe strongly on both sides. In addition to the pros and cons listed below, you can read more arguments supporting standardized testing, and an argument against standardized testing.

The Pros of Standardized Testing

Standardized testing provides teachers guidance on what to teach and when to teach it. The end result is less pointless instructional time and a streamlined way of timeline management.  Standardized testing also provides parents with a good awareness of how their children are doing in comparison to students both locally and across the country. This can also reveal how your local district is doing compared with the national landscape.

Standardized testing allots for students’ progress to be tracked over the years. When students take the consistent type of test yearly (modified for grade level) it is uncomplicated to see if a student is progressing, losing ground educationally, or remaining about the same. (For instance, if a child is given a norm-referenced test and scores in the 75th percentile in the seventh grade and the 80th percentile in the eighth grade, it is apparent that the child is acquiring knowledge in school.) This helps define how a child is performing academically.

Because all students in a school are receiving the same test (with regard to grade level) standardized tests offer an accurate comparison across groups. (For instance, this makes it uncomplicated to see how boys are doing as compared to girls in a specific school or district.) Within the last decade, great improvements have been generated with regards to test bias, with the end result being more accurate assessments and evaluations.

The Cons of Standardized Testing

Many teachers are (unfairly) charged with “teaching to the test”. Many do not do this, yet some feel extreme pressure for their students to attain a specific score that they do windup teaching to the test, whether that was their intention or not. This can make school a chore for students and squeeze a teachers’ enjoyment right out of teaching.

Certain school systems are under huge pressure to increase their scores so they have resorted lessening (and sometimes eliminating) time spent in recess. This can have negative influence on a student’s social, emotional, and academic welfare.  

Standardized tests can place a enormous amount of stress on both students and teachers alike. This can result in negative health effects as well as feelings of negativity focused at school and education in general. (Read more here about how to help students deal with this stress.)

 

As much as test makers try to do away with testing prejudice, it may be difficult to purge tests of it altogether. I once tutored a 6th grader who did not understand what a recipe was. If a standardized test was to have questions regarding a recipe, that student would have been at an enormous disadvantage because most 6th grade students know and have had at best some experience working with recipes, but he did not. There is just no way to distinguish for certain that all children being tested has a reasonable amount of knowledge moving into the test.

 

The Solution to Student Success

The solution to student success on standardized tests is in having balance. Those responsible need to step back and capture both the pros and the cons about testing and discover a way to facilitate student success without initiating too much stress. So, will there always be constant back and forth arguments between testing supporters and those who advocate against them? It’s difficult to say, but I feel somewhat certain that standardized testing is going to remain in our lives. I believe the solution is to use the test outcomes as a guide for educators, parents, and students. Standardized test should also be utilized, in a limited role, to assess how good schools are doing. Standardized testing unquestionably should be used to ascertain a school’s success, but other types of assessment should also be used to determine whether a school's students are making progress or not.

 

Until tomorrow...

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