Standardized test

              Tests are given across the nation to all children, every year in grades three to eight. These tests are standardized test. Standardized test are test administered and created in a specific manner. These tests have to follow “certain rules and specifications so that testing conditions are the same for all test takers” (“What is”). The questioning, administering and scoring of standardized test are supposed to be consistent. The measures taken claim that the grades produced will be reliable. These tests are supposed to see if the student is measuring up with the standards set for the grade he or she is in. The standards have been set higher due to the new common core that New York City (and most of the nation) has adopted. These grades are then averaged within their schools grades, the entire school, the city it’s in and eventually the country. But there is an enormous problem. Many argue that the standardized tests aren’t being made fairly and that children are missing out on useful instruction due to test preparations.

The No Child Left Behind Act passed in 2002 required that all students, grades three to eight, be tested annually across the nation. Standardized test help schools understand where they stand academically and measure students’ academic achievements. They are the same exams administered state wide, varying standards by grade. Every state has them, they are just called differently. Only until recently were the standards set the same across the country, due to the common core standards most of the nation adopted. The better the test scores the better the schools score. The better the schools score, the more parents want their children to attend. The better the school is the higher the property value and the more funding the school gets. In reality, schools with better grades earn “bragging rights”. A parent from the Bronx, New York would much rather send their child to Bronx Science than to Evander Childs High School.

Sadly, since standardized testing has risen, the United States dropped from number 13 in math to number 31, with a similar decline in science and flat lined in reading (“Is standardized”). People are arguing that the test aren’t being made fairly. For example, a question from an exam given to sixth grades is asking which plant isn’t a fruit if all fruits contain seeds. They give them the following choices, oranges, pumkins, apples or celery. The answer is celery. What if the parent to that child doesn’t make enough to but fresh fruits and doesn’t grow up eating celery (Popham). This is just one example of the many that occur. Testing students with standardized test are alienating millions of children. In retrospect the children are punished because most of the time they aren’t allowed to pass to the next grade. Things are just getting worst. With the new standards that the nation has adopted, common core, even more students are failing. Leveling out the playing field with standards is understandable, but the measure taken to asses and measure the students’ academic achievement is wrong.  

             “Measuring temperature with a tablespoon” (Popham). That’s exactly what it seems like those in power are doing in testing students with standardized test to measure where they stand academically. Sociologist Max Weber introduced the concept “life chances”, which means the opportunities individual have to improve the quality of their life. Students in low income neighborhood don’t have the life chances that the students that live in the Hamptons, New York have. They haven’t experienced the same things or brought up the same way. Yet both students are tested with the same test. The disadvantaged students are those in the lower income neighborhoods because these tests are made to compliment the students living in the Hamptons. Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson states in a speech he gave at the RSA edge lecture “there are many brilliant people who think they are not because they are being judged against this particular view of the mind”. Why do these people hold the power to judge our children and criticize their achievements when they don’t meet their standards when taking these unfair tests?

Learning should be natural; it should come as second nature. Our children should be enjoying their time in school. Test preparation every single year takes the joy out of teaching. Educators have labeled it “drill and kill” (Fey). Students are missing out on valuable new topics due to the mind-numbing test preparation.

           Test taking is understandable, but for it to be the sole way of measuring a student’s academic achievements is unfair. Then throwing in biased exams makes it destructive to our children’s growth.

Work cited

Fey, Lori. “Drill and kill testing; just say “no”. MSDF.org. Michael and Susan Dell Foundation. March 30, 2012. Web. May 1, 2014

“Is the use of standardized test improving education in America?”. Procon.org. Procon. N.d. Web. May 1, 2014   

Popham, James. “Why standardized test don’t measure education quality”. ASCD.org. Ascd. March 1999. Web. May 1, 2014

“What is a Standardized Test?”. Johnson-Center.org. The Johnson Center for Child Health & Development. N.d. Wed. April 30, 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U