Standardized Testing and No Child Left Behind: Analytical Essay

All students have the memory of sitting in class with a number 2 pencil being quite as the proctor reads a script about the test you are about to take. Standardized testing has become a right of passage for students starting in kindergarten all the way to seniors in high school. Standardized testing has been a part of schooling since the nineteen hundreds. In those days it was used to measure if students were developmentally behind their peers. Since then standardized tests have been used for the college admission SAT and ACT tests. These standardized tests can determine your future When most people think of standardized testing they think of those dreaded SAT and ACT that can determine your future in college (no pressure). However, many argue that these test does not measure student's intelligence effectively, creates inequality in economic status and test accuracy, and takes away time from teachers to teach new information.

These tests have been around dating back to the 1800s. Ever since the begining debates have arised wheter standardized tests are an effective way to track students' intellectual abilities. In the current school system standardized test are maditory by laws passed by congress. They feel this is an effective way to hold schools and students accountable for learning materials mandated by the state. However many agree these tests do not have the best intreset of teachers and students at heart and instead just another way for states to control the classroom enviorment.

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Have you ever wondered what students really achive from a standardized test? achieve from standardized testing? Achievement means something that somebody has succeeded in doing. “Achievement is more than just test scores but also includes class participation, students’ course-taking patterns, and teachers’ professional development patterns”(Harris, Harris, Smith). This quote explains that in reality a test score can not truly capture the essenice of the different areas students can achive in. Standardized tests are just an edless cycle they start in kindergarden, develope into college admission test like SAT, and could even carry on into carrer test like the MCAT. Testing patterns have also been at hot topic. Most standardized test are only multiple choice. In result students could just be good “guessers” and not truly know the information the test in asking. It does not test the students’ full potential to what they have learned, it just simply tests the students’ ability to guess quickly under pressure (Walberg). These tests are also usually timed in a strick limit. How the student paces his or her time results in how well they can perform without feeling rushed, and not be able to think through the questions full. In addition, this could cause major anziety for students with fear of not completeing the test in time. With all these circumstances student rush to finish the test and creates the end result of lower test schores than students actual intelectual ability (Popham).

Colleges now put great emphasis on SAT scores rather than grades in the classroom. The common core commity think some teachers might teach easier than others which don’t give all students equal opprutinities to have strong grades on your transcrip that you submit to college.

Standardized tests have been a part of American education since the mid-1800s (“Standardized Tests”). Since that time teachers began to teach for the test instead of lessons students might be intrested in. Standardized tests are an unreliable measure of student performance. A 2001 study published by the Brookings Institution found that 50-80% of year-over-year tests-core improvements were temporary and “caused by fluctuations that had nothing to do with long-term changes in learning…”(“Standardized Tests”). Teachers become stressed that they are teaching “the right way” in hope of their students scoring high on standardized tests. A psychologist, Daniel Koretz says, “standardized tests usually do not provide a direct and complete measure of educational achievement.”

Standardized testing has many positive effects such as getting used to standardized tests. Some say that they are more reliable at measuring student achievement. Without standardized tests the policymakers would have to rely on tests scored by individual schools and teachers who have a vested interest in producing favorable results. The multiple-choice tests are graded by a machine which is less time consuming and generally more accurate than a hand-graded test by a person which rids of the human subjective thinking or bias(“Standardized Tests”). According to a Nov. 2010 report by Mckinsey & Company, a global management firm, “Twenty countries’ studies have achieved significant and widespread gains on national and international assessments had used “proficiency targets for school” and “frequent, standardized testing to monitor system progress,”(Popham). The US Department of Education stated that “if teachers cover subject matter required by the standards and teach it well, then students will master the material on which they will be tested-and probably much more”. “teaching to the Test” can be a good thing because it focuses on essential content and skills, eliminates time-wasting activities that don’t produce learning gains, and motivates the students to excel(Bily).

There are boundless reasons to determine that standardized testing can in fact be a positive thing to students and educators across the globe. One of the most important things is that it is not stressful on students. According to the United Stated Department of Education, “although testing may be stressful for some students, testing is a normal and expected way of assessing what students have learned.” A Nov. 2001 University of Arkansas study found that “the vast majority of students do not exhibit stress and have a positive attitude towards standardized testing programs.”(“Standardized Tests”). This

“Teaching to the Test” idea can be a positive thing for students across the globe because it better prepares them for colleges and other higher learning facilities beyond secondary school. In January of 1998, A Public Agenda found that 66% of college professors said that elementary and high schools expect students to learn too little. By March of 2002, after a surge in the testing and the passing of the No Child Left Behind act,(NCLB), that figure dropped tremendously to 47% “in direct support of higher educations, strengthened standards, and better tests.”(“Standardized Testing No Child Left Behind”).

Many people believe that standardized testing is a burden on society and a total waste of taxpayers’ money. According to the Texas Education Agency, the state of Texas spent over $9 million in 2002-03 to test students. While the cost to Texas taxpayers from 2009-12 is projected to be around $88 million per year(“Standardized Testing”). That is well over $264 million spent on standardized tests just in one state. That is useful money that could be going towards bettering the education of the students through better technology, books, classrooms, and even teachers. Not only is testing expensive it is stressful on the students and equally the teachers. According to education researcher Mr. Cizek, anecdotes produce griping anxiety in even the smartest students and makes children cry, vomit, or both. On March 14, 2002, the Sacramento Bee reported that “test-related jitters, especially among young students are so common that the Stanford-9 exam comes with instructions on what to do with a test booklet if a student vomits on it.”(“Standardized Tests”). The stress is equally distributed to the teachers. Over 17 percent of Houston teachers ranked in the top category of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills reading test were ranked in the two lowest categories on the equivalent Stanford Achievement test. The results were based on “the same students, tested in the same subject, at approximately the same time of year, using two different tests.”(Walberg).

Some people say that standardized tests are discriminatory against non-English speaking students and students with special needs. Students in the process of learning the English language a forced to take English tests before they have mastered the language. Special needs students take the same tests as other children, receiving few of the accommodations usually provided to them as part of their Individualized Education Plans(IEP). (“Standardized Tests”). Also, the NCLB tests are drastically narrowing the curriculum. According to a study done by the Center on Education Policy reported that since 2001, 44 percent of school districts had reduced the time spent on science, social studies, and the arts by one hundred and forty-five minutes per week in order to focus on reading and math, and 75 percent of those teaching current events less often cited standardized tests as the reason behind all of this.(Popham). Not only are they discriminatory, but they are also an unreliable measure of student performance.

The multiple choice format used on standardized tests is an inadequate assessment tool. It encourages a simplistic way of thinking in which there are only right and wrong answers, which doesn’t apply in real world scenarios. The format is also biased toward male students, who studies have shown adapt more easily to the “game-like” point-scoring of multiple choice questions.(Harris, Harris, and Smith). The tests are graded by underpaid temporary workers with no educational training. The scorers make $11-$13 per hour and need only a bachelor’s degree, not necessarily related to education. “All it takes to become a test scorers a bachelor’s degree, a lack of a steady job, and a willingness to throw independent thinking out the window.”(“Standardized Tests”).

The No Child Left Behind Act or the NCLB, is a 2001 federal law designed to improve the quality of American education. The Act required all states to design basic tests to be distributed to students statewide. This act is optional; however, states that do not take part in this program will not be given funding from the government. Most states adopted this act and because of this students are forced to take mandatory tests annually or sometimes bi-annually. Students in grades 3-8 take annual standardized tests. In Tennessee, that test is called the TCAP. In most places, it is simply named the Terranova.

Standardized testing can be both a positive and negative thing on students and teachers everywhere. Ultimately, standardized testing has been a tradition in the United States for a long time the debate is whether or not students benefit from this monotonous task. Testing is hard on the students and equally challenging on the educators teaching them. This does not mean that school systems should rid of the idea behind it. A better solution would be smaller, less time-consuming benchmarks throughout the year to track student’s progress, and also to decide if they have learned what they were required to learn based on the curriculum.

Works Cited

1. Bily, Cynthia A. Standardized Testing. Farmington Hills: Greenhaven Press, 2011. Print.
2. 'Do Standardized Tests Show an Accurate View of Students' Abilities?.' Concordia University-Portland Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Nov 2013.< education.cu-portland.edu/blog/news/do-standardized-test-show-an-accurate-view-of-students-abilities/>
3. Harris, Phillip, Joan Harris, and Bruce M. Smith. 'Standardized Tests Do Not Effectively Measure Student Achievement.' Standardized Testing. Ed. Dedria Bryfonski.
4. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. At Issue. Rpt. from 'Chapter 3: The Tests Don't Measure Achievement Adequately.' The Myths of Standardized Tests: Why They Don't Tell You What You Think They Do. 2011. 33-45. Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 8 Nov. 2013.
5. Popham, W.James. 'Why Standardized Tests Don't Measure Educational Quality.' Educational Leadership. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Nov 2013.
6. www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar99/vol56/num06/Why-standardized-tests-don't-measure-educational-quality/
7. 'Standardized Tests.' procon.org. N.p., 01 Nov. 2013. Web. 11 Nov 2013.
8. 'Standardized Testing: No Child Left Behind.' Lawserver. N.p. Web. 13 Nov 2013.
9. Walberg, Herbert J. 'Standardized Tests Effectively Measure Student Achievement.'
10. Standardized Testing. Ed. Dedria Bryfonski. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. At Issue. Rpt. from 'Stop the War Against Standardized Tests.' Defining Ideas: A Hoover Institution Journal (20 May 2011). Opposing Viewpoints In Context.