Standardized Testing Affecting America

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Standardized Testing: How it’s Affecting American Education

The United States is falling lower in education ranks while other countries are climbing, and there is a potential contributing factor: excessive standardized testing. America is ranked 17th in science and 24th in math (reading was exempt due to a printing error) out of 57 other countries. (Wilde) Although the United States is in the middle of the group and not the lower end, as large and diverse as the country is, one would think that America would be a fearsome competitor in educational standards compared to other industrialized countries in the world. The exorbitant amount of standardized tests that students undergo every year affects the quality of education these students
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(Strauss) Both of the skills promote the technique an individual can decipher and resolve a problem. Original thinking seems to be overlooked in society today; that attribute isn’t important, as universities only look at a student’s test score in math, science, etc. Arts programs, including choir, band, FCS, drama, painting, pottery, etc., are considered insignificant. The arts, compared to classes that contribute to information that are on standardized tests, are deemed “supplementary” in spite of the fact that they often make careers. These “extra” classes are valuable tools to making a student more creative, especially if taken at a young age. Creativity causes a person to think resourcefully; the “outside of the box” thought process helps in considering ways to solve a problem than other, less inventive, people wouldn’t be able to envision. Imagination and innovation are a necessity make a business successful. Complex drawbacks within a corporation require an employee who can consider a solution that no one else has thought of. Creativity is essential to a person’s success in life and workplace, as well as the approach of resolving conundrums. The hypothesis that standardized testing is the center of education has caused students to disregard the significance of critical …show more content…
This conviction averts students from expression, or even feeling the need to express themselves. Critical thinking is an element that is important to the development of solving problems. Remembering the facts to pass a test rather than using critical thinking produces students who aren’t able to understand the process of resolving an enigma. Being able to analyze a situation and find the solution is a skill that is imperative to living in the real world- the world of adulthood. Standardized testing promotes memorization of facts rather than thinking through and solving an issue. Which is more beneficial: knowing the answer to a problem that will inevitably be forgotten, or being familiar with the process of interpreting a difficult situation and knowing the steps to find a solution? Short-term memorization is the way students pass tests and classes, but it’s evident that it’s a corrupt and unfair system. The American society doesn’t question the education system; it isn’t an issue, that’s standard education. Looking from the outside of American culture, it seems that students are accustomed to this backward education system. Standardized tests represent the students’ ability to memorize facts, not the student’s actual judgment, reasoning, comprehension, or work ethic. This idea