Standardized Testing In America

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Standardized Testing in America
Since the 1900s left its mark on the education system, standardized tests have been given to evaluate academic performance and achievement. They are one of the largest determining factors to college acceptance. The tests are just a number of obstacles toward the college reach. However, standardized tests do not properly evaluate a student’s academic learning or predict success.
The standardized tests simply do not work for many reasons. One example would be that the aptitude tests measure only superficial thinking, which means it only focuses on certain subjects and solely teaches kids to guess and pick an answer. “According to a study published in the Journal of Educational Psychology, elementary school students …show more content…
They do not take into account many test preparation factors. Privileged kids who live in a wealthy household have more test preparation opportunities than those living off of welfare. Schools are also a factor when talking about disadvantages. Wealthy students who are sent to prepatory college high schools are more equipped for the test because of the new material they are learning. Compared to these schools, students who are sent to low funded inner-city establishments are put on the short end of the stick because of the lack of opportunity their school provides. “Students do not have a fair opportunity to learn the material on the test because they attend poorly-funded schools with large class sizes, too many teachers without subject area certification, and inadequate books, libraries, laboratories, computers and other facilities. These students are usually from low-income families, and many also suffer problems with housing, nutrition or health care. High-stakes tests punish them for things they cannot control. Students with learning disabilities, whose first language is not English, or who attend vocational schools fail high-stakes tests far more frequently than do mainstream students” (Dangerous Consequences…). Students who are disadvantaged are held accountable for doing so poorly but really it is the government to blame. The test should be responsible for allowing so much distance between the success of the schools’ students. College admittance tests should not be based upon wealth but they simply are. “For decades, critics have complained that many standardized tests are unfair because the questions require a set of knowledge and skills more likely to be possessed by children from a privileged background. The discriminatory effect is particularly pronounced with norm-referenced tests, where the imperative to spread out the scores often produces questions that tap knowledge gained outside of school. This, as W.
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