Standardized Testing Inaccurate

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Standardized testing is used widely around the world to measure several things, typically pertaining to education. These tests hold all students who take that test to the same standard, which only differentiates between grade levels. Although these tests provide some information on students’ and teachers’ academic and instructional progress respectively, these tests have critical flaws, and the results for a particular student can be altered greatly by something as simple as the test taking environment. This is why standardized tests are inaccurate and are unable to report the true growth of a student in all areas. First, standardized tests are inaccurate. This is mainly due to the fact that there are always some uncontrolled variables with …show more content…
As stated by Gale, standardized tests only measure superficial thinking, and not other equally important things like critical thinking skills and creativity. Due to these factors, standardized tests do not paint a very complete or vibrant picture of a student’s or school’s academic achievement. This is particularly troubling given that when most parents look for a school to enroll their child in, a main deciding factor is standardized test scores. Most may argue that standardized tests have their perks such as allowing schools to view an instructor’s or a student’s growth over time, but with all of the factors that could compromise the test results beyond the margin of error, standardized tests are still very flawed and provide rather unreliable results.
In conclusion, standardized tests are extremely flawed and are unreliable, due to several factors such as the environment in which the test was administered, all the way to things like the student’s mood on that test day. Standardized tests are unable to provide education officials with accurate information on students’ success. This is why standardized tests are not a good solution to measuring academic