The Benefits Of Standardized Testing

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Over the past few decades, our world has innovated in many ways to improve every aspect of life. While almost everything has changed, one of the few things that have not changed is the use of standardized testing to measure a student's understanding. Standardized testing dates all the way back to the 1800s. Many schools still use standardized testing today to measure the knowledge and understanding of their students, or so they think. Standardized tests are unreliable in measuring performance and should not be used to measure a student's knowledge due to diversity, the hindrance of creativity in the classroom, stress, and discrimination.
Standardized testing is unreliable in measuring performance because all students obtain and present their …show more content…
For example, some students may be able to orally explain how well they understand something, and some students may be able to express it through their writing. Both of these ways exclude being under pressure knowing time is limited. They also exclude the stress and worry of passing the test so they can move on to the next grade, college, or whatever they are trying to achieve. It is unfair to use one medium for all children if their strength is in a different medium. Another example lies in an article from the Journal of Social Theory in Art Education called Test Anxiety. It states “What standardized test results do not reveal is how the students who underperform on them can excel in other areas. Not all successful people who managed to navigate through the system and rise in their fields scored well on standardized tests.” The key idea that needs to be understood in this article is that standardized tests will not determine the success of every individual student accurately (Combe, …show more content…
Teachers tend to only teach testing material right before tests occur which is a waste of valuable teaching time. All of the information and understanding the student had prior to preparing for the test is pushed to the side so they can cram the technique and information needed to pass. In an experimental study, Learning by Experience, from the Journal of Experiential Education, researchers investigated a project based program. During this investigation, they learned that this learning opportunity was more enjoyable to the students, increased positive collaboration, displayed skill growth, and showed progression on standardized test. The key idea that needs to be understood with this example is that standardized test negatively affects a student's opportunity for growth because it discourages schools from offering new learning opportunities in fear of students not passing standardized tests (Scogin, Kruger, Jekkals, and Steinfeldt, 2017). Standardized tests are so bland and straightforward that it leaves no room for creativity, or other learning opportunities, even though that should be an important factor in judging a student. A student may be unable to come up with the exact answer the scantron is looking for, but may have a unique intellectual explanation as to why another answer could have been correct. Instead, students are limited to
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