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Jenna Sowards

Professor Madden

English Composition II

15 July 2019

Should Standardized Tests Measure Ability and Find Another Form of Assessment

Many people appear to form opinions before they actually have evidence and support to

back up their opinions, but this also comes into play when you are dealing with standardized

tests. Initially from the lingering anxiety, intensive stress, and drawn-out preparation, but this

also could be very detrimental to our bodies. In a quote from “Test Anxiety: A Multifaceted

study on the perceptions of Teachers, Principals, Counselors, Students, and Parents” states that

“Numerous articles have suggested a damaging effect on students associated with the influx of

standardized testing and implementation of high-stakes accountability programs” (Mulvenon 38).

When teachers, principals, counselors, and parents has a child, they have numerous thoughts in

their minds. One crucial question that they either have in their head or are asked about, is if they

want a child to be put into an unfriendly, negative, destructive situation to do standardized

testing or not. These thoughts might have roamed through their minds, prior to, although what if

it did not? But what if the teachers, principals, counselors, and parents were not conscious of

what would come onward with standardized testing? Not to mention, standardized tests are an

unethical way of measuring a student`s abilities, their academic performance, and their

intelligence, as a result standardized tests should be banned or prohibited for an approval of

another structure of assessment.

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To begin, standardized testing is a controversial topic due to making tests an effective

and less stressful civic issue for students. Countless people believe that standardized testing

withdraws effective learning for students that start school at an extremely young age despite that

their teachers only focus on preparing their student`s to get an average or above average scores

on their standardized tests. Multiple schools around the world start having their students begin

taking standardized tests in elementary schools and throughout all their school years. All of these

standardized tests have different names in each state in the United States. In Ohio, the

standardized tests are called, OAA which stands for Ohio Achievement Assessment. These

standardized tests, evaluate students on their reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social

studies. The reason why students take these standardized tests is because the state and educators

want to see if school programs are thriving the students to succeed.

Standardized testing has been a significant part of our public education. But, “within the

last ten years, however, the testing has taken on a more important, and possibly more damaging,

role” (Conte). In this case, testing has been a school’s number one priority because you need

standardized testing to get your high school diploma. But these standardized tests cause damage

to what you actually learn because your teachers are just preparing you on how to take the test

and not preparing you to learn wise what is going to be on there. But, a model of test anxiety that

highlights three different processes involved in the expression of test anxiety, including the

individual’s behavior, cognition, and physiology (Segool 489). This explains that test anxiety can

even affect a student`s mental ability too. However, these tests do not establish your abilities. In

a quote from “Educational Leadership” in a state of mind that “standardized achievement tests

should not be used to evaluate the quality of education” (Popham 8). During these tests, students
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have a difficult time understanding that these tests do not define who you are about your

education.

Even though some people think that these tests are the most important thing that will help

their child succeed in life. There has been a lot of cutting on how little students are getting tested,

but most importantly what their results are. Since schools and their districts are expanding their

success. In which “was written by Monty Neill, executive director of the National Center for Fair

& Open Testing, a nonprofit group known as FairTest that works to end the abuse of

standardized tests” (Strauss). Generally, there is so many people and parents, “that believe

standardized testing is overshadowing other teaching methods and styles of learning” (Howell

29). Certainly, there are other teaching methods that are not taught in our public schools and

there are also other styles of learning that we did not know of. Therefore, standardized testing

does not have to have a major role in a child`s successful life, in which they should not intimate

your abilities.

An effect of measuring a student`s ability is the cause of anxiety and stress with

standardized testing causes lower scores on their standardized tests. In which the scores are

measuring your child`s ability to take standardized tests. Test anxiety is a form of anxiety that

happens in acknowledgment when taking tests. It is a very emotional condition were students

will have tension, they will be nervous, etc. Test anxiety causes some students with retrieving

information while taking the test or they could have bad study skills as well. There has been a

lot of studies that have been done that shows that children with low levels of test anxiety show

high scores on their standardized tests. But those students who have high test anxiety show that

they have lower tests scores. Furthermore, test anxiety is an issue that many students are
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struggling with when taking big tests, so why don’t we take a stand and change standardized

testing in general.

Standardized tests are now decided where the money goes, how they are judging students

based on their test scores, and how much this impacts student`s on getting their high school

diploma. Therefore, “Low scores can prevent a student from advancing to the next grade or lead

to school closings and teacher dismissals while high scores factor into tenure decisions and

continued federal funding” (The Room 241 team). It is important to realize that all of these

factors contribute into how decisions are made about standardized testing. Schools put so much

pressure on their students to pass these standardized tests so that students can get their diplomas

and the schools can get a great rating from the state. States all over the United States decide

where their money goes to and what it does not go towards. Mostly states decide that they want

to spend their money on standardized testing. But a “Widespread opposition to the overuse and

misuse of standardized testing is producing a marked shift in attitudes about high-stakes

assessments and, increasingly, state and district practices,” the report states. “Across the nation,

assessment reform activists are winning important victories in reducing the amount of testing and

ending high-stakes exams (Walker). By all means, standardized testing has damaged a lot of

students which is a result of ending these high-stake tests.

In addition, standardized testing is not comprehensive and they are not based on our

education and our knowledge. These standardized tests are based on what the teachers spend all

year round doing, which is preparing us for these standardized tests. This is why standardized

tests are not based on our knowledge. They are just based on what the teachers prepare us for,

and what we learn that year in school. Having state common core standards, are designed to

increase the quality of our education. The problem arises when it comes down to measuring the
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efficacy of these standards. Theoretically, it all sounds good but what ends up happening is that

the schools develop their curriculum around these common core standards, rather than focusing

on the quality of our education for these students. They end up teaching the students the test

material which covers all of the subjects rather than teaching them how to focus more on the

right answers and why those answers are correct. Teachers spend too much time on preparing

these student`s for these standardized tests instead of making sure that they are actually learning

and understanding the material. So, when the students take that standardized test, they can apply

the knowledge that they learned throughout the test that they are taking.

The current academics are very intense from an early age on. It is all about making the

student`s prepared for college and their career fields so that they are ready to take it head on. The

testing and preparing them has become a big part of the school year. How does it affect the

students psychologically? Students are becoming frustrated, stressed, overwhelmed with having

to learn all of this material. For each test, it puts a strain on the student`s mentally and physically

to prepare for these tests each year. Additionally, schools do not take into consideration that

these students are working so hard to prepare for these big tests to help themselves the best that

they can.

There are so many other forms of assessments that we can do instead of standardized

testing. But accordingly, “standardized tests also encourage the development of tests that are

empirically based, including knowledge of elements and principles rather than strategies that

measure expressive outcomes” (Madeja 3). This explains that the development of standardized

tests is based off of our knowledge that we learn throughout the school year rather than doing

strategies to pass the test. We have our traditional assessment methods that we use till this day,

which are multiple choice, true or false, essays, short- answer, fill-in-the-blank, matching, etc.
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The curriculum these days has been designed for the students to be taught the same topics, all at

the same pace, and methods as well. Some alternative ways for standardized testing is known as

a “portfolio-based assessment” (rethinking schools). These portfolio-based assessments are

records that are kept by the student`s teacher.

In which they have all the student`s work, which is called a “student`s portfolio”

(rethinking schools). During each school year, the student`s teacher collects each student`s work.

In which shows the student`s academic performance, their progress, and also what they need help

on or if they need to put more work in on a certain subject such as science, or math. A lot of

student`s would reflect great on this kind of assessment. It would help the student`s reflect on

what they have learned, what they need help on, and their goals for improving their own learning

as the year goes on. As a result, this form of assessment would change many student`s outlook

on standardized testing.

Subsequently, there are four types of standardized testing that is in schools today. They

are known as diagnostic, formative, benchmark, and summative. These are all forms of

assessment that all have a distinct purpose. Diagnostic testing is used to diagnose the skills that

each student has revealed to their teachers and themselves. This kind of testing measures

student`s misconceptions in each subject or where students are at in terms of either their grade

level, their skills, their concepts, and their progression on a specific type of topic or even a

subject. Teachers use this testing to escort how they will be teaching their students but also what

they will be teaching them as well. Also, they will use these results from this testing to teach

student`s what they are struggling with out of the entire year. They will focus on them topics or

subjects that a student is having a hard time grasping until the student feels comfortable or until

the teacher knows that they got it. This kind of testing helps the student`s parents as well because
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it shows them their child`s progress on what they are amazing at but it also shows them there

weaknesses too.

Formative testing is known as the part of the learning and teaching process for students.

There are a ton of different strategies such as, having students read out loud to themselves and

their entire class, asking the students questions on the activities we did as a class or about what

they comprehended from a certain lesson, and obviously doing observations for every student to

see what needs to be done in order for that student to succeed, and lastly to give the students

different tools to engage and help them learn. For example, flashcards, technology, and hands on

tools also. This testing is used to engage students learning during either a class activity, a lesson,

or hands-on activities. This type of testing in which it is designed to reteach lessons or form

groups so students can work together to give them more help on a topic or subject that they are

struggling with. Therefore, it gives students an opportunity to display their understanding of the

information that was given to them.

Benchmark testing is used in the school year to test their students to see if they have

learned and grasped the lesson or unit. These tests are a lot longer than an informative

assessment in which they are going to be graded. The students are required to acquire all of the

information that was taught to them. Sometimes parents will get information from these tests that

will tell them what concepts or topics their child has done great on and what they need help on. It

is important for parents to get this information back from their child`s testing because it will help

their child become more successful. In addition, this form of assessment will help students have

another structure of assessment instead of having standardized testing.

Summative testing is a point at the end of the school year to evaluate the student`s overall

performance about what they learned throughout the school year. They will display all of their
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knowledge for this test. The results for these tests will go back to the student`s parents and the

school too. Moreover, these are different structures of assessments that schools can take rather

than doing standardized testing. In which standardized testing should be banned and prohibited

in the United States, and should have one of these assessments that can replace standardized

testing.

Generally speaking, standardized testing has negative impacts on students with all of the

effects that they bring to students with stress, anxiety, etc. They are an unethical way of

measuring a student`s abilities due to them judging their scores based on student`s taking this

standardized test. In which each state makes student`s take in order for their school and state to

get a rating based on their overall performance on their testing. Student`s get measured on their

abilities to take the test, their academic performance, and their intelligence which is an over rated

way of getting results. After all, standardized testing should be banned or prohibited for an

approval of another structure of assessment. As shown above there are many different forms of

assessments take that need to be taken into action by all the states instead of just having

standardized testing that determines what kind of student that they are. In which is wrong for our

department of education to do that to our country and most importantly our students that go to

school to learn, but instead they go to school and be stressed out and have anxiety for these tests

that do not mean anything to them but they mean a lot to their school ratings. Overall, the topic

of standardized testing has a big role in our education system and our society to this day. In

which, all of these different forms of assessments will help our future for education not be so

strict with standardized testing. In the final analysis, attempts need to happen in both schools and

the department of education to reduce the effects of standardized testing puts on students and

also discussing another form of assessment rather than standardized testing.

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Working Bibliography

Conte, Jim Del, Hornberger, Daniel. “Standardized Lies, Money & Civil Rights: How Testing Is

Ruining Public Education. 13 January 2014. Ohio Link. July 7, 2019

Howell, Zaria. “‘Opting out’ of Standardized Testing.” New York Amsterdam News, vol. 107,

no. 35, 25 Aug. 2016, p. 29. Ohio Link. Dayton, OH. July 7, 2019

Madeja, Stanley S., et al. “Alternative Assessment Strategies for Schools.” Arts Education Policy

Review, vol. 105, no. 5, May 2004, pp. 3–13. Ohio Link. Sinclair Library, Dayton, Ohio.

July 7, 2019

Mulvenon, Sean W., et al. “Test Anxiety: A Multifaceted Study on the Perceptions of Teachers,

Principals, Counselors, Students, and Parents.” International Journal of Testing, vol. 5,

no. 1, Mar. 2005, pp. 37–61. Ohio Link. Sinclair Library, Dayton, OH. July 2019

Popham, James W., “Educational Leadership.” Why Standardized Tests Don`t Measure

Educational Quality, vol.56, no.6, March 1999, pp.8-15. Ohio Link. July 2019

Rethinking Schools. “Alternatives To Standardized Tests” An Article By Rethinking Schools.

Ohio Link. July 2019.

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Segool, Natasha K., et al. “Heightened Test Anxiety among Young Children: Elementary School

Students’ Anxious Responses to High-Stakes Testing.” Psychology in the Schools, vol.

50, no. 5, May 2013, pp. 489–499. Ohio Link. Sinclair Library, Dayton, OH. July 7, 2019

Strauss, Valerie. “There are better ways to access students then with high-stakes standardized

tests. These schools are using them with success.” The Washington Post, April 2018.

Ohio Link. July 7, 2019

The Room 241 Team. “Do Standardized Tests Show an Accurate View of Students` Abilities?”

A Blog By Concordia University Portland, May 2018. Ohio Link. July 7, 2019

Walker, Tim. “Educators Strike Big Blow To Overuse of Standardized Testing in 2017.”

neaToday, January 2018. Ohio Link. July 7, 2019