Standardized Testing: Should it stay or should it go?

This April students in New York State in grades 3 through 8 took new standardized tests that were considered harder than ever. Why are these children being subjected to this? Why are they even taking standardized tests at all? Students and teachers are being judged on one test and not on their other efforts in the classroom. Instead of giving American students a better, deeper education they’re being taught to the test. This is causing unnecessary anxiety on both students and teachers. Some people feel the testing will help hold both teachers and students more accountable; but at what cost? These new tests aren’t allowing for teaching and learning to be done passionately and creatively, everything is drill and kill. The education system should not be like that. Many feel that standardized tests are reliable and objective ways of measuring student achievement, as well as teacher effectiveness. They point to successes in other countries that have used standardized testing. A 2010 report by McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm, found that school systems in 20 countries including Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea, have made significant educational gains on national and international assessments. All of the 20 countries used frequent standardized testing to monitor system progress; but just because standardized testing worked there doesn’t mean it’ll work here. Different countries have different education systems. Others feel differently about standardized testing; at the annual Education Minnesota conference on October 18th Diane Ravitch told educators that “High stakes testing is sucking the life out of American education.” Diane Ravitch is a prominent education historian and author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System. Standardized testing doesn’t seem to be working. Instead it seems to be taking away from the education of the students. American students and teachers are more and more afraid of how a few tests will affect their entire future as students and as educators. Standardized testing is creating uncomfortable classroom environments. On Mar. 14, 2002, the Sacramento Bee reported that "test-related jitters, especially among young students, are so common that the Stanford-9 exam comes with instructions on what to do with a test booklet in case a student vomits on it." Standardized testing is not only creating horrible learning environments but they also are not working, plain and simple, and cost a lot more money. A National Research Council report from May 26, 2011, found no evidence test-based incentive programs are working: "Despite using them for several decades, policymakers and educators do not yet know how to use test-based incentives to consistently generate positive effects on achievement and to improve education." The tests also drain valuable funding that could be used on other educational resources and initiatives. According to the Pew Center on the States, after the NCLB Act was passed, annual state spending on standardized tests rose from $423 million to almost $1.1 billion in 2008. Clearly something needs to change. According to Ravich, skills such as ingenuity, creativity and risk-taking are where the U.S. excels and standardized tests are only crushing these skills. She feels the best option is to “opt out of the test.” She explains schools should administer their own tests, show the children and the parents the results, then destroy the tests. Education would then be in the hands of the teachers, the students, and the schools themselves. This could be a viable option that will hold everyone accountable but that won’t take away from real learning and won’t cause unnecessary stress on teachers and students. Allow the school district to come up with a fair alternative to standardized tests; an alternative that will test real learning and progress in schools.