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Jasmine Lomas
ENG 102D
Salyers
19 Oct. 2014
Standardized Testing in Public Schools
Standardized tests are no longer a beneficial measurement of student learning for public
schools. They have many faults or errors in administration, they take priority over classroom
learning, and there is too much emphasis on test scores. Students do not respond to testing well
and there are teachers and parents who are also beginning to disagree with the requirement of
students to take tests multiple times in one school year.
The accuracy of standardized testing is always being questioned because of all of the
extra variables that are involved in students taking these tests. One of the first issues is whether
or not the format of the tests are effective. Testing is usually done by asking multiple choice,
short answer, or essay questions. All three require the student to recall information in a different
way, but it is not definite which form is the best and if any are good enough to use. Multiple
choice portions of exams are considered external standardized tests because they provide all
of the information for a student and simply ask them to select an answer that corresponds. The
use of multiple choice questions is not acceptable for standardized testing because answering
these questions correctly does not guarantee that the child knew the information, it only proves
that they were successful in eliminating the incorrect options. While all of the test formats are
debated, it seems that multiple choice questions cause the most debate among teachers and test
makers (Elford). According to the article by Education Insights, a major issue teachers seem to
have with tests is that the information being tested is not relevant to the curriculum and does not

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further the education of a student (Johnson). There is not enough communication between test
makers and teachers to ensure that the material is equivalent in class and on the test. Teachers
should be able to take the general curriculum and teach it in a personal way to their students,
without worrying about a single test that is not relevant to their class.
Another issue with standardized testing that is often over looked is the shift in class time
from learning the curriculum to test preparation. Teachers have expectations to meet, which are
set by the school board and parents, for their students to pass the tests that are given to them
throughout the year. This is unfair to teachers because the material that students are tested on
often has nothing to do with the actual class curriculum and they are not given specific
guidelines about what will be tested. This forces teachers to decide between having a class with
high test scores, or a class that excels in the material that they are learning on a daily basis in the
classroom. Many times they have to choose to make test scores a priority in class because the
students scores reflect back on them directly. Students do not benefit from the use of
standardized tests because the small amount of material on the test takes over the focus of the
daily lessons. The frequency of test administration is also a hinderance on student learning.
Along with end of the year testing, students are tested about two other times each school year on
average. When these tests take place they can last for one to two weeks, during which students
are not on a regular class schedule and they do not learn any new information. Over the entire
school year, at least a month is lost to test taking and make up test days. This is an unnecessary
use of school time and it does not benefit students. In addition to student learning being
jeopardized because of test frequency, a childs education can also be sacrificed to increase
passing statistics if they are a part of the No Child Left Behind initiative. The No Child Left
Behind program was started to help students that needed improvement in school, get extra

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attention so that they would not have to repeat a grade multiple times. However, it has become
somewhat of a crutch for students because they are able to advance to the next grade before they
are ready, to improve the schools passing average. Many initiatives that are put in place to better
education become too political and therefore are ineffective. Through all of the debates and
failed attempts to improve national education, students continue to suffer.
Test scores have become the main focus in public schools and the effects are much more
serious than most people realize. Students are told that the results of a single test, that they are
required to take, can decide their future including their options for college and careers. The fact
that one score can determine a students next move after graduation, is not reasonable. There is
too much pressure put on children which can be enough to affect the test outcomes (Schaeffer).
There are so many outside factors that can influence a student during the test. Examples of this
would be unexpected noises, room temperature, amount of sleep prior to the test, and even the
students health. Factors such as these cannot be prevented in a testing center for a large amount
of kids.
In recent years, there have been many instances in which a parent speaks out against the
school board to protest their child being administered a standardized test. A lot of parents do not
realize how much testing effects their child mentally and educationally, but the ones that
disagree and fight it, are able to exempt their children from taking the test. The purpose of testing
is to gauge where a student is at in their educational process to see if the environment is effective
and successful. If a childs education level is obvious, the need to retest them multiple times a
year dissolves, leaving multiple standardized tests each year to be unnecessary. Parents have the
right to remove their child from tests if they believe that their education is being jeopardized
(OBrien). Overall, the goal is to provide fluent learning environments for children all across the

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country, but sadly there is not yet a good enough form of measurement for this. With the help of
teachers, parents, students, and the school board, a solution can be reached that accurately
measures student learning with fewer errors than the standardized tests administered today.

Bibliography
Elford, George W. Beyond Standardized Testing : Better Information For School Accountability
And Management / George W. Elford. n.p.: Lanham, Md. Scarecrow Press,2002. GWU
Library Online Catalog. Web. 17 Sept. 2014.

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Johnson, Jean, Ana Maria Arumi, and Amber Ott. "Is Support for Standards and Testing
Fading?"

Reality Check No. 3 (2006). Education Insights. Web. 23 Sept. 2014.

OBrien, Jason, Russell Winn, and Kirsten Currier. "Not All Tests Are Created Equal: Parental
Rights And Standardized Tests." Journal Of Cases In Educational Leadership 17.2
(2014): 41-48. Educational Administration Abstracts. Web. 24 Sept. 2014.
Schaeffer, Bob. "Resistance to High Stakes Testing Spreads." District Administration Magazine.
District Administration, Sept. 2012. Web. 14 Sept. 2014.