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Logan Caruso

Mrs. Cramer

English Composition I

January 27, 2017

Standardized Testings Negative Impact On College Readiness

Beginning with the No Child Left Behind law and continuing today with Race to the

Top, the federal emphasis on standardized assessments has become so excessive that it has

modified state and district behavior in troubling ways. This is from Randi Weingarten, president

of the American Federation of Teachers and one of the many critics of the standardized testing

policy created by the No Child Left Behind law and Race to the Top. One major consequence of

standardized testing is that it has some negative repercussions on high school students' college

readiness. As a result of standardized testing, teachers are forced to teach their students to the

tests rather than being able to give the students a deeper understanding of the subject material.

Even though students are passing the assessments required for graduation, many are not fully

capable of handling higher-level work because these standardized tests are an inadequate way of

measuring college and career readiness, setting numerous students up for failure in college.

Therefore, the practice of standardized testing has had a negative impact on high school students'

college and career readiness.

Today, increasing amounts of teachers' job evaluations depend on their students

performances on mandated standardized testing, causing teachers to teach to the test rather than

giving the students a deep comprehension of the subject matter. This creates issues when

teenagers graduate and take college level courses. A study conducted by Massachusetts Business
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Alliance for Education concluded that more than a third of high school students who scored

proficient on the state-required graduation test enrolled in a Massachusetts public university or

college were unprepared enough to be have to take at least one remedial course."(Ostashevsky).

So with only a basic or proficient level of knowledge of the subjects taught in high school, many

students have to waste commit to extra time and money in college by having to take enroll in

remedial classes to make up for what they should have learned in high school. Numerically

speaking, "37 percent of students are prepared for college-level math and reading"(Camera). If

teachers were not mandated to ensure the proficiency of their students meeting state and federal

standards on these tests, they could teach to their students at a deeper level, one reflecting more

passion for their given content-area. Also by teaching to the test, teachers aren't as capable of

providing students with the appropriate time and attention needed to develop skills necessary for

college.

Almost all standardized tests are represented with a combination of multiple choice and

free response questions issues when students move on to college level tests. To emphasize, "the

level of writing required for such tests often does not demand that higher-level thinking be

demonstrated, thus, students arriving in our high school lacked experience and knowledge about

how to do the kinds of writing that are expected at higher levels of education"(Strauss). One idea

is that we reorganize in a way that they are more accurate in testing if a student is truly ready for

college. This may be possible under the new Federal Every Student Succeeds Act: "States can

apply to use college entrance exams to assess high school achievement. So far, Colorado,

Connecticut, Maine, and New Hampshire have opted to use the SAT for this purpose... States and

colleges consider these tests a better gauge of the sort of work incoming students can

do"(Camera). However, this could lead to a lower percentage of students graduating every year,
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potentially creating higher dropout rates and discouraged students. This could turn into a major

issue as both Federal and State governments move forward with testing policies. Regardless,

something has to be done so that high school students can be more ready for college, because

right now many are not college ready.

Schools are sending high school seniors with incomplete understanding of subjects,

leaving them unprepared for college. Just because a standardized tests dictates that students are

proficient in a subject based on cut scores doesnt mean he or she actually has a good solid

understanding of the subject; which is why standardized tests are not an adequate indicator of

college readiness or preparedness for graduation. Many schools have opted out of standardized

testing as graduation requirements and have switched to grade-level and portfolio based

assessments. For example, "Mississippi and California have dropped their high school exit

exams in favor of assessing their students based on grades and portfolios. Those are better

indicators of future success in college according to Bob Schaeffer, public education director of

the National Center for Fair and Open Testing"(Ostashvesky). However, this policy may cause

backlash from the public if students who aren't willing to try arent able to graduate from high

school. If more schools adopt this policy across the nation, we can expect to see schools

graduating a more college ready student. The question remains whether or not it is worth

graduating fewer students, coupled with higher drop out rates.

Federal and State programs have created a standardized mentality in schools. Teachers

spend most of the school year teaching and instructing students to pass these mandated tests,

whose performance has a direct impact on their future and their teacher's job security. Many

people have taken sides on the argument and certainly both sides have reasons why they are

right. However, one fact is unavoidable: these tests do not truly measure whether or not a student
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is ready to graduate and handle college level classes. For this country to be successful in future

generations, students must receive a quality education so they can compete in an increasingly

competitive global job market; as the availability of education and quality of education around

the world begin to equal if not surpass our own countries level of education. The only way we

can accomplish this is if we eradicate programs such as No Child Left Behind that only succeed

in holding students back from their potential and college readiness. The government is

responsible for creating unnecessary standardized testing policies with negative impacts and is

therefore responsible for ameliorating these effects.

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Work Cited

Camera, Lauren. "High School Seniors Aren't College-Ready." U.S. News & World Report. U.S.

News & World Report, n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2017.

Ostashevsky, Luba. "Many Who Pass State High School Graduation Tests Show up to College

Unprepared." The Hechinger Report. N.p., 03 Mar. 2016. Web. 20 Jan. 2017.

Strauss, Valerie. "A Warning to College Profs from a High School Teacher." The Washington

Post. WP Company, n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2017.