Is Standardized Testing Improving Education in America?

Is really a test or examination can gauge the exact calibre of a student? This topic is a burning topic and debates are going on with impartial conclusions. Most of the parents and their children wait for the results of the test and this becomes a trend to measure the capability of those children. The practice of “standardized testing,” becomes a standard issue now. It has been approved and condemned as well by some schools. This debate has various questions with different conclusions. How do we classify what it means to study something, and how can we check for it? Let’s have a discussion about it whether it is a clampdown for students or have better scope for them.

Education Standardization
Effect of Education Standardization in the US

According to some responsible persons, the style of “standardized testing” is engaging which calculates students by a common yardstick, keeps teachers responsible for results, and assists to recognize where problems hide. But the excitement to sort the smart from the not-so-smart has had social and cultural up-shots from the beginning.

Peter Sacks who is the author of Standardized Minds says, “The modern testing movement came out of the effort at the turn of the last century…to ascertain society’s ‘mental defectives’ and sort them from those of superior intelligence who would occupy society’s elite strata.”

It is really a critical situation because these standardized tests are framed by those in a position of authority. This examination system has been culturally biased in favor of the “haves” and not in favor of the “have-nots.”

Students of America have been spending too much time to prepare for exams and taking stress for these standardized tests. The federal government wants students to take annual state tests in various subjects like math, English, science and social studies. Some states and districts also run standardized tests for each subject which includes art, music, journalism and physical education. After exams, scores are used to measure students and transfer them from one grade to another, to decide teacher and administrator pay, and to tag schools as “failing” which is a step that often leads to conclusions.

Alternatives of Standardized Testing:

  1. Healthy Assessment Measures:Students, teachers and schools should be gauged by an enhanced set of measures which does not need any extensive standardized testing, but covers all skills and learning.
  2. Sensible Use of Test Scores: Test scores can be used carefully to identify the strength and weakness of a student.
  3. Portfolio Assessments: Teacher and student portfolios that hoard a array of jobs like assignments, tests, projects, etc. – give a far wealthier portrait of teaching and completion than is possible by standardized testing.
  4. Peer Reviews: Unfortunately, the US Department of Education stopped using this peer reviews system because the system does not link its ratings of teachers to student test scores.

Due to the multi-facet conclusions and lack of proven connections between testing and accomplishment, as well as general evidence about the limitations and problems of high-stakes testing. In America, the parents go up against current efforts to enlarge the use of standardized tests. We advise instead a considerable decrease in the number of such tests, along with substitute means for evaluating teacher quality, school strength and student development. Share your ideas with us to make this debate more worthy. It is the article written by one of our accounting professional who provide assignment help to the students.