The Struggles With Standardized Testing

Standardized testing has been a part of the American educational system for years. According to Columbia University Professor Nicholas Lemann, standardized testing was first created in the 1940s as a way to keep Jewish students out of Ivy League schools. Some schools are starting to move away from standardized testing, and many colleges no longer require a SAT score, but standardized testing is still the deciding factor in many educational tracks children take from kindergarten to 12th grade. Many American students have been personally affected by the score of a standardized test and it has altered their educational path, whether it be over which math class they are placed, in sixth grade or what college they are accepted to. Standardized testing does not accurately represent the abilities of students, and has become a large inconvenience for teachers and administrators. Standardized testing also seems to favor the abilities of Asian and white children.


As a student who has had standardized testing forced upon me through my elementary, middle, and high school careers I am aware that testing in no way captures a child's true achievements and capabilities. A single multiple choice test does not express many of the important skills learned in school that are necessary to become successful outside of a school setting. Testing does not apply or demonstrate the level of ability in the fields of arts, sciences, creativity, or any type of self-expression. Schools seek to strengthen critical thinking as well as problem solving skills neither of which can be accurately expressed through multiple choice responses. Students are a constantly changing variables in the test taking process and children change based on factors outside of a school's control, such as home life and the issues that come with the anxieties associated with test taking.



Students are not the only people that are affected by test taking anxieties. Standardized testing is a way for school systems to track teacher’s success through their students scores. The No Child Left Behind Act seeks to equalize students, but this is done through standardized testing and schools with low scores lose the ability to make decisions that can help students when the government begins to take over a school district. Pressure over school wide test scores cause many teachers to teach ‘to the tests’ and as a result cut out many important subjects such as science and history in order to make more time for test preparation. There is also a correlation between this stress felt by teachers over testing, and cheating in schools becoming more prevalent. I saw this predicament two years ago when teachers and facilitators at a local elementary school gave students extra time and help in order to improve ISAT, a state mandated test, scores.



One of the largest issues with standardized testing is the gap between the test scores of wealthy asian and while children and lower income African American and Latino students. These tests are administered at a very young age making it difficult for lower income children to catch up to the level of more wealthy children. This difference can been in the percentage of diversity in public schools. Although 70% of the students in New York are black or Latino only 11% of the student body in prestigious public schools are not white. The achievement gap between the rich and poor since 1960’s has risen 60%. It seems that tests seem to favor students whose grandparents went to college and are incredibly difficult for first generation college students. Perhaps the most telling sign in the issue of test scores between races is how some schools are lowering the percentages students have to score, for the school still to rank well, based on race. As one might imagine this is not a tactic that boosts the morale of any racially diverse students. A hope of standardized testing is that it allows educators to measure these gaps and makes it easier to address the inequalities of education economically and racially.



In the spring of 2016 a new SAT test is due to be released. According to College Board President, David Coleman, the updated test will no longer be centered around simply choosing the correct answer but having to justify your answers. The college board is also teaming up with Khan Academy, an online tutoring resource, in order to provide all students with free test preparation materials. The new test is trying to eliminate the ineffective and costly test preparations and instead focus the test on ideas and abilities that students have practiced throughout high school. This revision to the SAT is a major step in the progression of standardized testing for the American education system.