Jacob Newell

Mrs. Hofmann
ENGL 1102-044
4/1/2014
Inquiry Essay Draft
For a long time standardized tests have been used to measure the amount of information
students have obtained while learning specific information. The reason behind this is that it is
easy to make a standardized test on information that is already been made since courses are made
to cover the same content. But I find that there is a problem with this process based on personal
experience and information I found while researching the subject.
I have found that standardized testing is not a good way to see if students have obtained
the information that was taught over the time of the course through many personal experiences. I
have found that many people learn in different ways and obtain the information differently than
others do. Also when you talk to them about the subject it seems that they know all the
information that was taught to them. These people usually have an A or B in the class when it
comes to doing homework and class work. Sadly a lot of these people, when it comes to
standardized testing, do not do well. They are just not good at testing for some reason. Due to
this they do not get into schools that they want to get into or do not pass classes they would pass
without the test scores. Standardized tests are worth too much in how a college evaluates a
student for admission. Most colleges use the Scholastic Aptitude Test or American College
Testing scores that students receive when considering them for admittance. If they do not score a
high enough score they do not even consider them for admission no matter how high their grade
point average was in high school. "The SAT is a unique presentation of the latest thoughts and
research findings of key individuals in the world of college admissions, including the president
of the largest public university system in the US, as well the presidents of the two companies that
sponsor college admissions tests in the US."(Rethinking, Zwick). I have experienced this first
hand when it came to the Advanced Placement testing for Advanced Placement classes. I got a B
in most of my Advanced Placement classes but I did not pass the tests to receive credit when it
came to college. I would have thought since I got a good grade in these courses that I would have
been able to pass the test without an issue. "A 2001 study published by the Brookings Institution
found that 50-80% of year-over-year test score improvements were temporary and caused by
fluctuations that had nothing to do with long-term changes in learning."(standardized,procon).
This is due to the fact that students only have to remember information for a short amount of
time and do not remember the information in the long run. This also may be because of the
teachers I had teaching the class.
When it comes to standardized testing it is based on the information that is covered in the
course. When it comes to the information that students actually learn it is in the hands of the
teacher to teach them. So one teacher at a school can teach the course and focus more on one part
of the course, while another teacher at the same school teaching the same subject focuses more
on another area of the course. "A five-year University of Maryland study completed in 2007
found "the pressure teachers were feeling to 'teach to the test'" since NCLB was leading to
"declines in teaching higher-order thinking, in the amount of time spent on complex assignments,
and in the actual amount of high cognitive content in the curriculum."(standardized,procon). Due
to this the students in the classes are learning different information and are focused on one part
of the course more than the other parts. This can mislead the students to what is going to be on
the standardized test which is going to evenly cover all of the information that is supposed to be
learned in the course. This makes test scores vary based on which teacher the students had and
how well they actually do on the tests. This is unfair due to the fact that the teachers did not
teach them all of the information that they needed to know. This happened to me when it came to
my advanced placement physics class in high school. So when it comes to test like the Scholastic
Aptitude Test and the American College Testing as well as course final testing and advanced
placement credit testing, it all comes down to the teacher that you had when learning the content
of the course and how well they covered all of the information.
Standardized testing also has not improved student achievement since No Child Left
Behind was passed in 2002. "After No Child Left Behind (NCLB) passed in 2002, the US
slipped from 18th in the world in math on the Program for International Student Assessment
(PISA) to 31st place in 2009, with a similar drop in science and no change in
reading."(standardized,procon). Based on this, we can see that test based programs have not
showed any incentive in working. This shows how policymakers and educators have no actually
found a good way to make a test based curriculum that shows positive results on students
achievement and also that there is no improvement in education. Kohn says in his book The Case
Against Standardized Testing "The only thing at which standardized tests are uniquely efficient
is ranking one school, or state, against one another"(Case,Kohn). This is due to the fact students
are pretty much trained to learn certain information for a short amount of time, so they do not
actually remember the information they were taught after a test. This is due to the fact that other
information is being taught which becomes of more importance than the information that
students were previously taught. Usually students will not be tested on the previous information
so they honestly have no reason to remember it. I do this as well and it is shown when you
review information in a prerequisite course in your new course and do not remember what you
are supposed to do or what it was about. For example when I went to calculus 2 we reviewed
some information that we did in calculus 1 and I needed to be refreshed by watching my teacher
due a few examples because I did not remember how to do it. This is due to the fact that I learned
new information that became more important to me in the course.
I believe that there should be another way in which students are assessed on the
information they learn in their courses. The reason behind this is because there has to be a better
way than a test that covers everything in the course with specifics that students might have not
learned. I believe instead of a standardized test, teachers at each school should get together and
put tests together based on what they teach in a course due to it will be more accurate to what the
students were taught and the information they actually know. This will help increase test scores
because information that was not covered well would not be covered on the tests more than they
should be. Archbald says in his book that, " Each teacher, sharing ideas with departmental
colleagues, develops activities for more authentic assessment of individual students within
existing courses. This could involve a more authentic multiple-choice test of discrete
competencies, expansion of writing and specking tasks, or use of exhibitions to conclude major
units or of the course itself." (beyond, Archbald). These are ways that would work other than just
standardized testing but, there are also pros when it comes to standardized testing.
There are actually some pros when it comes to having a standardized testing program.
According to Richard P. Phelps "93% of studies on student testing, including the use of large-
scale and high stakes standardized tests, found a "positive effect" on student achievement. 100-
year analysis of testing research completed in 2011 which gave us this data.
(standardized,procon). Although some standardized testing is unfair it is not completely a bad
way to measure personal achievement for students. "Standardized tests are reliable and objective
measures of student achievement. Without them, policy makers would have to rely on tests
scored by individual schools and teachers who have a vested interest in producing favorable
results. Multiple-choice tests, in particular, are graded by machine and therefore are not subject
to human subjectivity or bias." says Richard Phelps (standardized,procon). I have witnessed
some students getting better grades on tests when it comes to free response questions on tests due
to them being a "teacher's pet." They had an answer a certain way and was given partial credit
for the question while I had my free response answer saying the same things theirs did and I did
not get any credit for the question. Although I was not a bad student, the teacher was playing
favorites and making sure that student got a good grade.
There are pros and cons when it comes to standardized testing. Since it is not a terrible
way to measure student achievement when it comes to academics, it still is around today. It has
been around for a long time due to how well it measures achievement. Since there are also many
cons when it comes to standardized testing, I believe that soon in the future there will be a
different way to measure student achievement which will be more accurate and fair. Everyone
has their own experiences when it comes to standardized testing, that is why some people have
these different opinions when it comes to the testing.




Citations
Archbald, Douglas A., and Fred M. Newmann. Beyond standardized testing: assessing authentic
academic achievement in the secondary school. Reston, Va.: National Association of Secondary
School Principals, 1988. Print.
Kohn, Alfie. The case against standardized testing: raising the scores, ruining the schools.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2000. Print.
Sacks, Peter. Standardized minds: the high price of America's testing culture and what we can do
to change it. Cambridge, Mass.: Perseus Books, 1999. Print.
"Standardized Tests - ProCon.org."ProConorg Headlines. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
<http://standardizedtests.procon.org/>.
Zwick, Rebecca. Rethinking the SAT the future of standardized testing in university admissions.
New York: RoutledgeFalmer, 2004. Print.