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Riley Scott

Professor Flores

Composition II

Standardized Testing And Its Impact

For over 170 years Standardized Testing has dominated the education system in the

United States and places like it around the globe. For these tests students usually have to be very

proficient in English and Math as well as Science related tasks. It can be a little troubling for kids

sometimes when taking these tests. That is the story for most kids these days. They would

prepare the best they could and would have it come down to a test, the problem with this is it

builds an everlasting fear of tests and the impact it will have on kids. Not only that but they can

be difficult for people to take. Now, to go even further this difficulty could create a “roadblock”

for some children. The effect of it is seen in the lesson plans teachers have to write up and teach

to students and the way students view and prepare for each test. For some kids the Standardized

Testing is a gold mine, for others, it has opened a new portal to pain and anxiety when it comes

to thinking about life and its struggles. I will now dive into Standardized Testing and its

disadvantages and effects on children age 12-15+.What is Standardized Testing? That is a great

place to start. A Standardized Test is a test administered to a large body of students that has the

same questions and answers.

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The hope when administered is to see how the group as a whole performs at a school or

place of education. In most cases, they are administered by the state in hopes of seeing how a

school does. (Barton Gilman) As you can see an issue may present itself. The problem with this

is that when you start kids early on you create almost a fear to the testing and a fear of failure.

(Figure 1 (Image above) results of a study done by the Alliance for Excellent Education

shows us how many assessments grades Pre-Kindergarten to Graduation(12th Grade) the

average student takes.)

I want to discuss this chart you see above this was a study or just an answer if you will on

how many tests kids have to take from Pre-Kindergarten to Graduation(12th grade). It is

probably more than you think and that is because of the more mandated tests states add. Ever

since 1875 the United States has started doing Standardized Tests and it has gained steam ever

since. It has evolved so much we are in the era of “Common Core.” Basically, “Common Core”
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is a set of rules and guidelines a teacher must meet or teacher and is standardized for an entire

area. This is again a problem and became one cause of Standardized Testing. It all started when

states wanted all kids to receive the same education, which sounds good at heart but came with

“extra-luggage” in the form of problems. When the education was the same for everyone kids

you had different environments struggled since they were held to the same standards as more

developed areas. This also goes both ways since it did not allow the more developed areas to

receive a good challenge either when standardizing everything. (Barton Gilman) My reason for

explaining this is that to have a good discussion and explanation I needed to talk a little about the

history and reasoning for why we are where we are today in terms of testing and learning.

The effect of Standardized Tests on young immigrant children is a good point to start at.

The first problem for young immigrant children when coming to countries is the language barrier

and it carries over in the form of taking tests also. We see that even in America a place is known

for diversity we still have problems. It is proven that the immigrant children who move to the

United States struggle with the testing cause of the language barrier. (Aparicio Fenoll)(“English

Proficiency and Test Scores of Immigrant Children in the US.”) Another thing to keep in mind is

that over 25 million children are immigrants worldwide it may seem large to a big number of 7

billion people on the Earth but the concentration of the children is what is concerning as the

majority are in the USA. (Aparicio Fenoll)(“English Proficiency and Test Scores of Immigrant

Children in the US.”)

The reason for me to discuss the immigrant children status on tests in the United States

comes back to the point of how I said in the background information of the same tests and
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questions that this can pose a problem for those who are disadvantaged as they are held to the

same standards to those who are not. So, if they were to lower the bar then it would also cause

the advantaged to get higher scores and make the gap look worse. It is not a win-win situation.

Also, put yourself in the shoes of someone taking a test in a different language, and let us say the

school you are going to does not offer the test in your language, imagine how hard it would be

for you compared to someone who has lived in the area for 10+ years and speaks the native

language.

On the other hand kids in general struggle with Standardized Tests. So, to compensate for

that, teachers have developed tricks and methods to get around the difficult and demanding tests.

The biggest thing for some kids is not reading the question; they tend to overlook it and are quick

to answer. So what most teachers do is slow kids down. They talk them through the answer

choices and do it with them so they make better decisions. (Calkins, Lucy McCormick)(“​Helping

Children Master the Tricks and Avoid the Traps of Standardized Tests”) ​Another thing the

teacher may do is set the tone on test day. They try to calm the kids down and relieve anxiety on

test day. They tend to help the kids take the time to prepare and get ready for the test they are

about to take. (Calkins, Lucy McCormick)(“​Helping Children Master the Tricks and Avoid the

Traps of Standardized Tests”)

The next thing I would like to discuss is based solely on the math section and why a gap

of results exists, these are mandated tests in other countries, not just the US, and why the results

are wide-ranging. Most people tend to only look at the US for evidence of problems but the

problems ignore borders. A test was done at a Swiss school they had three types of students
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Swiss, Italian, and Other. They took the results from all three and saw the general math scores

and how the children scored. The people who were native scored around 69% the Italian children

scored around 64% and the other scored around 60% what this tells us is that immigrants will

score statistically lower than the children who live in the country the test is being taken.

(Giovanna Zanolla)(“Why Do Children Differ in Mathematical Competencies? The Experience

of a Standardized Test in the Primary School of Canton Ticino, Switzerland.”) Which begs the

question of why and how this is. The research provided says a language barrier and economic

wealth gap is at fault for the problems. So not only does language provide a barrier but so does

money as it always has. So, as we talked about the disadvantages here is another the economic

value of a region and how it affects the kids. It comes back to my point of since they are the

same test and it is meant to average the difficulty for all students it will be harder for the less

developed areas kids to take it and it will be easier for the most developed kids to take it. Once

again we find evidence of more issues in the system and it is not just the US. (Giovanna

Zanolla)(“Why Do Children Differ in Mathematical Competencies? The Experience of a

Standardized Test in the Primary School of Canton Ticino, Switzerland.”)

As another piece of results, I wanted to look at was the same type of test but a different

country just to see if the results were a global trend. This next test took place in Denmark and it

is more about the struggles of academic tests. The paper itself discusses who was questioned and

the majority were females. They said that the reason for struggle on tests in most cases was a

family issue or lack of caring and we see the parent has a dramatic effect on the child’s learning

and testing and seems more like a pattern between parent and adult in most cases. (Keilow,

Maria)(“The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and Standardized Academic Tests:

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Reliability across Respondent Type and Age.”) Now here is another social disadvantage it is not

always the language and money creating a wall sometimes it is the family situation and genetics.

Your parents have a big role in how far you can go. They give you the genes and the at-home

time to study and develop. Kids who do badly on tests are not necessarily bad at them they might

have had to work and could not study, or they were dealing with a family emergency. Social

problems also pose problems for young kids taking tests.

We have heard all sorts of stuff about Standardized Testing and its harms and benefits to

society this last piece I would like to look at is more about the truth to testing. I wanna discuss

this as it seems a lot of negative swarms around the subject but let us realize why states do it.

The reason it is so difficult is on purpose at least in America it is this way to show how the

school is really doing. Average schools would score near 60% and then so on and so on. In other

countries, it is different as they use it as a benchmark and everyone beats it so it seems the entire

country is gifted. The reason for this is that on a grand stage it looks better and makes your

country look prospering, many Americans do not learn this and think we are extremely

uneducated which could not be farther from the truth. (Tulenko, John)(Interview: James

Popham)

America does it personally to test itself as shown in the data and how they grade it. They

look at it not to flex the intellectual superiority but to challenge and benchmark its own students.

However, my only problem with that is it does not properly do that. Instead, it creates a

challenge for some and an advantage for others what originally was created to test and show

success has become a tape measure and not a measuring stick.

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The significance of 2020 is important for Standardized Testing. This is the first year

where most places are canceling it and allowing teachers to come up with ideas of their own to

test students. The first idea is that teachers should design and make an exam for the class they

teach. The argument here is that they are the most well versed in how the class is doing and will

perform. Another idea is that teachers should take a test and be evaluated based on that. The test

would show if they still have the knowledge and teaching capability to teach the content instead

of the evaluation of a teacher coming from a Standardized Test they should just take it

themselves to see. (​The Conversation: An Independent Source of Analysis from Academic

​ he positives of this idea are real and can be noticed, so instead of a child who is
Researchers) T

struggling at home having to work hard to show a teachers success, they could design a test for

that teacher to see how qualified they actually are to teach. This could remove the stress placed

on kids and the economic and social burden of the anxiety. The other way which is having a

teacher-designed one could show us how a class does in a sense. It really comes down to how the

teacher makes and grades it. However, it is not a bad idea. The whole point of me talking about

this is it shows alternatives do exist from the same broken formula we have had as a world for

years.

Now why we are on the subject of 2020 and its significance, it is a great time to talk

about places that are trying to push forward and why they should not. The benefits as listed by

the test makers themselves are greatly exaggerated so that they can have reasons to make money.

Governor Jeb Bush has been caught saying that “even as poorly designed as they are, they are

crucial in determining the academic performance of students.” That sounds funny as he

completely bashes the tests themselves and then praises them in the same sentence. (​Washington
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Post​) The other argument as I stated previously is the anxiety now in 2020 more than ever is the

anxiety a big deal, with the pandemic and election kids are stressing globally and here in the

United States more than ever. So why should schools push the burden on them with all this going

on? They want to see how well distance learning does. The only problem is some of the kids

have not even had access to the school or been able to find a way to test safely. (​Washington

Post) ​My whole point for discussing this is showing how the education system and state testing

has become less about student achievement and more about statistics and seeing them rise. If the

United States and other nations wanted to see the progress, they should connect with the student

and try to push for a more creative way to test them.

So, in conclusion, Standardized Tests have a big effect on the education system and our

students alike. It has a negative effect and a positive one. However, the point of this study was to

raise awareness for something that is becoming more and more normalized and ignored with

other subjects floating around. Which is Standardized Testing. We see this with immigrant

children and regular citizens alike, no matter who and where it is something people prep for and

have tried to strategize around for ages. Fortunately, it looks like in 2020 we will see a hold off

on state Standardized Tests as I said before. (​The Conversation: An Independent Source of

Analysis from Academic Researchers)​ Which could allow for some better alternatives to arise.

Maybe with the newfound awareness around the education system around the world, we can

make learning fun and fair for every child everywhere. All it takes is one voice.
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Work Cited

Aparicio Fenoll, Ainoa. “English Proficiency and Test Scores of Immigrant Children in the US.”

IZA Discussion Papers,​ 2017. ​EBSCOhost​,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.p.iza.izadps.dp10848&sit

e=eds-live Accessed: 11/15/2020

Atteberry, Allison, and Daniel Mangan. “The Sensitivity of Teacher Value-Added Scores to the

Use of Fall or Spring Test Scores.” ​Educational Researcher,​ vol. 49, no. 5, Jan. 2020, pp.

335–349. ​EBSCOhost​,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1258488&site=eds-live.

Accessed: 11/15/2020

Calkins, Lucy McCormick, et al. ​Helping Children Master the Tricks and Avoid the Traps of

Standardized Tests [Microform] / Lucy Calkins, Kate Montgomery, Donna Santman.​ [College

Park, MD : ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation, University of Maryland, 1999,

1999. ​EBSCOhost​,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgpr&AN=edsgpr.000517123&site=eds-liv

e. Accessed: 11/15/2020
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Giovanna Zanolla. “Why Do Children Differ in Mathematical Competencies? The Experience of

a Standardized Test in the Primary School of Canton Ticino, Switzerland.” ​Proceedings of

International Academic Conferences,​ 2014. ​EBSCOhost,​

Keilow, Maria, et al. “The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and Standardized Academic

Tests: Reliability across Respondent Type and Age.” ​PLoS ONE​, vol. 14, no. 7, July 2019, pp.

1–12. ​EBSCOhost​, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0220193. Accessed: 11/15/2020

“Skipping Standardized Tests in 2020 May Offer a Chance to Find Better Alternatives.” ​The

Conversation: An Independent Source of Analysis from Academic Researchers​, Jan. 2018.

EBSCOhost​,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edscra&AN=edscra.28416846&site=eds-live.

Accessed: 11/15/2020

Standardized Tests. [Electronic Resource] : Assessing the Price of Failure.​ Films Media Group,

2011. ​EBSCOhost​,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat01128a&AN=scc.b1351758&site=eds-live.

Accessed: 11/15/2020

Strauss, Valerie. “Standardized Tests Are Canceled and Many Kids Won’t Be Graded. So

What’s Worth Learning Right Now?” ​Washingtonpost.Com,​ April 10, 2020. ​EBSCOhost​,

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e. Accessed: 11/15/2020
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N/A. “The Education Reform Primer: Our History with Standardized Testing.” ​Barton Gilman,​ 9

Jan. 2020, www.bglaw.com/the-education-reform-primer-our-history-with-standardized-testing/.

Accessed: 11/15/2020

Tulenko,John.“Https://Www.pbs.org/Wgbh/Pages/Frontline/Shows/Schools/Interviews/Popham.

html.” ​PBS,​ PBS, Feb. 2016,

www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/schools/interviews/popham.html. Accessed:

11/15/2020

“Why Teachers Shouldn’t Give Kids Standardized Tests When School Starts.”

Washingtonpost.Com,​ Aug 3, 2020. ​EBSCOhost,​

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgov&AN=edsgcl.631454745&site=eds-liv

e. Accessed: 11/15/2020