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Adam Duvall

Professor Reynolds

English 1201

15 March 2021

Is Standardized Testing Harmful?

All throughout different levels of education you can find standardized tests. With those

standardized tests you can find many opinions and facts arguing for or against them. In the past

few years there has been a very big calling to get rid of standardized tests. Why all of a sudden

are standardized tests being considered harmful and removed from education?

Students in all grades take plenty of standardized tests which all serve many different

purposes. They can measure students progress, place students in certain classes, grade their

teachers abilities, or do many other different things. In 2002 the No Child Left Behind Act was

passed and in 2015 the Every Student Succeeds Act was passed which created many more

standardized tests for students in the grades. With these new acts students now take on

average 112 standardized tests through pre-K to 12th grade (Berwick). Recently, school critics

have gained lots of popularity by arguing that students are taking too many standardized tests

and that

While a common argument is that standardized testing is bad because it causes

teachers to “teach to the test”, not all testing is bad. While too much testing can definitely be

harmful certain types of tests can be beneficial. Some tests such as brief quizzes or tests taken

soon after studying even help students retain more information and help teachers better

understand what their students know and don’t know (Berwick). The more anxiety a test brings,

the worse for learning it is.

Standardized tests can cause insane amounts of stress on students. The stakes are

extremely high and can affect important events such as graduation or getting into a certain

school (“Effects of Standardized Testing on Students & Teachers: Key Benefits & Challenges”).
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These tests are supposed to be fair because every student takes the same test but they’re

unfair to students who may learn different ways or students who excel in subjects such as art or

history which are commonly not tested on. Many teachers are also against standardized tests

because they feel it prevents them from teaching a wide curriculum (“Effects of Standardized

Testing on Students & Teachers: Key Benefits & Challenges”).

America is not the only country that has had the standardized testing debate. England

and Wales have both had the debate. In those countries they have “school league tables”.

League tables are how some schools keep track of their students' standardized test scores and

the overall standardized test scores from the school (Goldstein, Leckie, et al). Research has

shown that the league tables and keeping track of the students' scores raise the students'

knowledge. Wales got rid of league tables in 2001 and since then England’s schools have out

performed them (Goldstein, Leckie, et al). After Wales got rid of regular standardized tests and

league tables their students’ performances went down while England kept league tables and

standardized tests and did not experience the same decrease (Goldstein, Leckie, et al).

2020 was the first year in almost 20 years where the United States did not have

standardized testing. Without these tests, students gained back 20-25 hours of normal

education (Kirylo). Without standardized testing it makes it harder for teachers to figure out what

to focus on teaching. One problem with that is that even in a normal year it can take 4 months to

get standardized testing scored back. Many educators are concerned that standardized test

scores are used in the wrong way and causing too much anxiety but without standardized

testing they would have to find another way to evaluate their students (Kirylo).

Standardized tests can be a very helpful way to evaluate students and teachers. They

can be used to find out what students and teachers are good at and need to improve on and are

another way to see how smart kids are besides looking at their grades (ProCon.org) . Even

though the tests can be helpful, they aren’t perfect. If a student is hungry or tired they might

perform poorly on a standardized test. Outside factors do lots of influencing on standardized

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tests. Also, some still think standardized tests are still considered racist, sexist, and classist

(ProCon.org).

There are many pros and cons of standardized testing and it is very possible that both

sides of the argument offer very true points. Standardized testing is used the right way can be a

very good way to measure student and teacher performance but at the same time if it is used

the wrong way can harm the education of students. If standardized testing can be limited and

the stress caused by it can be reduced it can be a very good way to measure what a student

has learned.
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Works Cited

Berwick, Carly. “What Does the Research Say About Testing?” Edutopia, 25 October 2019,

https://www.edutopia.org/article/what-does-research-say-about-testing. Accessed

6 March 2021.

“Effects of Standardized Testing on Students & Teachers: Key Benefits & Challenges.” School of

Education Online Program, 2 July 2020,

https://soeonline.american.edu/blog/effects-of-standardized-testing. Accessed 6

March 2021.

Goldstein, Leckie, et al. “Trends in examination performance and exposure to standardised tests

in England and Wales.” British Educational Research Center, 3 June 2016,

https://web-a-ebscohost-com.sinclair.ohionet.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=

7&sid=70ec43e6-7eef-43dc-ae8e-90bfe5bcd703%40sdc-v-sessmgr02. Accessed

6 March 2021.

Kirylo, James D. “Skipping standardized tests in 2020 may offer a chance to find better

alternatives.” Gale In Context, 2020,

https://go-gale-com.sinclair.ohionet.org/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=FeaturedContent&r

esultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&hitCount=10&sear

chType=TopicSearchForm&currentPosition=1&docId=GALE%7CQAYWMA93605

8161&docType=Viewpoint+essay&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=ZXAY-MO

D1&prodId=OVIC&pageNum=1&contentSet=GALE%7CQAYWMA936058161&to

picId=AAA000028831&searchId=&userGroupName=dayt30401&inPS=true.

Accessed 6 March 2021.

ProCon.org. “Do Standardized Tests Improve Education in America?” ProCon, 7 December

2020, https://standardizedtests.procon.org/. Accessed 6 March 2021.