Namauu 1

Ayden Namauu

Charles Freeland

ENG 1201 R510

2 May 2021

Research Project on Standardized testing

Standardized testing has been in use for a hundreds of years with the first one in America

being in 1838. Since then, standardized testing has only grown with the average public-school

student taking on average one hundred and twelve mandatory tests from pre-kindergarten to high

school graduation (Waldman). What is even crazier is that this does not include all the smaller

tests that students will take like unit math tests or vocab tests as this number only includes

mandatory tests that every student must take. So, with all this testing, why is standardized test

the main way of testing a person’s intelligence? Also, what are the pros and cons of standardized

testing?

Figure 1(Waldman)
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As stated before, standardized testing in American started in 1838 where it was mainly

used in making policy decisions on what to teach. Standardized testing would later be turned into

college entrance exams by 1890 and by 1900 it was commonplace for colleges to use entrance

exams for enrollment. Then in 1905, the first IQ or intelligence quotient test was made by Alfred

Binet. With the intelligence quotient test came a public craze of taking these tests and in 1917 the

multiple-choice was made which is now the most common type of standardized test. By 1926

standardized testing becomes a National requirement. In 1936 standardized testing becomes

computerized speeding up the scoring of tests and making standardized tests cheaper. In 2001 the

No Child Left Behind reform makes standardized testing a state mandate. In 2015 attempts to

reduce standardized testing start with the Every Student Succeeds Act which reduces mandated

testing to third through eighth grade (Association).

Some important terms to fully understand and answer this question are objective, biased,

population, standardized test, and Advance Placement tests. Objective means to look at

something with a logical and impersonal view. Biased is the opposite of objective as it means to

favor one thing over another. A population is a group of people with a commonality. An example

of a population would be all the eighth-graders in the United States. Standardized tests are tests

that are identical and taken by a large population. An Advanced Placement test is a test where it

is scored from zero to five with five being the highest possible score. This test is used in

determining if a student receives a college credit or not.

As seen the standardized test has been changing throughout the years with one of the

arguably biggest changes being the computerization of standardized testing as it makes testing

extremely cheap and efficient as tests can cost less than a few pennies and grade a test in

seconds. The significance of this is that it allows an easy way to gather a large population of
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students and collect data on their intellect in a short time and for a tiny cost. So instead of testing

with a practical test like having a physics student having to hit a specified target with a projectile

it is cheaper and easier to just use a standardized test.

Another reason standardized testing is so prevalent is that it is unbiased. This is one of

the biggest reasons why standardized testing is used in measuring a person’s intelligence. The

reason for this is that people have the tendency to give or take points based on if they like the

student or not and this destroys the credibility of the test. So standardized testing fixes this issue

as it is blind to the taker of the test and is able to give a purely objective look at a person’s

intelligence. A relatively recent example of this issue was in 2008 where it was discovered that

forty-four of fifty-six inspected schools had evidence of educators helping students cheat and

from this sixty-nine school employees were implicated for misconduct (Chen).

This might not sound as bad until it is revealed that before this cheating the math and

reading proficient score was above eighty percent and after the cheating was stopped the

proficient score for math became thirty-one percent and reading to a staggering twenty-five

percent. The question becomes why do teachers help students get higher scores when it destroys

the purpose of the test and any data measuring a person’s intelligence. The reason teachers and

educators do this is that it is how they are measure in their teaching ability and nobody wants to

look bad or get fired so to get around this teachers would give students unfair advantages making

their score look higher and thus making the teacher look like they are doing a great job

(Standardized).

This issue brings up another issue of standardized testing which is the phenomenon

known as teaching to the test. This phenomenon is where teachers and educators will teach how

to pass the test but at the cost of quality learning. This can be seen in many forms such as taking
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practice tests, going over testing tips, teaching only what is on the test, and removing

extracurriculars. The issue with this is that it will falsely inflate test scores since students will

know how to pass the test but in reality, lack the knowledge and intelligence that the test was

testing for (Standardized)(ProCon.org). Another reason schools do this is that test scores can

affect the school's funding so this can tempt schools into altering scores so funding can be

increased (American).

One interesting point which explains why standardized tests are used is that standardized

test can be used to predict future success. This is relatively straightforward as better test scores

indicate higher chances of success in colleges, careers, and life. This point is highly debated as

there is evidence supporting and disproving that standardized tests are a good measure of future

success. For example, some research showed that students who scored fours and fives on the

Advance Placement calculus test tended to get better college grades by two how positive

standard deviations while those who scored ones and twos had the reverse effect on their college

grades (Sonnert). On the other hand, it is argued that real life is not made up of multiple-choice

questions so why is standardized testing the way to predict success in life (American).

Another issue for standardized testing is that it gives an advantage to good test takers

while those who suffer from anxiety, mental issues, or are having a bad day are given a

disadvantage. This mostly boils down to common sense as it is harder to take a test when you are

sick or hungry or in other words, standardized testing measures your ability in a short time that

can be influenced by hunger, stress, fatigue, and much more. This poses the issue that scores

might not show the entire picture of a person’s intelligence. One example of this is when a

student hears a test is really hard, so they panic and thus their score is affected. This shows how

standardized testing is flawed (ProCon.org).

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At this point standardized testing is far from perfect so why not use practical tests instead

of standardized tests as some may support. The main reason practical tests are not that practical

is that the cost is much higher than standardized tests that only need paper and a pencil or a

computer. Another issue is that practical tests tend to be too specific and can only test a few

skills while a standardized test can test the entire spectrum in one test. Finally, practical tests

disadvantage those with disabilities. An example of this is a person with Tourette syndrome

would have a harder time building something than an average person even if they had a better

grasp on all the concepts.

One final issue of standardized testing is that it is classist. This stems from the fact that

wealthy people have larger access to resources to study from and tend to have more time to

devote to education. On the flip side, those in poor households lack funding to access test

preparation classes or tutors to improve their education. In addition, poor household tends to

have a lower priority on education as food or housing may pose a larger issue. This also connects

with the issue that hunger and fatigue negatively influence test scores and poorer families tend to

experience these issues more. Eloy Oakley who is the Chancellor of California Community

Colleges further shows this when he points out how testing is a better measurement in a persons

families class and wealth than intelligence.

One last reason standardized testing is used is that standardized testing if used correctly

can be a great tool in determining what students are struggling with and what should be taught to

a particular population of students. The benefit of this is that it allows students to gauge their

understanding and focus on what they are lacking instead of mastering a topic they already

understand (ProCon.org). An example of this is in a math class where a standardized test

revealed that students struggled in dividing fractions but excelled in multiplication and addition.
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So, with this information, the class can focus on dividing fractions instead of going over

multiplication and thus giving the students the help they need to fully understand the topic they

are struggling in.

In the end, it can be seen that standardized testing is the main form of testing as it is

cheap and efficient. It is also objective and can be a tool in improving teaching and predicting

future success in college and careers. While on the other hand standardized testing is highly

flawed in being fair to all economic classes and its practical use in real life.
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Work Cited

American School of Education. “Effects of Standardized Testing on Students & Teachers:

Key Benefits & Challenges.” Effects of Standardized Testing on Students &

Teachers | American University, 2 July 2020, soeonline.american.edu/blog/effects-of-

standardized-testing.

Association, National Education. “History of Standardized Testing in the United States.” NEA,

25 June 2020, www.nea.org/professional-excellence/student-engagement/tools-

tips/history-standardized-testing-united-states.

Chen, Grace. “Nation's Public School Personnel Embroiled in Cheating Scandals.” Public
School Review, 30 Dec. 2020, www.publicschoolreview.com/blog/nations-public-school-
personnel-embroiled-in-cheating-scandals.

Oakley, Eloy Ortiz. “Commentary: Standardized Tests Reward Kids from Wealthy Families.”
Tribune, San Diego Union-Tribune, 27 Nov. 2019,
www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/commentary/story/2019-11-27/commentary-
standardized-tests-reward-kids-from-wealthy-families-utak.

ProCon.org, "Standardized Tests." ProCon.org. 7 Dec. 2020, standardizedtests.procon.org/

Sonnert, Gerhard, et al. “Short-Term and Long-Term Consequences of a Focus on Standardized

Testing in AP Calculus Classes.” High School Journal, vol. 103, no. 1, Fall 2019, pp. 1–

17.EBSCOhost,search.ebscohost.com/login.aspxdirect=true&db=a9h&AN=143287159&

site=ehost-live.

“Standardized Testing: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly.” YouTube, uploaded by Teachings in

Education, 28 March 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlArEdgnYKA. Accessed

7 Mar. 2021.
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Waldman, Caroline. “TESTING OVERLOAD?: New Study Finds U.S. Students Are Spending
Time Taking Redundant Tests.” Alliance For Excellent Education, 10 Nov. 2015,
all4ed.org/articles/testing-overload-new-study-finds-u-s-students-are-spending-time-
taking-redundant-tests/.