
According to the government’s national survey, the average student in the American public school system takes approximately 112 mandatory standardized tests between kindergarten and high school graduation. This takes up about 20 to 25 hours of schooling time each year. These standardized tests are hundreds of multiple choice questions that students take with a number two pencil, sitting in a classroom, with a time limit and complete silence. The bubbled in answers are run through a machine and a score is calculated indicating the intelligence level of the test taker. Parents, school administrators, students, and the general population trust this test to be an accurate indication of the intelligence of the students. Few people take into account the other factors that are affecting the test takers during the time of the examination and with the exam itself. The intelligence of a human being goes beyond the two hour time period that they are being tested. It is essential for the nation to look beyond the score of a standardized test when assessing a student’s overall intelligence. It is necessary that more people are asking the critical question: Does the current standardized testing system of the United States accurately reflect the intelligence of students?

In order to fully understand the usage of standardized tests in the American school system, the rich history must first be looked at. Dating as early as 1840, American educators were replacing oral examinations administrated by teachers with formal written testing (Ickovics). By the end of the Civil War, the school system moved the idea from lower to upper divisions of schooling. Educators began to use standardized testing as a method to test for university acceptances. They thought that eliminating all outside factors like creative thinking would provide a consistent description of student’s intelligence.  In 1900, the College Entrance Examination Board was established and these test were administer around the country in nine subject areas. Soon after, more than one thousand achievement tests were on the market and were being trusted as reliable sources of information about a student’s intellectual abilities. No longer were teachers giving oral examinations to students where they had more space and time to articulate their thoughts, but the education system transitioned to written timed exams. President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind Plan” resulted in over testing and promoted this culture in the American school systems (Tau). As a result, the standardized tests are seen as the most acceptable measure of overall intelligence of students.

As the education system of American integrated standardized testing as the dominating measure of intelligence, the priorities of the institution shifted. The school system placed a higher value in getting a certain score than having a complete understanding of the material. In his TED talk, “None of the Above- Why Standardized Testing Fails,” Bob Sternberg explains this theory with a comparison to building a house. Sternberg explains a situation where the foundation of a house was only 75% solid, then the builders move on and the first floor is 85% completed, then the second floor is built with only 60% completion. He says that this is exactly what the standardized testing system is doing to the nation’s students when they are subject to this system in the way that they are. No one can avoid taking a standardized test. They are a mandatory part of the education system now regardless of whether or not it accurately represents a student’s intelligence. Since the education system is all about getting the score, there are enormous gaps in student’s knowledge. The student may have understood 75% of unit one, 85% of unit two, but come unit three when all of the previous information is required they will only have 60% of the required information. Rather than learning the information the first time in a way that they understand and retain, the school system works to get the passing grade and if you are able to understand the information completely then you are the exceptional minority. Sternberg explains that the focus on a number or letter score has made students lose motivation to learn the material, teachers lose motivation to find the best methods to teach their students, and for school administrators to make assumptions about the student’s overall intelligence based on a standardized testing grade. Given the importance that American society places on these test scores, the use of standardized testing in the American education system is a vital part of the culture. 

With its initial intentions, the standardized testing system was meant to be beneficial as a benchmark for school administrators, teachers, parents and students to track progress in the classroom. It was intended to level the playing field of all students and give one standardized means of testing intelligence over a number of courses. The standardized tests were going to give students a comprehensive examination of their understanding of the subjects. These tests are a beneficial way for school administrators to track their students and teachers on the national and state level of achievement. A school principal can look at a classroom of student’s performance on standardized tests and judge the teacher’s success as a result. Since the state and national education system is so large, this gives administrators a convenience overview look at the performance of students. In his article, “Bless the Test: Three Reasons for Standardized Testing”, Aaron Churchill, Ohio educational research director for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, defends standardized testing because of its objectivity, comparability and accountability. The similar set of questions, nearly identical testing conditions and subjectivity of the graders are all elements which are eliminated in the standardized test. Given the level of difficultly and human nature of the grader, these factors could affect the way that a student is able to be successful on a non-standardized test. Where one teacher may have given partial credit, another would not have given credit at all. The standardized test eliminated this subjectivity with only one correct answer for each question. While the standardized tests can be successful in objectivity, comparability and accountability, there is a strong case that this is not successfully giving credit to a student’s intellectual abilities. 

The issue of standardized testing needs to be addressed now because of the ways in which it is affecting students and the educational system as a whole. In the American school system, “…children are tested to an extent that is unprecedented in… history and unparalleled anywhere else in the world” (Kohn). There is no other nation that uses standardized testing in the way that Americans do. In Finland, a top performer on international tests, students take fewer tests that are of lower stakes with no annual standardized tests. They are used to prepare students for the professional world, but never to put a number on the students intelligence level. Although Finnish students are not tested often, they “consistently rank near the top in math, reading and science in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which is a standardized test taken by students in dozens of countries” (Rooks). America has placed a higher value on the multiple choice standardized tests than any other nation for longer than other nations ever have in the past. With the way that standardized testing is moving, change needs to be made now in order to make a difference in the lives of students. The Stanford, Metropolitan and California Achievement Tests (SAT, MAT, and CAT) are all designed so that only about half of test takers will respond correctly to the questions being asked (Kohn). With a system like this, we are setting students up to fail. 

Even at an age as young as elementary school, students are experiencing the stress and pressure of standardized testing. A 2012 Institute of Medicine experiment shows undeniable results that children under nontraditional instruction methods resulted in improved health, perception of self-worth and academic achievement (Ichovics). The study was conducted in elementary school students and proved this system was not accurately showing the intelligence of these young students. While taking the test, students were put under typical standardized testing conditions: straight back desk, one pencil, written test, multiple choice answers, bubbled in answer document, and time limit. The test was administered, but the shocking results came when the students were interviewed after the exam. These third graders were asked the same questions aloud as what was written and more were able to answer correctly with explanation when answering orally than written. The teacher was then interviewed and described these students as being auditory learners who had some amount of attention deficit disorder. These students are highly intelligent and the only thing they aren’t good at is sitting still in a test for so long. The ways in which the test is administered is giving an automatic disadvantage to students with learning disabilities like these before they enter the classroom. Not even just students with diagnosed ADD or ADHD: we are talking about elementary school students. All children are active and need to move their bodies to expend extra energy and pay the most attention. Given the severity of the issue, it is imperative that issue  it is addressed now.

Standardized testing should not be used as the only means to access a student’s academic intelligence because of the disadvantage it puts certain students at due to their socioeconomic status. In standardized testing, it has been found that students of lower socioeconomic standings consistently perform worse than those of higher socioeconomic standing. A complaint has been filed with the U.S. Department of Education stating that the use of standardized testing is in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act because it is giving advantage to one racial group over another (Rooks). This can be seen clearly in the statistics from a Virginia school district in which “…only 45% of black students in each school pass standardized math tests, 68% of whites, and 82% of Asians do the same” (Rooks). The standardized testing is playing to the advantage of white and other upper class students who have the resources to pay for a tutor, summer learning programs or test preparation books. This is not to say that the parents of lower income care any less about their students’ success, but they do not have equal access to the resources of those in higher socioeconomic status. The students who are not able to afford these same resources are put at a distinct and unfair disadvantage with the use of standardized testing in all American schools. 

In addition to the socioeconomic disadvantage, the standardized testing system that is used in America does not test all types of intelligence and leaves students of other kinds at a disadvantage. In her book, The Test: Why Our Schools Are Obsessed with Standardized Testing But You Don’t Have to Be”, Anya Kamenetz explains that this system is causing us to look to a “single-hand-eye-brain circuit, forgetting the rest of the body, mind and soul” (242).  She argues that there are other types of intelligence that the tests are not equally representing like creativity, problem solving, practical and adaptive skills The standardized test is testing students ability to learn the pattern of the test and exploit it. The test preparation books that some students are afforded the opportunity to have prepare them for just this. They are given helpful hints on what types of questions to look for in certain situations. They are at an advantage by knowing to look for these patterns in questions that are only testing their ability to memorize: not all parts of their intelligence. Bob Sternberg, president of The American Psychological Association, explains the ethical, reasoning, and creative aspects of intelligence that are not showed as a part of the standardized tests. He goes on to explain the self-fulfilling prophecy that students are trapped in: they do poorly on a test and believe they are stupid, do stupid work, get bad grades, and the cycle perpetuates. If the schools worked to eliminate this bias by using other methods to test intelligence, students would become more engaged rather than feeling left behind for 16 years of schooling.

While the standardized test may not test all types of intelligence, there are alternative methods that can more effectively evaluate a student’s overall intelligence. Tania Alameda-Lawson’s article, “Pilot Study of Collective Parent Engagement and Children’s Academic Achievement” shows the method that could work to lower the gap of disadvantage among students taking standardized tests: parental involvement. It has been concluded that there is a direct correlation between a student’s academic success and their parent’s involvement in their education. The article explains that a child’s first teacher is their parent at home and if there were programs put into place to work with parents, then we would in turn see a more successful test result from the students. The CPE, collective parent engagement, program would allow parents access to educational resources designed to be used as home at an early age in order to train children in the habit that learning first takes place in the home. This network of support can work to better prepare students for the standardized testing system.

Parental involvement and not testing as early as often could be the solutions to the American problem of standardized testing. Collective Parent Engagement would get parents to start preparing their students for success in schools earlier on. If a child is being engaged in the learning process at home then they are more likely to be successful at home. Opportunities like reading the menu at restaurants or a section of the newspaper are small steps that each family can take in order to promote learning inside of home. The confidence that the students would receive at home would translate to the classroom. Additionally, not testing students from such an early age would eliminate the self-fulfilling prophecy as Bob Sternberg talks about in his Ted Talk. He explains from personal experience that, “[his] teachers thought he was stupid and as a result [he] thought [he] was stupid…and since [he] thought he was stupid he did stupid work that met [his] teachers expectations” (Sternberg). He was content from an early age on only meeting his teachers expectations because they were never too high. Sternberg, like so many other students, have been trained to think they are not intelligent so they never achieve higher than their expectations. What if teachers genuinely believed every single one of their students would be successful?  The confidence from a teacher might be enough to have a child change the way they view themselves and result in better test scores.

I do not believe that the standardized testing system is the best measure of student’s intelligence and I think it can be modified to lessen the gap of disadvantages. With that being said, I am realistic that this system would not be changed overnight and it would take large efforts in the educational community in order to adopt a system that was advantageous to all students. I think programs like CPE that work with the parents to get their child engaged in addition to teachers who are invested in looking beyond the test scores will be the key to success of our nation’s youth students. If the teachers believe in their students and are able to encourage them to play to the strength of their type of intelligence, then we could end the cycle of students feeling stupid in school for 16 plus years. There is no reason that students should be feeling this way just because the multiple-choice standardized test did not give them the proper outlet to express their knowledge on the subject. If teachers were able to spend class time on activities that demonstrated multiple kinds of intelligence, more students would be confident. Instead, teachers must train their students to get high scores on standardized tests and this preparation dominates their class time. I think America can work towards a better education system that would advantage everyone while lessoning the gap.
