 Since 1838, which is marked as its birth, American educators have turned the system of standardized testing into the heart of education (Alcocer). With its rapid integration into education, standardized testing has taken hold and become a traditional part of the 21st Century’s course of education. From the beginning of a student’s education they are tested and evaluated. Students’ performance on standardized tests from a young age determines their inner-classroom placement, usually consisting of accelerated or decelerated learning programs. Standardized tests begin to measure academic potential and academic success from an extremely young age and have drastic affects on students’ educational paths. These tests go on to determine much more and have lasting affects that influence access to certain scholarships and schools. Standardized testing has been an indefinite and enduring process with little change over the last decade, but standardized testing is by no means perfect. In recent years several disagreements and debates have been brought to conversation regarding the integrity and effectiveness of standardized tests in successfully measuring academic achievement. Standardized tests in their plain and simple form discredit real education through the installation of a harsh common knowledge, ultimately excluding other skills including creativity and critical thinking. This common knowledge requirement reshapes educational standards; this in turn has lead to a negative effect on students in determining what they know and learn. Standardized testing has also negatively affected teachers, as standardized testing curriculum forces a conformation to a particular style of teaching. The multimillion-dollar industry known as standardized testing has effectively created an unequal playing field in favor of wealthier students. This has arisen with the unequal access to test preparation tools and materials. Standardized testing is taking the freedom out of education and by doing so is restricting the full potential of America’s educational system; I feel that standardized testing is an ineffective and lazy way of fully accessing a students’ academic success. Through the disregard of personal attributes, as well as the installation of a poor common knowledge, teachers and students have been negatively affected in their ability to teach and learn, standardized testing in its business like form has failed as a means of comparing student achievement and installing accountability among educators, leaving the educational system a slave to standardized testing. 

Standardized testing in its cutthroat form does not fully evaluate the student, leaving crucial factors that play key roles in measuring academic success out of the discussion. Standardized testing was implemented in an effort to measure a common knowledge, and with this measurement, compare students from all parts of the country. Standardized testing fails to capture the entire student in a primary effort to establish a standard numerical measurement. In Marcia Clemmitt’s article “School Reform” she brings to discussion a proposal from Times Magazine called  “value-added”. This proposed method of measurement offers a new way of assessing the student and talks about the analysis of students by evaluating the progress of each student in comparison with that student’s individual progress in earlier years (Clemmitt). This method of student evaluation calls for a personalized assessment and takes into account factors such as poverty and learning disabilities (Clemmitt). Clemmitt is clearly right about the need for reform as she outlines inconsistencies in the way in which institutions evaluate students and their approach that fails to consider factors such as poverty, learning disabilities and personal attributes. Amy Witherbee and Denise Geirer in their article "Point: Standardized Testing Is the Best Way to Establish Education Standards” argue the opposing point. They go on to state that; “standardized testing has proven to be one of the most successful tools for not only measuring successes and failures, but also for setting forth clear and unmistakable standards for teachers and students” (Geier). This statement is shallow and just brings more questions to conversation, such as who determines successes and failures, who determines what counts and why should schools value a common knowledge over other personal skills such as creativity and critical thinking. In an educational system stretching 50 states and covering hundreds of different demographical backgrounds, standardized testing has proved one thing, it fails to capture the full student, disregarding information about the individuals background which play key roles into the complete measurement of a students academic success. 

 Standardized testing is not only being used as a means of measuring the students’ success, but has recently been used as a means of assessing the teacher’s performance. Standardized testing’s primary function, in regard to educators, is to ensure accountability. With standardized testing at the center of education, a new sense of competition has been constructed. Schools are being forced to push new curriculum and teachers are being evaluated based on student performances. Some districts have even shown interest in basing pay off of standardized test scores (Clemmitt). Clemmit in her article “School Reform” goes deeper into the contentious topic of teacher evaluation based on student performance. She summarizes that among factors including learning disabilities and poverty; individual student performance is among several of the unpredictable events when it comes to standardized testing, deeming evaluations of teachers “unfair” (Clemmitt). I agree with Clemmitt’s view that standardized testing shouldn’t be used as a reflection of teacher performance, I feel this method of evaluation is cornering teachers and ruining the school system. Alfie Kohn elaborates on this topic in his book, The Case Against Standardized Testing: Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools. Kohn focuses on several studies that analyze the destructive effects of punishments and incentives, specifically talking about two forms of motivation, intrinsic, which refers to internal rewards and extrinsic, which refers external incentives (Kohn 14). Kohn calls extrinsic motivation “corrosive” and states, “someone acting to avoid a punishment is apt to lose interest in that which he was threatened into doing. Teaching and learning alike come to be seen as less appealing when someone has a gun to your head.” (Kohn 14) Kohn goes further conveying that incentivized extrinsic motivation has similar effects stating that “ the more people are rewarded for doing something, the more they tend to lose interest in whatever they had to do to get the reward. Thus, the intrinsic motivation that is so vital to quality—to say nothing of quality of life—often evaporates in the face of extrinsic incentives, be they carrots or sticks.” (Kohn 15) Kohn’s theory on extrinsic motivation is extremely useful because it sheds light on the controversial problem of incentives and punishment within the school system in its effort to get results. This epidemic is a result of the competitiveness standardized testing has installed. With an ever-changing educational system that revolves around test scores, teachers are being forced to conform and “teach to the test”. This conformation has lead to a negative change in curriculum as well as installation of unfair means of assessing teachers. 

Standardized testing’s largest influence has been on the student. The influence and significance of standardized tests among education has forced a conformation and change in common knowledge. This change has directly affected what students know and what students learn as a direct affect of what standardized tests measure. Standardized testing doesn’t fully measure the student; the consequences being a narrow-minded approach to teaching and learning, which ultimately leads to miss placed values seen within education. Kohn in his book highlights the values of standardized testing and outlines the essentials of what standardized tests miss in the evaluation of academic success. Kohn conveys that standardized tests measure certain isolated skills, facts, functions and most of all associate a flawed view of intelligence, which confuses being smart with knowing a lot of stuff (Kohn 11). I agree that standardized testing has installed a false sense of knowledge that has lead to changes in teaching and learning, which at the end of the day only affects the students’ educational experience. With the use of standardized testing, personal attributes such as creativity, imagination, conceptual thinking, curiosity, and effort are not taken into full consideration (Kohn 11). Standardized testing is failing the educational system through its straightforward approach to assigning a numerical number associated with academic success, this trait of standardized testing has fully ignored the possibility for a variety of attributes and learning styles among students to have impact on academic success, ultimately taking the personal identity out of the individual student.   

Standardized testing has become more than just a test; standardized testing has developed into big business in America. In the Huffington Post article “The Business of Standardized Testing”, it is estimated by the National Board on Educational Testing and Public Policy that the value of standardized testing is anywhere between 400$ million and 700$ million, with top executives making well above seven figures (Alexandra). It is also estimated that parents spent roughly 13.1$ billion on standardized test preparation, including tutors, test preps, and counseling (Alexandra). These numbers go to show the market that standardized testing has created. Building on this, the market aspect of standardized testing has unknowingly made the playing field unfair. In an effort to standardize a common knowledge and means of measuring academic success, standardized testing has favored the upper class by providing the means to tutors and test preparation materials that less fortunate students might not be able to afford. Researchers at MIT and Harvard reported on a study that measured the academic achievement gap between low-income and high-income children. The study showed the trend of the gap between race and ethnicity narrowing but showed the income achievement gap had continued to widen (Bergland). The phenomenon in achievement gap between high-income and low-income students and standardized test scores have been long and pervasive, Bergland’s article expresses the efforts of educators and policymakers in identifying these root causes in an effort to balance the scales of standardized testing. This proven inconsistency is just another example of how standardized testing is a bias means of measuring academic success. With clear evidence of a gap between factors external to education, standardized testing fails to measure accurately and fairly. 

Standardized testing has become America’s tool for measuring academic achievement, being used anywhere from determining acceptance into accelerated school programs in elementary school, to scholarships and college admissions tests in high school. Standardized testing is the common tool used to assess students from all over the country. These test measure academic achievement while also acting as a means of predicting future success. Standardized testing in theory is a brilliant idea, a simple way to measure a predetermined standard while comparing schools and ensuring academic accountability among educators, but the system is flawed. In its effort to standardize education, standardized testing has successfully crippled the educational system in America. Standardized testing has forcefully instituted a common knowledge that fails to consider personal attributes in academic achievement while also implementing devastating effects on the teachers’ ability to teach and the students’ ability to learn, all while feeding the multimillion-dollar industry standardized testing has become.  
