
Imagine a world where one hundred empty bubbles on a piece of paper, a number two pencil, and a time slot of two hours were the deciding factors for the rest of your life. Are you fit for the grade ahead of you? Honors classes? College level courses? A career? This is precisely what current students are experiencing in classrooms across the country. Children must face exams every year, sometimes more than once, that are held in artificial environments virtually identical in each state. 

Standardized testing does not accurately represent academic performance and therefore, falsely ranks the United States education system among other countries. The assessments falter due to monopolistic companies, distorted curriculums, and dehumanizing qualities of such tests; the way the system is set up, the test scores have little influence on student performance but have severe impacts. Forcing standardized testing on students in all grade levels is not efficient and does not benefit anyone but the companies that are distributing tests and receiving millions of dollars in the process. The curriculum taught within the classroom is now being geared towards what questions will be on the test and how they will be asked, rather than critical thinking and skills that allow students to succeed in life after high school. Even when students can pass the examinations at a proficient level, they still just become a number to be compared to students across the country that can directly affect their future. The process that students must endure to pass standardized testing originates from the few corporations that dominate the industry and wrongly insist that standardized testing is a more efficient way to measure academic performance. It is vital that we, as a nation, make a movement to continue to reform the measurement process.

What I have gathered from a decade of standardized test taking, is that I receive no benefits from taking each exam. In fact, I have never received my score from a test the same school year that it was administered. The school district in which I attended classes from kindergarten to twelfth grade has been receiving awards for having a sufficient number of students passing tests at a proficient level. However, the value of my education was lost when teaching me that knowing how to skim literary passages to answer corresponding questions five minutes later is more important than public speaking or beneficial financial skills. The education I primarily received in the classroom was not for me to succeed in later years; it was for me to “pass” one exam each year for my school to continue to receive the funding necessary to stay afloat and keep teachers’ jobs. 

There are two types of standardized tests that students will experience: achievement and aptitude (ASCD). Younger students partake in the achievement tests which are administered for much of their elementary school years all the way up to high school. These tests are utilized by school systems and parents to evaluate how effective the school is teaching students and how well an individual student is retaining the information (ASCD). After a certain point in a student’s high school career, they begin to take aptitude tests, most commonly the ACT and SAT; these predict a student’s performance in higher education. Students have the option to take the ACT and SAT as many times as they would like - rightfully so - because these two tests happen to be one of the largest factors in getting accepted in to a college or a career after high school. It may seem that these tests would efficiently measure a student’s academic performance; after all that is the whole reason for dispensing such important tests. Wrong. These standardized tests do not measure an individual’s achievement that year, instead they gather the same data from students in different classrooms, different school systems, and different states, comparing them all to one another. One single assessment, with small variations country wide, is expected to accurately assess every single student - of all demographics and regions in the country – the same way. A method similar to “one-size fits all” clothing styles. It is expected that all people can fit in to this one item of clothing, however it is just not possible for every single person; perhaps, they have too small of a head or abnormally large feet. The assessments do not have nearly enough questions and ranges of topics to adhere to the education that all students receive in the United States. 

Standardized testing and low academic performance rates are not a new concern. Acts establishing additional benefits for education have dated back to the 1960’s during Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency. However, the several changes that have been enforced over the years have done very little to fix the problems that standardized testing has created. In fact, problems are beginning to arise more and more, making the system desperate for reform. 

In an attempt to ensure that all students have the same exact education, the government developed a plan to regulate standardized testing and the education system. No Child Left Behind, an act signed by George W. Bush, was a reform to the education system that required testing on math, reading, and science every year for students between third and eighth grade and then once more in high school (Klein). Schools would either pass or fail after using adequate yearly progress (AYP) as a measuring method. The education department believed scores were below average due to certain demographics such as, low income, race, special education, and foreign language students. Therefore, these students were primarily targeted for testing to strengthen scores. However, by the 2013-2014 school year many states remained below the proficient level and the reformed act was considered unsuccessful. The tests proved to be nonspecific and inaccurately assessed students’ capabilities.

In a recent USA Today article, Gregory Korte examined the difference in education acts over the years and what exactly made them inefficient. If schools continued to come up short of expected proficient test scores they were subjected severe punishments: “fire the principal and most of the staff, convert to a charter school, lengthen the school day or year, or close down the school entirely” (Korte). These consequences drove teachers to fear for their job and began to alter the way they taught in the classroom. Important skills dissolved. Class periods became learning the exam, practicing the exam, and taking the exam. Funding and ranking became of more importance than education. Standardized testing began to lose its efficiency after the No Child Left Behind Act was enforced. Students were becoming less of students and more of a score that benefitted their school system. The reason for the amount of emphasis schools put on standardized testing becomes prevalent when nations are put up against each other.

Every three years’ teenagers in 73 countries get the opportunity to assess their academic performance by taking the Program for International Student Assessment (Heim). This examination surveys school systems across the world and then compares the performances of the students in one nation to all the others that partook in the exam. Once the results are available, countries can develop their education system and improve where it is needed. Since 2000, when the PISA exams were first administered, the United States, a developed country with millions of dollars going into education, has been oddly low in rankings. Joe Heim used his knowledge on education and recent PISA results to express the concern the U.S should have for our education system. 

In the latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) measuring math literacy in 2015, U.S. students ranked 40th in the world. The U.S. average math score of 470 represents the second decline in the past two assessments — down from 482 in 2012 and 488 in 2009. The U.S. score in 2015 was 23 points lower than the average of all of the nations taking part in the survey (Heim). 

It is not as if we are just short of the top three ranking: we are well below where we should be as a nation when we take in to account how well developed we are as a country. Millions of dollars are dedicated to education each year and new initiatives are constantly happening, but there have been no signs of improvement. Therefore, it is not the money, the students, or our environment that keep our scores low, it is the dependency on standardized testing. 

One of the largest names in the game of standardized testing is Pearson. The corporation collects millions of dollars but continues to have unsatisfied customers. Some of these grievances include a slow grading process, difficulties with their websites, and test content. The way questions are worded makes it very difficult for students to answer the question correctly. Even if a student wanted to opt out of taking a Pearson administered test, it would be extremely difficult because the corporation is in control of approximately 40% of the industry (Oliver). John Oliver, a talk show host with high viewing numbers, used the entirety of one show to debunk the priority of standardized testing. He made it no secret that he believed such testing is irrelevant and only inflicts students’ negatively. By doing so, Oliver mentioned Pearson’s prevalence in the corrupted system:

 A hypothetical girl could take Pearson tests from kindergarten through at least eighth grade, tests by the way that she studied for using Pearson curriculum and textbooks taught to her by teachers who were certified by their own Pearson test. And if at some point she was tested for a learning disability…that’s also a Pearson test and if she eventually got sick of Pearson and dropped out, she would have to take the GED, which is now… a Pearson test (Oliver 11:37-12:01). 

This just goes to show that tests can be given to students that have negative affects but it is impossible to escape the system. When an industry is run by companies that strictly feed off of money and has no interest in what they are selling, the students’ education is not a priority. 

Curriculum plans are now becoming distorted because they are geared to towards passing a test and not retaining information. Due to unrealistically high expectations, it is necessary for the school to administer standardized examinations. Even with variations of tests, schools still expect to have high scores. To do this they shift their curriculum to fit within the guidelines of an exam. An article published on Education Week discussing distorted curriculums and the negative impact they have on students stated, “critics say that such testing programs narrow student learning to what is tested- and that what is tested is only a sample of what children should know” (Assessment). Curriculums should include critical thinking, assessing a situation and transforming it. If they are taught to problem solve, students can gain skills that will benefit them later in life. If the children are only taught information that they will need to know for a specific test, then they will not retain anything, they will only memorize what they will need to know for the assessment then it will be forgotten by the time summer rolls around. 

Standardized tests are utilized to see if a school is efficient in teaching meaningless information, a student is prepared enough to move on to the next grade, or a teenager is suited for college. Learning has become so obsolete that students are exhausted of school. Understandably so, because no one wants to learn about the same material for several years just to be tested on it the same way at the end of each semester. Reading is a lost cause, mathematics is pointless, science is just an excuse to get students to look at a graph. Classes like history, art, and music are losing funding and often untouched in the school system. Stephen P. Heyneman has dedicated decades of time to researching performance rates in the United States and countries alike. He has analyzed the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) every three years since 2000. With the variety of data he has collected, Heyneman was able to conclude that students have become tired of the constant testing and the fear how their scores will impact their future. This has resulted in catastrophic declines in test scores and stamina within the United States. According to Heyneman, “There are many hypotheses as to why American schools are less efficient than those of many other countries. One hypothesis is that American school children express a lower ‘demand to learn’ than do school children in countries with high efficiency in their school systems” (Heyneman). Compared to other nations, the desire to strive for greatness in education is miniscule within the U.S. If we are able to turn around the way children look at education and make it seem like a privilege rather than a chore, student performance will increase along with the rankings of United States education. But to do so, standardized testing and the stress that precedes it must be prevented.  

Admittedly, there are educators and critics that believe standardized tests are efficient and beneficial to a student’s education. Hypothetically, these tests are meant to assist a student and their experience while being schooled; at some point in time a student will pick up new and innovative information. This small fraction of retained information is useless compared to the immense amounts that could be mustered while actually learning valuable facts and life skills. One argument towards standardized testing by Gail Gross, a former educator and expert in human behavior, concluded that there are positives that arise from consistent testing: “The standardized test is an objective and critical measure of achievement in skills, knowledge, and abilities, and must pass the criteria of measurement validity, reliability, and bias, as well as an awareness of the test’s potential limitations in scoring” (Gross). Gross believes that these generic assessments enable the state to correctly influence all students and appropriately rank their retained knowledge and skills. However, it does not appear that Gross has taken into consideration that these assessments are set up to make it almost impossible to measure important qualities such as personal “skills, knowledge, and ability” because the questions used on each exam are identical across the board or at least similar. Therefore, the questions do not adhere to each student’s abilities and cannot measure that specific student’s capabilities. 

In addition to being an inaccurate assessment of mental capabilities, there is no evidence that standardized tests are valid, reliable, or unbiased. In fact, it was even mentioned in John Oliver’s video that practice exams are administered to identify the easily answered questions so they can be altered to a higher level of difficulty. It is true that there are students who do benefit from standardized tests, but when those few are compared to the large numbers of students who do not receive necessary education, it is apparent that standardized testing needs to be reformed or completely removed from educational policies. 

For years students have been drowning in the tests that are distributed annually while large corporations are reaping the benefits. Tests that are “necessary” to assess how well a student has been taught the past year and offers advice as to whether or not moving up a grade level is the best option. Tests that remove a proper education from students and replace it with dollar signs and disoriented incentives. Tests that require a student to know how to answer as many questions as possible in a time frame rather than analyzing questions and answering them correctly. Tests that encourage students to fear for their future. Tests that make a score more important than an individual. A change in this deranged system would give U.S. citizens the opportunity to receive an education that prepares them for later years. One score would no longer decide someone’s entire future. The stress that arises each year will vanish. Not only would the reparations of standardized testing improve an individual’s life, it impacts the entire nation. People of all ages will begin to have more incentive to learn and in turn will put more effort in to learning the necessary information to succeed. Moving the United States up the education rankings and creating a new sense of learning within the country can only be accomplished by changes being made to the standardized testing system.
