In the educational system, standardized tests are common evaluations that students and teachers have to go through many times throughout their academic career. However, many believe that this method of evaluation is overall harmful and, for lack of a better word, distracting for everyone involved. Many agree that yearly standardized tests have become ineffective because of the creation of the achievement gap, over-abundant when it comes to how much time students spend testing and how many tests are given out per year, and that since teachers are burdened with their job being risked when it comes to these tests, they have to “teach to the test.”

Standardized testing as we know it today has been around for many years. The first use of a standardized test was first evident during the Han Dynasty in China, which was from 100 A.D to 220 A.D. Eventually, standardized testing was introduced into Europe during the 19th century. Countries in the Western Hemisphere were not using standardized testing. They were using debates, open discussion, and student essays as their main method of testing individuals during this time. However, standardized testing eventually spread to Western countries, mainly the United States, to assess the social roles of incoming immigrants and to remove any bias or favoritism. 

The first big instance of the high-stakes standardized testing as we know of it today, and the biggest turning point of education in general, first appeared in 1983 with the publication of  A Nation At Risk: The Imperative For Educational Reform by the National Commision on Excellence in Education (Au and Gourd),. This report set all of the standards of education of today, including the content requirement for high school students being 4 years of English, 3 years of mathematics, 3 years of lab sciences, and 3 years of social studies. Within a year of this publication, 54 state level commissions were created. By the year 2000, every state except Iowa had instilled a state mandated assessment. In 2001, President G.W. Bush pushed that funding be connected to student test scores, which eventually led to the No Child Left Behind Act being passed in late 2001, which was the second and most recent turning point of the US educational system. The passing of NCLB caused a large and noticeable gap between different groups of students over the past decade and a half.

Modern high-stakes standardized tests are made to benefit specific demographics, therefore creating the achievement gap. Whites, Asians, and students from wealthier backgrounds have consistently obtained better/higher scores on almost all of not all standardized tests, compared to Black, Latinos, and students from less financially fortunate backgrounds. According to Rooks, “one recent study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that the gap for achievement test scores between rich and poor have grown by almost 60% since the 1960s and are now almost twice as large as the gap between white students and children of other races.” According to this study, it is clearly evident that there is a serious gap between different groups of students and is still growing as of now. In Virginia, surprisingly, only 45% of blacks have to pass the mathematics standardized tests, while 68% of Whites and an appalling 82% of Asians are required to pass the math portion of the state mandated standardized test, which in a way speaks to how low of an expectation the educational system has of some of its students (Rooks). Also, people believe that these requirements are very discriminatory in nature, since some races have to achieve more that others. One theory about the achievement gap is that students with grandparents that graduated from college usually score higher on exams. This is hinting that students whose grandparents did not graduate from college are severely disadvantaged, since they will only be either first or second generation college graduates in their families.

Standardized tests have too much power over teachers, and classrooms in general. Because of this, teachers “teach to the test” in order to not get fired or prevent their school from not receiving funding because of their students having low scores. Ever since the passing of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the education system has used nation and state mandated standardized tests as the main evaluation of the effectiveness of teachers. Also, if a school’s students got high scores on the exams, then the school could possibly receive additional funding, which is then another reason for teachers/educators to teach the content that only pertains to the exam, as a result of the Race to the Top program. Race to the Top was introduced by former President Barack Obama back in July of 2009. According to the US Department of Education, through Race to the Top, it wants to advance education reforms that surround 4 educational areas: adopting standards and assessments that prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace and to compete in the global economy; building data systems that measure student growth and success, and inform teachers and principals about how they can improve instruction; recruiting, developing, rewarding, and retaining effective teachers and principals; and turning around our lowest-achieving schools. However, Balczo states that by doing this, a cycle begins where the low performing school receives less funding, therefore programs are cut. The students have less opportunities, while talented teachers are drawn to better funded schools. Eventually, those schools that have continually received less funding will be shut down completely, causing many teachers to have to relocate and find other jobs. The students will then be forced to move to a different school. Overall, standardized testing hastens the steady decline of school systems. 

Also, the quality of students’ education is declining because they are not always being taught quality lessons that the end of year mandated exams require. Speaking from experience, for example, there are different tenses that words can be conjugated in. On previous standardized tests, in the reading and writing comprehension sections, the names and concepts of those verb tenses were never required for students to know, therefore never taught. I am just now learning the meaning of the tenses that I have been using all of my life in college, when I probably should have known much earlier, if that makes sense. Also, there are other grammar lessons that were missed in my education because they were not required to know for any exams. For example, the difference between active and passive voice in writing and speaking. I am just now learning that this concept exists, and that I tend to write passively instead of actively. 

The amount of standardized tests that pupils have to take are over-abundant and overwhelming for teachers, students, and even the parents of the students. According to Lyndsey Layton of the Washington Post, per year, eighth grade students spend the most times taking standardized tests, an average around 25 hours. Tenth grade students are tested the most according to the number of different tests they are required to take, around 10 tests per year, on average (Layton). Former President Obama proclaimed in a video from the White House that: 

In moderation, smart, strategic tests can help us measure our kids’ progress in school, and it can help them learn. But I also hear from parents who, rightly, worry about too much testing, and from teachers who feel so much pressure to teach to a test that it takes the joy out of teaching and learning, both for them and for the students (Layton).

Even supporters of the modern standardized testing method believe that the amount of testing that students are put through is unnecessary and outrageous. On average, students in the US take 112 mandated standardized tests, from pre-K to high school graduation. Yet, US is not the leading country in education. The US is 21st in reading, 32nd in mathematics, and 23rd in science, compared to the leading country Singapore (Darling-Hammond). 