Why do we need standardized testing

Proponents of standardized testing argue that some kind of examination outside of school curricula—which can vary widely by school district—can help an education system better compare students from very different backgrounds because all these students took the exact same test. By measuring students against that universal standard, it becomes easier to evaluate and rank them.

In the same way that standardized tests provide a standard to measure students, they can also help set larger educational standards for schools across a state or country. If students in particular school districts are struggling to perform at grade level, superintendents and governments know to get involved. In addition to comparing students against one another or identifying problematic schools or districts, standardized tests can also illustrate student progress over time.

Taking the same or similar tests over the years can allow students to indicate measurable improvement. Standardized tests can give students from under-performing high schools a chance to prove that they have mastered ample academic material despite their circumstances. Because standardized tests are not tied to any one high school curriculum, they can offer an inclusive opportunity for students to highlight their successful performance.

Proponents argue that standardized testing can help level the playing field in public education. Finally, while much of the arguing around standardized testing is focused on high school students and younger, the fact is that standardized testing is often a fact of life well beyond secondary school. Anyone who wants to become a doctor, lawyer, teacher, engineer, actuary, architect, or practitioner of another specialized profession will eventually have to excel at a standardized test.

Indeed, early in the pandemic, the Trump administration allowed states to waive all spring standardized tests for The following year, many expected the Biden Administration to do the same thing, since large numbers of students were still learning remotely and schools had struggled all year to keep pace with learning. However, the Biden administration heeded the concerns of civil rights and educational justice groups, requiring that states continue testing , precisely because it was such a challenging year and so many children would have fallen behind.

However, states received tremendous flexibility in how and who they tested in , so in truth, we are losing two years of data. This no doubt produces huge obstacles for districts that seek to diagnose the effectiveness of their schools and curricula, and removes a critical tool from the advocacy toolbelt of the civil rights sector. Become an informed consumer. Information is power.

In order to advocate effectively, you must understand the purpose of particular tests and how your school will use the results. Is it to drive instruction? Is it to measure state trends? Is it to fulfill federal regulations? One of the strings attached is your state has to come up with a plan to assess student progress during this pandemic year. No hiding from learning loss! We need the data in order to create plans that will address the crisis. Our schools are failing to justly serve large groups of children; in this sense, supporting standardized testing is part of the work of ensuring child justice.

Current standardized tests, while vital for improving learning gaps, are stuck in the Stone Age. In order to minimize the time and money spent on assessments, state education systems need to invest in innovating our testing infrastructure. Activists can demand their state leaders invest in innovation to make tests less stressful and more useful for students, teachers, parents, schools and states.

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Posted Nov. By Shawnta S. Barnes Read Post. On its face, relieving students, teachers, and families from the grip of test-based accountability makes sense. We know student achievement, particularly in low-income schools and districts, will dip due to circumstances related to the pandemic and social distancing. We know the source of the decline.

And we currently use standardized tests well beyond what they were designed to do, which is to measure a few areas of academic achievement. Achievement tests were not designed for the purposes of promoting or grading students, evaluating teachers, or evaluating schools. In fact, connecting these social functions to achievement test data corrupts what the tests are measuring. However, there is still a role for testing and assessment.

We need to know the full extent of the damage from the last 12 months beyond the impact on academics. In other words, states should be using multiple assessments to address the range of needs of students and their teachers. This is what the focus of academic and non-academic assessment should have always been, not a means to punish the people who are dealing with conditions that erode the quality of an education. Large-population state testing began in the s; in the s, America started to assess nationally.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of made standardized testing a requirement in public schools. The Every Student Succeeds Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama on December 10, , was created to further allow student achievement and success. However, high-stakes tests can cause anxiety.

Another factor to consider with regards to standardized testing is the socio-economic background of the students. When students are assessed through standardized tests, we gain an important metric that can be used to check the quality of the curriculum. Standardized tests provide data that can be compared to other independent schools across the US and other international schools across the globe.

Without standardized tests, policymakers would have to rely on tests that will be scored by individual schools and teachers. Standardized tests are used to evaluate the effectiveness of an education program. Besides being useful in assessing student performance, they are also a means to evaluate the curriculum. Principals and teachers can see where their students are doing well, and determine what areas need improvement.

This will help them revise teaching methods if necessary to help students meet the standards. Test scores are shown to have a relative degree of reliability.