What are your thoughts on standardized testing?

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A complete waste of time, that doesn't test anything but the teacher's stress level and the students mental well-being

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Two decades of the experiment with nationwide systems based on standardized tests should have proved the failure of the theory by now.

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They add unnecessary stress for students, parents, teachers, and school districts, and they still don't actually assess children equally because kids are all different. So of course they'll perform differently when taking the same exact test.

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It should be abandoned like an Alaskan mining town.

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Completely unnecessary, in my opinion. It doesn't take into account the students' differences and varying capacities. What exactly has tests like these proven over the last few decades?

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I think we are doing it wrong.

I taught in China for about eight years and I saw why the scores are so high, aside from just plain cheating.

First, the scores have meaning for the students, they determine the classes, and ultimately the schools they will go to along with class standing. Second, the schools and teachers are competitive about the tests. There are pep rallies before the tests similar to the ones we reserve for sports. High scorers are praised in public.

Just think of what we do for sports, along with after-school sessions similar to sports practice, but with an academic direction. Now apply that to the tests.

Instead, we are told to do the opposite, no build-up, we are not even allowed to give them a snack and a bottle of water. In China, they literally close the streets that are next to the school. The stated reason is so that the traffic noise does not disturb the students on these important days. The real reason is psychological, to tell the kids, "we have shut down the town for you, now do your part!"

The best years this town ever had, for test scores, was when middle school test scores determined the student's place in line for driver's ed class at the high school. However, that practice was ordered to end. Instead, the test scores mean nothing to the student. It should be no surprise that we, as a nation, perform poorly on those tests.

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If only our leaders at the national education department did a little research. They would understand that they are doing it wrong

It negatively impacted students' intrinsic motivation to learn, removed opportunities for personalized learning, and has become a business.

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We need something to use as a benchmark but I also think the testing needs to be useful for teachers. That’s why I like NWEA but am not a fan of state testing

Why do you need the benchmark? Serious question.

Assume I don’t have a clue. I don’t think that benchmarks are necessary, because I think we don’t actually agree on the goals of education to start with.

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They are not fair since many students learn differently. Some students are best at answering essay questions, others are better at multiple choice, etc.

Standardized testing is what is wrong with education

I see a lot of disparaging comments on standardized testing, and in large part, I agree. Especially considering how far it has gone in America with the nonstop acronyms and tests that change every few years with minimal reliable feedback.

However, I see a few issues with an America with no standardized testing.

1. Most developed countries have some form of standardized testing. Many in the form of the PISA to show where there education system is in terms of educating children (I know this is not the only goal of education, but it is a goal. And yes people learn things differently, but most countries agree there needs to be a way to identify children who are exceptional in certain subjects. It doesn’t mean the others are dumb for scoring lower.) Still, seeing how we stack up state to state and country to country could be helpful, and most countries agree. That, of course, would require constant and specific standards that do not change from year to year and are similar in scope from state to state. Some countries do this just to see if their children can continue schooling.

2. With how rampant grade inflation has become, standardized tests such as the ACT are one of the few ways to differentiate kids for high end universities, even if they did do a trial run of no ACT after Covid, they have brought it back. With so many kids with 4.0’s, there needs to be a measuring tool, or we need to make a 4.0 meaningfully again. Frankly, if an A is average, we have no way to measure exceptional students in certain content areas. At least colleges don’t, if we eliminate testing as a whole.

Also with grade inflation, testing is one of the few ways we can tell how well we are preparing our students in real time. When a class has a 98% average, some are starting to believe that means you are teaching them at a high level (and you may be). But from experience, a lot of time this is because some teachers hand out A’s for just completing the work, even if it is d level or completely wrong. Example: a coworker does journals. The kids know she does not read them. Many of the kids copy and paste old journals into the assignment and get 100’s. We need something (maybe not state testing) to measure our teaching.

3. Some may argue above that the ACT is different, and it is. So the argument could be all testing outside of college entrance exams should be eliminated. The only negative there is that the test anxiety for certain students will grow ten fold because they have 0 experience.

4. All students are different and should be celebrated, but certain content areas are unchanging and highlighted in the world we live in. It is important to identify these skills, even if I wish other content areas were more celebrated as well.


I really just think it’s been poorly implemented and no one can make up their mind so it is always shifting. If it wasn’t as time consuming and ever changing as it currently is, I think it could be a useful measuring tool. I know some people will say we don’t need a measuring tool, but I like to see where my students are at compared to other schools so I can see what I need to shift and better implement in my class.

They are useful, in general, but we all have different testing and learning styles so they run the risk of leaving talented or differently-abled students behind which I think is unfair

Hate them! They are a waste of money and time! Too much emphasis. If they were important they would follow students to college and private school students would take them. They are intended to dummy down society.

$$$

We could get rid of it honestly. There are numerous studies proving the benefit of the absence of standardized tests. Hope they abolish it in my county.

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