Essay on Standardized Testing: Time to Rethink the Purpose

Introduction

Every year, parents from different states across the U.S converge in schools where their children study to attend meetings aimed at preparing their kids for an upcoming battery of standardized examinations. Such meetings tend to focus on offering practical suggestions that would work towards preparing kids for exams by ensuring that they get enough rest, they are well-fed, and they avoid any stress-inducing situations. Nonetheless, the results of these meetings are usually negative as they create widespread anxiety among the parents and students in addition to the teachers as well as school administrators. While others may argue in its favor, standardized testing is more harmful than it's helpful to students; thus, its purpose should be rethought.

The use of standardized testing became ingrained within the American system of education from as early as 1983 when a report under the title "A Nation at Risk" highly criticized the public education sector as being pointless and useless consequently evoking successive attempts to reform the education system. Before the 1950s, American students who were able to complete high school only undertook a maximum of three standardized exams throughout their entire K-12 studies ("The Effects of Standardized Testing on Teaching and Schools", 2005, Herman & Golan). As of 1991, the number had increased to a minimum of 18 to 21 tests ("The Effects of Standardized Testing on Teaching and Schools", 2005, Herman & Golan). However, in the current system, before completing their K-12 studies, students undertake a minimum of 60 to 100 standardized examinations, which consequently makes American children one of the most tested individuals across the globe ("The Effects of Standardized Testing on Teaching and Schools", 2005, Herman & Golan). With such a high number of standardized tests, more than 100 million examinations are administered in the United States on an annual basis ("The Effects of Standardized Testing on Teaching and Schools", 2005, Herman & Golan). In the process, different states tend to lose a combined sum of almost two billion U.S dollars to facilitate the examinations.

Placing such emphasis on standardized examinations and the ensuing results have resultantly become more of an obsession than a factor meant to benefit children. Such tests have earned themselves the title "high-stakes examinations as they are currently the main criteria on which to conduct an assessment and evaluation of teachers and students as well as school administrators in addition to different schools and school districts. Therefore, the reforms within the education system provoked by the report entitled "A Nation at Risk" have become more of a problem than a solution to the failing education system in the U.S. The culture of administering standardized examinations on an annual basis tends to objectify students. Moreover, it has natured a constricted perspective of what should be described as educationally vital for children. Even worse, it has created an avenue whereby teachers bear the brunt of the blame if their students fail to exhibit the expected or desired performance regardless of consuming more than 40% of their time ("The Effects of Standardized Testing on Teaching and Schools", 2005, Herman & Golan). Furthermore, the environment under which the standardized exams are administered exerts unnecessary pressure, which consequently leads to stressed students as a result of panic and fear.

More so, a negative aspect that cannot go unnoticed is the fact that standardized exams have done little or nothing to improve the state of education in American schools let alone close the achievement gaps. On the contrary, the examinations have worked towards deepening the segregation of students within different schools in the U.S. The tests tend to create an environment that pits students against fellow students, teachers against their colleagues, and school systems against other systems. Resultantly, the competition evokes an atmosphere of hysteria, fear, and greed as institutions scramble for financial rewards while in the process neglecting the learning factor. Therefore, it would be hard to dispute an argument that the American education system is at a worse stage than it was some 30 years ago in matters concerning education. For instance, while the U.S education system emphasizes administering standardized tests, scores of children from different states are way behind when compared to others at the same level of education in other places. Moreover, the levels of illiteracy across the U.S are incredibly high as millions of children come from poverty-stricken families in addition to attending their classes in old schools with minimal academic resources.

Conclusion

However, it would be impossible to constructively come up with solutions to remedy the ailing education system if the exact problem cannot be identified. In other words, policymakers, as well as decision-making bodies, need to realize that an education system centered on standardized exams is much more harmful to the American youth than it is helpful as it deprives them of the opportunity to acquire developmentally beneficial education. Therefore, more time, as well as energy, needs to be redirected into rectifying the state of structural inequality existent within American schools as it's done when administering standardized tests. In simple words, teachers should be allocated the necessary resources needed to facilitate classroom learning. Moreover, the time spent conducting standardized tests should be left for teachers to decide and consequently engage in learning activities that they think would be more useful and beneficial to their students. As different individuals and institutions have joined hands to launch a massive boycott against the standardized examination mania, why shouldn't we join them?