Haycock

Trevor Haycock
Professor Dursema
English 1010
24 April 2015
Standardized Testing: An American Thing
Mothers all over the United States continue to obsess over what school their child will go
to even before they are school aged. Several are disappointed each time they receive notification
that their child did not get their name drawn or didnt make the waiting list at the charter school
they were hoping for. What seems to be such a huge decision that some obsess about before their
child is even born is based on one thing; test scores. Standardized testing continues to leave a
lasting impression with many Americans and it dictates what school is acceptable and meets high
enough standards for their child. Most Americans dont question what these tests actually test or
the validity of them; but that needs to change. American schools, high school age and under,
need to eliminate standardized testing and replace them with performance assessments in order
to give every student an equal opportunity to succeed. Standardized testing does not care about
the diverse need of each student and it continues to create a gap in low-income schools. America
should stop molding their education system around standardized test because so many important
factors are not considered. A new performance based test needs to be adopted so everyone will
know the true areas a student is struggling.
The American public school system is always trying to make changes and develop a
system that can make positive improvements, track progress of teachers and students, and help
everyone succeed. Currently, standardized testing has become what many believe to be the key to
addressing these issues, but standardized testing is only holding people accountable to test scores

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and ignoring curriculum and education all together. Diane Ravitch was part of the education
reform when she served as the, Assistant Secretary of Education, when George H. W.
Bush and Bill Clinton were in office. She has since been able to reflect and see the negative
impact standardized testing is having on public schools. Ravitch continues to discuss this debate
on her blog (Diane). Ravitch also wrote a book about how her opinions evolved and what
changes need to be made. The book is titled; The Death and Life of the Great American School
Stystem: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education. In her book she states, It is
time, I think, for those who want to improve our schools to focus on the essential of education.
We must make sure that our schools have a strong, coherent, explicit curriculum that is grounded
in the liberal arts and sciences, with plenty of opportunity for children to engage in activities and
projects that make learning lively. We must ensure that students gain the knowledge they need to
understand political debates, scientific phenomena, and the world they live in (13). Reforming
the education system in America has become a movement about testing and accountability,
reward or punishment. Although this method can improve test scores it means nothing when the
testing is not based on a specific curriculum.
Standardized testing is what drives the education system in America. Starting in
elementary school teachers and students are expected to meet certain goals and if they dont, they
feel the pressure to improve. Standardized testing does not take in to consideration any external
factors. Was the child having a bad day? Do they have test anxiety? What is going on in their
home life? All of these external factors are ignored when taking a standardized test. Ravitch
argues; The trouble with test-based accountability is that it imposes serious consequences on
children, educators, and schools on the basis of scores that may reflect measurement error,
statistical error, random variations, or a host of environmental factors or student attributes

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(166). If the students personal situation does not matter it can create a more stressful and less
safe environment for the student.
Columbia University points out that the students are not being taught to their full
potential because of the way the teachers are focusing so much on teaching to test. Columbia
states, This practice can hinder a students overall learning potential. With the stakes getting
higher and higher for teachers, this practice will only continue to increase. Teachers have such
pressure to get their students ready for these exams that they neglect to teach students skills that
go beyond the tests (Columbia University). This creates a lot of stress for teachers and a lot of
them will quit the field because of these expectations and it tends to create a more stressful
environment for everyone. In the novel The Test: Why Our Schools are obsessed with
Standardized Testing- But You Dont Have To Be, Anya Kamenetz touches on the stress these
tests create for everyone by stating, A little bit of stress can be healthy and motivational. Too
much or the wrong kind can be damaging and toxic. When you put teachers and principals jobs
on the line and turn up the heat on parents, students catch the anxiety like a bug (17). The entire
focus of the whole staff is on what they need to do to keep their jobs and keep the schools
reputation favorable.
Federal funds are given to the schools that do well, and a school only does well if the
students do well. The whole dynamic of the school is changed to a competitive atmosphere with
less group activity and more personalized study time. Because the school has pressure to raise
scores recess and other activities are cut out to save money. This can have a negative impact on
childrens social, emotional, and academic well-being, Columbia University states. If schools
continue to perform poorly on tests there is the possibility of being closed down. Ravitch touches
on this subject in her book by saying, The goal of accountability should be to support and

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improve schools, not the heedless destruction of careers, reputations, lives, communities, and
institutions. The decision to close a school is a death sentence for an institutions; it should be
recognized as a worst-case scenario (166). Taking all these negative factors into consideration
careful planning can create alternative solutions.
Many think there is not an alternative to standardized testing but some schools are
proving there are other more affective alternatives. Found in the Washington Post was and article
written by Valerie Strauss. Strauss found one method that is having positive results in New York
City is Consortium schools. They focus on project-based learning which is a performance-based
assessment (Strauss). There are many valuable alternatives but they all involve a much higher
quality assessment. Strauss points out; No other nation test as much as the United States.
Finnish students, for example, outperform the world. Their schools have well-trained teachers
who have autonomy to address their students learning needs and no high-stakes testing! In other
nations as well, performance assessments are common (Strauss). Although standardized testing
is uncommon in other nations, there are reasons it continues to be highly focused on in the
United States.
Accountability is one of the greatest benefits of standardized testing; teachers and school
are held accountable and cant get away with not doing their job. Most importantly standardized
testing gives the entire United States and way to compare how everyone is doing. Although these
are important factors, with a little more careful planning these goals can be accomplished
without standardized testing. A set education criteria must be established for certain grade levels,
but there has to be room for flexibility. Teachers do need to be held accountable to the
performance of their students but it needs to be measured in an alternative way. Standardized
testing ends up closing down schools instead of adapting to their true needs, such as a school

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where the majority of children dont speak English or are in great poverty. These schools dont
need to be closed down they need different resources. Private and charter schools are being put in
this same category as schools in poverty when the students face completely different challenges.
They have completely different funding, NPR Books summarizes Ravitch in an article titled,
Ravitch: Standardized Testing Undermines Teaching, it states; "regular public school parents
are angry because they no longer have an art room, they no longer have a computer room
whatever space they had for extra activities gets given to the charters and then they have better
facilities. They have a lot of philanthropic money behind them Wall Street hedge fund
managers have made this their favorite cause. So at least in [New York City] they are betterfunded ... so they have better everything" (NPR). Many of the exciting activities are not being
funded and students are losing interest in school.
Students dislike school more and more because they are pressured to perform well on
tests and this is one of the only things focused on. They think they only way to get into college is
by doing well on a test. The cycle needs to be broken, America needs to adapt a way to involve
all students in all neighborhoods and give them all a chance to succeed. Ravitch blogs about this
topic; Heres what should happen: teachers in their own classrooms, using multiple performance
assessments where children apply their knowledge in the context of a given task, determine what
their students know and what they need to learn, based on standards developed by that school,
district, or possibly, state. Teachers should take students where they are and help them progress at
their own developmental rates. And good teachers are doing that every day. Not because of
standardized tests, but in spite of them (Diane)
Schools will not improve if people that dont know how to teach tell teachers how to
teach. They will not improve if we only focus on basic reading and math skills; there needs to be

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focus on all the skills that will prepare students for college and the workplace. What standardized
testing measures cannot be the only thing of value, individualism needs to be valued for our
schools to improve. Schools cannot be treated like a business and always looking for a higher
score, data cannot be worshiped in relation to test scores. Schools will not improve if extra
recourses are not provided for students that grow up in poverty (Ravitch). We need to improve
curriculum and provide a safe environment for teachers and students rather then fight over how
they will be controlled. Our test should be as good as the curriculum that is being taught. If
standardized testing does not stop taking over the education system it will continue to crumble
and students will continue to suffer. Each student is different and has a unique way of learning
and deserves to be treated that way.

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Work Cited
Columbia University. Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing. Columbia University. Spring
2013. Web. 8 Apr. 2015.
Diane Ravitchs Blog. WorkPress.com. 24 Apr. 2015. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.
Kamenetz, Anya. The Test: Why Our Schools are obsessed with Standardized Testing
But You Don't Have to Be. New York: PublicAffairs, 2015. Print
NPR Staff. Ravitch: Standardized Testing Undermines Teaching. NPR Books. NPR Shop, 28
Apr. 2011. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.
Ravitch, Diane. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and
Choice Are Undermining Education. New York: Basic Books, 2011. Print.
Strauss, Valeire. An Alternative to Standardized Testing for Student Assessment. The
Washington Post. The Washington Post, 2 Nov. 2012. Web. 10 April 2015.