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Sarah Schalk
Mr. Hackney
English 102: Rhetoric
11 April 2014
Standardized Students
Ever since embarking on the life-long, mystifying journey that is school, one of the things
students learn first and foremost is the importance of tests. Tests, specifically standardized tests,
are used to determine grades, class placement and, most importantly, ones overall intelligence.
In order to perform well on these tests it is crucial that teachers spend as much time as possible
teaching the students the information that will be on them. From every age level, students spend
hours both inside and outside of the classroom memorizing and studying this information in
order to perform their best on any given standardized test to showcase their true intelligence to
educators. Unfortunately, all this time spent and the results that come of the time spent are being
misused. Throughout the years more and more reliance has been placed on the results of
standardized test scores to assess students. More and more schools are implementing the use of
standardized tests as the primary assessment of their students throughout the year and using the
results to determine how smart any given student is and how much they have learned. These
assessments and determinations are used to decide the choices made my teachers and educators
on how to rank, teach and either advance or hold back a student along their educational path.
Standardized tests, however, are very limited on what they assess and also give a limited
representation of a students abilities. Due to the severe limitations of standardized tests,
students intelligence is being determined by test results that are an inaccurate measure of each
individuals abilities and true level of intelligence.
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In order to address this problem, it is important to know why it all started in the first
place. The No Child Left Behind Act is an act that was implemented by congress in 2001 that
created a larger emphasis on standards-based education. The acts goal was to establish
measurable goals for improving educational outcomes of individuals in schools (No Child Left
behind Act). The issue lies right within the description of the act itself. Standards-based
education is the fault that educational institutions are currently victims of. Julie Gorlewski,
featured in The English Journal, states, Standardization connotes a one-size-fits-all approach.
By standardizing the tests given to students, it is being implied that every student is the same,
learns the same and displays their knowledge the same. Anyone knows that this is clearly proven
to be untrue. In that case, how can one claim that giving students standardized tests provides
educators with a true representation of the individual students knowledge and intelligence. By
way of these standardized assessments, students are not even given the opportunity to showcase
their knowledge. Gorlewski argues, Standardization, on the other hand, focuses on particular
content, terms, and definitions and, therefore, results in curricula that are limited-not expansive.
Gorlewski has established the main issue that
these tests create: their limitations. As Behshid
Behrouzi, speaker at TED talks, asks, Is a letter
of the alphabet or a string of numbers adequate to
define a persons intellect? (Behrouzi).
This leads into another main
criticism of standardized tests. Educators claim that they are used because they are fair. Many
experts that are researching this subject disagree however and believe that the tests are the exact
opposite. When tests first started becoming more and more standardized educators argued that it
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would create a fair way to assess all students. Standardization, on the other hand, implies
distance, objectivity, and fairness. Standardization connotes a one-size-fits-all approach,
upholding the notion that "fair" and "equal" are synonymous (Gorlewski). Fairness is an
inaccurate description of standardized tests all together. By claiming that these tests create a fair
judgment of every childs knowledge is to also claim that every child learns the exact same way.
In an interview, current elementary school teacher, Gina Schalk, explains how all students do not
learn in the same way, therefore why can they be tested the same way (Schalk). Since most
standardized tests are graded by machines, they are all multiple choice answers that leave no
room for interpretation or for expressions of knowledge from different individuals. Individual
needs and individual differences are not taken into consideration when assessing student
knowledge via the standardized test (Gorlewski). It is very plausible to conclude that it is very
possible for one student to know the same information as the next, but they may have a different
way of expressing it. With every question being the same exact one for every student, is to
assume that every student comprehends the same exact way. For certain students they may know
the correct answer if they could understand a question that may seem worded oddly to them.
This, again, creates inaccurate results that are misrepresentations of a students true intelligence.
That being said, there are many reasons that the make-up of these tests can cause teachers to
have inaccurate measures of the information they are seeking.
Standardized tests are the main focus of assessing students learning in the classroom;
which has been, and continues to be, providing educators with inaccurate measures. There are
multiple ways for students, no matter what age, to showcase their knowledge and abilities,
however these tests are assessing too much of the wrong information. The terms, definitions and
narrowed content that tests are composed of are ridding students of the opportunity to platform
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their true knowledge. This also rids teachers of being able to assess the components of ones
intelligence that truly matter to an individuals success or failure. Head Graduate Program
Professor, Beverly Falk has studied these tests and concludes that they offer only a limited - and
some- times misleading -view of students' proficiencies and progress. The nature and format of
most standardized tests provide little opportunity for students to use higher-order thinking, to
solve problems, or to apply their knowledge to real-world problems (Falk). Being able to use
their skills and abilities in thinking and problem solving, especially when applied to real world
situation, is a true measure of ones intelligence. These are the abilities that are necessary for one
to be able to be successful in the real world. Without knowing how any given student can
perform these skills, intelligence is not truly being tested at all. There are plenty of skills that
should be being tested in order for results to be accurate, Joseph OBrien, writer for The Social
Studies, explains, Students needed to demonstrate the abilities to design and follow a project
plan, collect and organize information from several sources, address the problem question,
provide a reasonable answer supported by the collected information, and present the project
results in a clear and organized fashion (OBrien). The skills that OBrien discusses are skills
that people use throughout life everyday both in and outside of school. Tonia Causey-Bush,
writer of The Journal of Negro Education, explains that as a result, standardized tests may be
useful in the sense that they can provide insight to diagnose weaknesses in student academic
performance as a formative assessment, they are not useful in determining a student's overall
academic capacity in terms of student learning, critical thinking, and higher-order reasoning
skills (Causey-Bush). Without knowing how to perform these skills, one will not be able to be
as successful in their life after schooling. Since tests currently do not measure any of these skills,
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there is no way of knowing if any individual student possess the intelligence to truly succeed, as
a result the students that may need it, are not being taught how to improve these skills.
The heavy reliance that is placed on todays current tests that are inaccurately assessing
students intelligence, causes teachers to sacrifice time that should be used to teach students the
skills they will in fact need in life. This therefore, sacrifices the necessary learning of students.
Since the No Child Left Behind Act has implemented standardized testing throughout most, if
not all, schools, school administrators depend on the results to represent the successfulness of
their school. Therefore, administrators drill teachers to focus on these tests to maximize student
performance, to result in a good image for the school. This is however hurting students learning
of the important skills that are crucial for them. Many teachers feel that they have to sacrifice
student creativity and interests by teaching test-taking strategies within a test-oriented curriculum
that arguably does not challenge students, possess culturally relevancy to students, extend
student thinking, or enhance their learning experiences (Causey-Bush). The issue is beginning
to come to light for more and more teachers, teachers in schools who use competency-based
types of curriculum are often torn between satisfying bureaucratic requirements and meeting the
needs of their students (Darling-Hammond quoted in Causey-Bush). In a majority of schools,
the teachers have no choice. Wayne Moore, contributor of The Technological Horizon in
Education Journal discusses how in one school in Connecticut a standardized test was introduced
for teachers to prepare their students for. After the test the preparation process was discussed,
focus groups discussed their perceptions of the impact of the Connecticut Academic
Performance Test (CAPT), which includes multiple-choice, grid in, short answer and extended
response items. Of all the teachers, 99% reported that preparing students and aligning their
instruction to the test "resulted in a narrowing of the curriculum" (Moore). One conflict that
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teachers are encountering is the fact that they are spending all these large spans of time making
sure students are prepared for the tests they have to give. However, as these tests become more
and more forced in the classroom, teachers are realizing that they are spending all that time
instructing students on material that doesnt even accurately represent the students knowledge.
Education Digest writer, Mark Goldberg claims, Teachers often say the amount of time devoted
to test preparation for narrow-gauge tests eliminates time to train students to approach a problem
or think through an issue (Goldberg). There are specific skills and abilities that are features of
ones intelligence that are being sacrificed and placed in the shadows of the standardized tests.
In other words, there are skills that have been proven to be necessities that the education
system is currently lacking due to placing all focus on standardized tests. Content that is not a
critical part of the standardized test tends to be given less importance since the educational goal
is to improve test scores (Moore). Goldberg explains, Creativity, perseverance, ability to work
in a cooperative group, initiative, integrity, discipline, performance excellence, unusual focus on
a significant problem, flexibility, and other laudable traits are rarely taught and scarcely counted
in judging students' performance, yet these and similar traits are the primary criteria in annual
reviews of some of our finest managers in politics, business, and all forms of culture and
education (Goldberg). Even though these skills have been proven necessary for business
settings and interaction with other people throughout life they are still taking a back seat the
standardized tests since administrators enforce the need for good test results to represent their
school. Schalk explains in her interview how it is possible that a student who performs well on
standardized tests lack knowledge necessary to succeed later on in life (Schalk). Philip
Zimbardo, writer for the Journal of Experimental Education, discusses that a majority, if not all
people, who can be categorized as successful are those who have the knowledge and intelligence
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to interact and be able to work with others every day yet there is little in the standard academic
curriculum that prepares students to work harmoniously and productively in teams of peers with
shared goals (Zimbardo). Since it has been established that standardized tests do in fact lack the
assessing of skills that are necessary to be successful in both learning and functioning in daily
life, experts can conclude that, As long as schools use traditional tests to determine student
outcomes, true measurement of abilities will be incomplete (Moore).
In addition to the actual material that standardized tests are composed of, there are also
different mediums that are becoming major parts of our
world that students need to know how to function with
and use effectively. The main component being
discussed by many experts is technology. Students
should be able to use technology to deepen their
understanding of the content in the academic standards and also advance their knowledge of the
world around them (Moore). If technology is not involved in testing, which takes up the most
time of students educational careers, it is impossible to know if they will be able to use
technology to use what knowledge they do have and also to expand it. Everyday our society is
getting more technologically advanced and everyday students are not receiving opportunities to
integrate the use of technology with their education. Published blog writer, Lisa Nielson brings
to light that not only are these skills being left out of testing methods, they are discouraged, in
the real world accessing technology and tapping into your personal learning network are
essential skills necessary to effectively complete tasks. In the world of standardized testing not
only are these things not allowed they are considered cheating (Nielson). It is true, however,
that using technology to find the answers when prohibited would be cheating on tests; however
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there needs to be tests that require the intermingling of an individual students knowledge and
the use of technology in order to assess how one will be able to perform such tasks in the world
outside of school. Not only is the use of technology being ignored but is providing some students
with an unfair advantage. Those students that are more tech savvy are not offered a chance to
showcase some skills they have with technology, which can definitely be used as a component of
ones knowledge. For example, it has been found that open-ended Language Arts items that
require students to generate responses using paper and pencil severely underestimate the
achievement of students accustomed to writing using a computer (Nielson). Just because a
student can perform better when given the opportunity to write with a computer does not mean
that they are not as intelligent as one student because he/she can perform better on paper. There
should be equal opportunities for both of these types of students. The current standardized tests
however eliminate chances for those more tech savvy, giving the other students an unfair
advantage to be able to look as if they are more intelligent, when really they may be the same or
even less. There are many different issues with the current testing methods that result in skewed
outcomes for different students with differentiating learning and comprehension abilities.
If a student takes a test in which they do not even understand or not able to focus on the
questions to the best of their abilities, there is no way that their results can be an accurate
measure of their intelligence. The current education system places a majority of focus on
standardized tests, that is to say that children are taught that if they do not do well on these tests
they will be less likely to succeed than other students because they must be less intelligent. This,
as anyone can see, is beyond inaccurate. However, the affect that this line of thinking is having
on students is becoming harmful to their education. For many students, such testing is filled
with anxiety and the apprehension of having to compete with all other students in the quest for
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honors grades (Zimbardo). As anyone who has experienced anxiety can confirm, feeling anxiety
makes it much more difficult to perform to the best of ones abilities. Especially younger
students, who have not yet become able to relieve their anxieties. There are some types of people
who are never able to do so, even when they are no longer in school. On the other hand, there is
also a case where some students intelligence is being overrepresented due to a heavy emphasis
placed on the results of these tests. Students who are taught that these tests mean everything and
may feel like their intelligence is not high enough, feel like they must cheat in order to get results
that can make them seem more satisfactory. In either case, many students feel that success on
these tests is vital, and for some that creates unhealthy amounts of anxiety and stress, One child
threw up all over their test paper at my childs school because they were in such a state. Another
child was in tears two nights ago as the teacher has started counting down till test week
(Neilson). It is clear that performance on these tests is being so heavily relied on that it is causing
students to be in states that do not allow them to perform in a way that their true intelligence is
represented.
Although it seems as though standardized tests have always been a part of our education
system for as long as most of us can remember, it is time to realize that they are doing more
harm than good. Standardized tests are currently being used to measure a students progress, use
of knowledge and overall intelligence. The issue began when the No Child Left Behind Act was
implemented, making standardized testing a requirement for schools and has spread throughout
the country. As a senior at Joliet West High School I see how this issue is affecting our school
negatively due to the reliance on the standardized tests and their consequences. These types of
tests were first implemented in order to create a fair way to assess students, when in reality
they do the opposite. The actual composition of the tests contain the wrong information that is
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not testing students on information that will truly measure their intelligence in their future. There
are many skills and abilities that students should be taught in school that teachers must sacrifice
in order to ensure better results on the test specific information. These skills that are lacking are
skills that have proven to be necessities to succeed in the world after the educational career.
Finally, students who learn differently or express their knowledge in different ways are being
given a disadvantage that could easily be equalized with tests containing more variety and
extensive information. Overall, the current use of standardized tests is causing inaccurate
measurements of students abilities, readiness to advance within their educational careers and
their intelligence overall.














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Works Cited
Causey-Bush, Tonia. "Keep Your Eye on Texas and California: A Look at Testing, School
Reform, No Child Left Behind, and Implications for...." Journal of Negro Education
4(2005):332. eLibrary. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.
Falk, Beverly. "Standards-based reforms: Problems and possibilities." Phi Delta Kappan
8(2002):612. eLibrary. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.
Goldberg, Mark. "Losing Students to High-Stakes Testing." Education Digest, The. 01 Mar.
2005: 10. eLibrary. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.
Gorlewski, Julie Research for the Classroom." English Journal 5(2013):84. eLibrary. Web. 07
Mar. 2014.
Moore, Wayne. "Facts and assumptions of assessment: Technology, the missing link." T H E
Journal (Technological Horizons In Education) 6(2003):20. eLibrary. Web. 05 Mar.
2014.
Nielson, Lisa. "12 Most Unconvential Reasons to Opt Your Child Out of Standardized Testing."
Scoop it. N.p., 2012. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.
"No Child Left Behind Act." Wikipedia. N.p., 21 Mar. 2014. Web. 21 Mar. 2014.
O'Brien, Joseph. "Statewide social studies performance assessment: threat or treat?." Social
Studies 88. (1997):53(7). eLibrary. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
Schalk, Gina. E-mail interview. 17 Mar. 2014.
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What if we Obliterated Standardised Testing: Behshid Behrouzi at TEDxWinchesterTeachers. By
Ted Talks. YouTube. N.p., 8 Jan. 2013. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
Zimbardo, Philip G., Butler, Lisa D., Wolfe, Valerie A.. "Cooperative college examinations:
More gain, less pain when students share information and grades." Journal of
Experimental Education. 01 Jan. 2003: 101. eLibrary. Web. 27 Feb. 201