Running Head: STANDARDIZED TESTING

Standardized Testing
Karla Janet Madriles- Ortiz
University of Texas at El Paso

STANDARDIZED TESTING
Abstract

Standardized testing is an equal measurement of students performance and progress, but

in the recent decades it has affected students, teachers, and parents in a much deeper level than
academics. Parents are taking action because state exams have been influencing factors in an
educational, economical, ethical, and developmental form. Reaching standards leads to changing
curriculums, adding and removing educational staff, competing for resources, and children
intelligence comparison. Educators find themselves facing hardships due to a burden placed on
their shoulders causing frustration that is no stranger to kids in the elementary, middle, and high
school level. Scores measure progress in the classroom and determine whether the schools will
acquire federal funding or not. The purpose of this literary review is to analyze the four attacked
areas of standardized testing and explore its origins and predict its results.

STANDARDIZED TESTING
Standardized Testing

In recent past, parents and educational instructors had an outrage regarding the amount of
pressure standardized testing was putting on students and teachers. Back in 2002, George W.
Bush released an action bill under the name of No Child Left Behind, consisting of a set of
standardized tests to be released in all 50 states from grade levels 3 through 12. If schools failed
to comply to the standard, they would lose annual federal money. Standardized tests have been
practiced since the mid-1800s and in many forms have contributed to key studies in American
history, however, students were only evaluated on their performance during test day, leaving out
any external factors. A standardized test consists essentially of an assessment that contains same
genre questions, same selected answers, and is scored in a same manner, thus allowing a
performance comparison. The exams are carefully selected to represent target populations for
whom the test is intended, meant to ensure the same geographical regions, socioeconomic levels,
ethnic and racial groups representation. Teachers evoked equivalent teaching methods in order to
reach the standard, thus producing a teach to the test environment. (Blakeslee 2013) Recent
student generations are being turned into mechanistic societies, producing different points of
view in the way of perceiving life itself as a consequence of standardized testing. For this reason,
the effects and reasoning behind the standardized testing will be analyzed through the following
four research questions:
1. Are the changes in any schools curriculum negative, or positive, as a result of
standardized testing data?
2. How much money is being spent on material?
3. Is it fair or unfair to make a teacher responsible for the students standardized testing
scores?
4. What are the views on cognitive and insight development from the past to present day
since the release of standardized testing?

STANDARDIZED TESTING
Resulting Curriculum Effects

American educational officials were strongly influenced by the French minister of public
instruction, Alfred Binet, who constructed a test to identify students with low aptitudes and
placing them in special schools. Eventually Binet began to oppose his own philosophy of a fixed
quantity when it came down to intelligence. We must protest and react against this brutal
pessimism, Binet said. (McKenna, 1977) Regardless of Binets contradictory views, the United
States developed the Stanford- IQ Test, which dispersed into different forms of achievement
exams for American schools. Experts find a major fault in the interpretation of results from tests
in the way they find more meaning than the deserved by assuming verbal and quantitative scores
account for general intelligence. Joy Paul Guildford and his colleagues were believed to prove
otherwise through the Structure of Intelligence Theory in 1955, arguing numerous dimensions
for human intellect, where verbal and quantitative scores account for only some part. On the
basis of standardized testing data, students are placed into groups, excluded from specific
courses, banned from advanced programs or institutions, or declined from pursuing particular
jobs. The curriculum is not the same from those who are gifted to those who are average, yet
everyone takes the same exam. Test are not used in formal decision- making. If a student is
placed on the lower quartile, he or she is assumed to just not have it, when he or she may have
it, says Bernard McKenna. The test questions are assumed to have no sense, no logic, no
reality, (Taylor, 1977) and happen to be no mistake from the hundreds of test makers who are
only required to have a Bachelors diploma to be hired.
The founder of Bostons Mission Hill School, Deborah Meier, has faced numerous
curriculum changes because the definition of being well- educated is a test score. (Thomas,
2005) Teachers are then required to remove emphasis on test proof qualities such as

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responsibility, creativity, and critical thinking. Students are far more expected to know why
certain material is relevant and demonstrate an understanding of diverse point of views from
various works. In 2003, the Texas State Board of Education signed a secrecy pledge of lowering
the tests standards in order to reach them to acquire federal funding because failure was apparent
in the future once third graders took the test. Repeatedly, students are tested in material that has
not been taught due to the lack of qualified instructors. Fast growing and financially scarce
schools more than often dont have enough teachers to educate on the common core subjects that
are usually found in standardized tests.
Teachers in Redbud Elementary School in the state of Georgia are usually provided with
$200 a year to buy school year supplies, which quickly runs out. Some students dont bring the
basic supplies required, including paper and pencil, because they come from indescribable
poverty (Johnson, 2002) so instructors buy them instead. Teachers must then limit projects,
readings, and worksheet methods, resulting in a lack of information for the incoming state
exams. Additionally, teachers must use old textbooks since the school cant afford to buy the new
editions. Students live in neighborhoods where crack cocaine trade and drive- by shootings take
place, so frequently they are absent or very sick, deriving in minimal classroom productivity.
Standardized exams skyrocketed in the 1950s and several books were published as warning of
the incoming dangers including titles Testing, Testing, Testing by several national educational
associations and The Tyranny of Testing by Banesh Hoffman. Figure 1 represents the unequal
allocation of resources and the burden place on educators as a result of unsuccessful scores.
Figure 1: Drugs. Abused. No books. No discipline. TV on 24/7. Hungry. Teen Mom.
Homeless. Dadless. What are you doing wrong? Drive-by Education Experts. Paperwork. My
own $ 4 Supplies. Test Schedule

STANDARDIZED TESTING

Test Material Budget

A Washington- based Brown Center of Education Policy calculated a combined state
spending of $1.7 billion in standardized testing alone. Reporter, Matthew M. Chingos, looked at
the data for 44 states and found primary assessment contracts of up to $670 million or $27 per
student for the 3-12 grade levels. According to Chingos, if this money was devoted to pay raises
for teachers across the nation, an average teacher would see an increment in their salary by 1% or
$550. The billion dollar industries are not only expensive, but subject to error. The New York
City- based Pearson Education has a $254 million contract to administer Floridas
Comprehensive Assessment Test, sent results months late and its accuracy was challenged by
more than 50% of the states superintendents. (Jouriles, 2014) In Hawaii, the Harcourt with
American Institutes for Research was replaced in 2005 due to the re- grading on 98, 000 tests
after students received low scores for submitting blank test booklets. From 2009- 2012, Texas
taxpayers contributed $88 million per year to standardized exams. After the expenditures of test
materials, in New Mexicos Valley High School, juniors decided to have fun by making patterns
in their answer bubble sheets, varying from battleships to hearts. Extensive amounts of money
illustrate the assessment vendors as a luxury resource, that is recommended by Chingos to be
exchanged by companies that absorb budget cuts.
Instructors Responsibility

STANDARDIZED TESTING
Henry Ford began the assembly line, thus starting a school to promote efficiency,
execution of operations, and discourage creativity. (Dintersmith, 2015) The nature of
educational measurement became the same as scientific measurement. The same system from
last century was kept and intended to become better by doing more of it and more intense with
more careful measurements. The course was set, and never reversed. Student progress is
measured the same way automobile pistons tolerances are evaluated. Teachers have no choice

and are required to teach to the test, but are considered and treated as scapegoats. Instructors are
trained by intimidation, not enthusiasm. (Kirp, 2013) Through the vast amounts of pressure,
poor results are acquired and it opens up an invitation towards the possibility of cheating.
Numerous districts have been known to cheat by hinting students into the answers, since the
burden is ultimately placed on the classroom itself. Scores have to go up through unknown
teaching methods and must be quickly developed by the spring semester. Educators lives depend
on the scores because if the data is shown to be low, they become subject to be fired. The charts
below (Figure 2) demonstrate data from a survey conducted by Karla Madriles, primary source,
in 2016 from a non-representative sample of 30 persons including academically enrolled
students, parents, and educators. Many subjects did not agree to the amount of load on the tests
and found moderate to no helpful effect in the future. However, they mostly agreed that some
form of assessment has to take place to measure performance.

Figure 2: Standardized Testing Roles and Effects

STANDARDIZED TESTING

Once student have been categorized most decision making within school districts use
standardized test scores as a basis. Administrators compare classrooms, school buildings, and
chose programs and personnel accordingly. The public, usually parents and guardians, base their
overall judgement on the final scores seen on websites, newspapers, and broadcasts. The results
are too broad and general to provide diagnosis of the students learning problems, obstructing
towards the selection of appropriate teaching methodologies for the specific groups or general
student population. Educators are aware of the cycle of labeling after every exam, influencing
attitudes toward the students, and towards themselves. Parents of children with low scores have
the option of either blaming the child or the school system. Teachers know the limitations on
these measurement scales and may often feel reluctant to tell parents a first or second grade
child is ranked below average. (Darehshori, 1977) Instructors are who claim to have worked
hard all year only to get low quartile results, often feel defeated, because both the teacher and
class failed. The staff must accept the paper failure. We become frustrated when faced with a
list of scores that says our students are failing academically, says teacher Charlotte Darehshori.
Critics of testing argue that the experimentation of teaching methods, introducing new subjects,
while still trying to individualize interests and needs is chaotic and counteracted. Teachers are
required to find the balance between what must be taught in a period of time and the
encouragement innovation.
Past to Present Day Cognitive and Insight Views

STANDARDIZED TESTING

A constant critique that tests receive is the misleading and confusing format. Multiple
choice is thought to be a solution for a complex problem, which is allowing students to think for
themselves, however, recent evidence has shown the opposite. Multiple choice answer choices
must be plausible in order to reduce guessing, but sometimes more than one answer can be
logically right. Students who tend to think outside the box, find themselves in hardships and
stress due to endless trails of thoughts. Teachers kept saying, You need to memorize but never
said you need to learn, says Nikki (Adeli, 2014) The interpretation of the questions from
children may also vary depending on myriad of backgrounds Furthermore, apart from the logic
of the questions, students must seek for linguistic traps or simple mistakes from test makers.
Many of the answers are found to have no use outside of school. Does any scientist, doctor,
lawyer, shopkeeper, or homeowner need to know How many hundreds are in 20 tens?, asks
teacher Edwin F. Taylor.
Classroom testing scenarios generate fear and generally threat students. The competition,
pressure of time, and techniques of discouraging cheating cause students to feel insecure and
mistrusted. Students have described testing days as physically intolerable due to the cramming of
students into cafeterias, gymnasiums, or auditoriums and long periods of seating. In September
on 1975, Dareshshori witnessed a typical testing scene at an elementary school. After 2 days of
testing, a girl named Melanie had refused to go back to school due to an asthma attack during the
Math portion of an exam. The parents never questioned the test and assume their child as the
problem. Melanie refused to try new tasks, turning positive school activities into negative ones.
Its challenging for parents and instructors to recover 3rd graders from an unfavorable impact at a
young age. By the time a student has graduated High School, it has taken an estimate of 113
standardized exams including state tests, benchmarks, and nine or six week evaluations.

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After difficult days of testing, children must face the inhumane notion that people can
and should be compared with one another, the perversion of our educational system.
(Darehshori, 1977) Parents are advised to not compare their children to their siblings or peers
because it could damage their self- concept, thus educational officials are often left speechless
when it comes to justifying the usage of tests comparisons. Test developers are requested to take
into consideration whether norm or criterion referencing should be used and how this can test
practicality and performance. Teachers have been guilty of defining students by their letter
grades or by making unsubtle comments. For example, a teacher may make a comment about a
Chemistry test by saying Even a monkey could get a 25. The student in the classroom who got
a 24 may lose interest in becoming a future chemist or scientist because he or she was not
smarter than a monkey. Grades dilute the pleasure that a student gets from working on and
completing a task, encourage cheating, says Kathleen and James Strickland. High school
students enrolled in Honors programs with A plus letter grades, are rejected from Ivy League
schools
After consuming vast amounts of times in teaching the core subjects Math and Reading,
school districts have minimized the amount of Liberal Arts taught has minimized up to a 44%.
Funds have been cut from after school programs including sports, painting, speech and debate,
orchestra, and band. In 2010, the College of William and Mary study found scores on the
Torrence Test of Creative Thinking to have dropped since 1990s. Due to the structure of the
exams, those are thought classified as creative, must be neglected, causing them to become
underachievers. Since the exams do not measure creativity or collaboration, teachers tend to not
use up their class time on it. What paralyzes young minds, young creative and innovative minds
is called standardized testing. (Adeli, 2014) New teaching styles are cut down due to the lack of

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time and the wider lens that could be provided is replaced by the state standard lens. Numerous
educators believe that the creativity learned from the world outside a textbook is more vital than
the standard knowledge.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the literary review analyzed data provided by primary and secondary
sources regarding standardized testing and answered questions on the consequences it has on the
newer generations. Curriculum changes are nearly inevitable due to the socioeconomic and
scoring factors. School administrators must adapt to the tested objectives and decide to whether
add or remove programs in their curriculums. Budget cuts from Liberal Arts programs are the
first target since the core subjects tested are Math and Reading. The annual prices for assessment
materials and contracts range in high numbers and are payed by the state citizens taxes.
Instructors have an additional pressure by having the possibility to jeopardize their jobs as an
outcome of their students scores, thus becoming scapegoats. Lastly, students creativity and
critical thinking skills are being diminished through emphasized comparison exams. A result of
standardized testing, students are obstructed from further innovation and has caused a lost
interest in school.

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