Standardized Testing And Achievement. - 1450 Words

Standardized Testing and Achievement On average, graduating high school students will have taken around 112 standardized tests between preschool and their senior year in high school according to a 2015 study by the council of the Great City Schools (Ayers). Students all over the U.S. are dealing with the increasing amount of standardized tests being given to them, and not reaping any of the benefits they claim to offer. Test related stress, misinterpretation of intelligence and decreased classroom hours are only a few of the many issues that arise with standardized testing. Unfortunately, standardized testing does not give a clear indication of a students improvement or lack there of, and should not be used in schools to measure†¦show more content†¦Thus the emphasis on standardized testing began. Standardized testing is meant to compare a student’s achievement or improvement level compared to other students in other schools across the U.S. It is also meant to ke ep teachers accountable for educating students using the standards given to them by the government, but that may not be all it is doing. (Klein) Everyone has dealt with stress before a test, but the test anxiety that students are developing, may be hurting their standardized test scores, and lowering their chances of improvement. A study done by the School Boards Association and the State Association of School Psychologists discovered that nearly three quarters of psychologists from the United State’s 700 school districts found that state mandated standardized tests are causing more anxiety than local exams (Spector). The conditions the children are being put through are ridiculous. Hours and hours of nonstop testing with only a few breaks would even stress out parents, let alone children. Not only do they feel pressure to pass the test, but also to do great, and it is not just their own minds burdening themselves with stress and worry. A recent survey showed that, â€Å"†¦nearly 90 percent of school psychologists who responded to the survey believed that teachers’ expectations contributed at least so mewhat to test anxiety. Eighty-eight percent said that parents’ expectations also contributed to students’