It’s Monday morning; you’re sitting in a quiet room with two no. 2 pencils and a booklet in front of you. Your heart is pounding as you open the booklet and see the first question. All the knowledge you had just left your brain. You have one shot.
This is the environment for a student taking a standardized test. There is anxiety, and all of the things you had to remember after months of cramming in information just left your brain. Standardized tests are not beneficial for students, nor for teachers.
Standardized tests tend to cause anxiety in students and distract them from focusing on the knowledge they have. Students go through months of learning information that they need to remember for one test that will determine their knowledge. They don’t know what is going to be on that test.
According to Scholarorks at UTRGV, “Anxiety from tests has increased and shows that tests are causing more anxious reactions, rather than showing what students have learned.”
Knowledge is being covered up due to the stress and anxiety from standardized tests, so what are these tests actually showing? How well students do under pressure?
This isn’t just any anxiety either. Getting a little anxious before a test is normal, but the level of test phobia is detrimental to a student and their grade. Test phobia causes kids to worry so much that they can’t concentrate and don’t do as well as they should. NeaToday shares a quote from a staff member at Stacy Middle School: “‘Standardized tests create anxiety and some kids even have test phobia because they have just one chance at getting it right.’”
Not only do standardized tests put stress on students, but also teachers. Teachers are forced to teach a certain way with irrelevant lessons, and have an unnecessary amount of pressure put on them.
Teachers don’t get to teach how they want, it’s up to the state. Teachers are forced to teach students lessons that they need to memorize, and not for application. This is all for these tests, and teachers don’t get to teach how they see fit.
According to ScholarWorks at UTRGV, “teachers are already beginning to tire of the pressure, the skewed priorities, and the disrespectful treatment they are forced to implement a curriculum largely determined by test manufacturers or state legislatures” (Khon 2000).
While some might say these tests are a way to determine what students’ know, these tests are not showing that, but what they can memorize.
Some have a different point of view on standardized testing, like Aaron Churchill in Bless the Tests, “We need hard, objective information on school and student performance, and the best available evidence comes from standardized tests.”
Aaron Churchill is stating these tests are good, but are they really? From research done at Stanford University, data has shown that the gender of a person can affect how well you do on a certain format of test. So, is it really the best?
The way a test is just formatted can change the results, so adding this on top of anxiety and other factors just sets students up for failure. According to the George Lucas Educational Foundation Edutopia, “a 2018 study by Stanford University’s Sean Reardon, which found that test format alone accounts for 25 percent of the gender difference in performance in both reading and math.”
Standardized tests cause anxiety on students, put stress and pressure on teachers, and don’t show what students actually know. Clearly, standardized tests are more detrimental than beneficial.
Standardized Tests: Beneficial For Whom?
By Brooke Denlinger ‘25
It’s Monday morning; you’re sitting in a quiet room with two no. 2 pencils and a booklet in front of you. Your heart is pounding as you open the booklet and see the first question. All the knowledge you had just left your brain. You have one shot.
This is the environment for a student taking a standardized test. There is anxiety, and all of the things you had to remember after months of cramming in information just left your brain. Standardized tests are not beneficial for students, nor for teachers.
Standardized tests tend to cause anxiety in students and distract them from focusing on the knowledge they have. Students go through months of learning information that they need to remember for one test that will determine their knowledge. They don’t know what is going to be on that test.
According to Scholarorks at UTRGV, “Anxiety from tests has increased and shows that tests are causing more anxious reactions, rather than showing what students have learned.”
Knowledge is being covered up due to the stress and anxiety from standardized tests, so what are these tests actually showing? How well students do under pressure?
This isn’t just any anxiety either. Getting a little anxious before a test is normal, but the level of test phobia is detrimental to a student and their grade. Test phobia causes kids to worry so much that they can’t concentrate and don’t do as well as they should. NeaToday shares a quote from a staff member at Stacy Middle School: “‘Standardized tests create anxiety and some kids even have test phobia because they have just one chance at getting it right.’”
Not only do standardized tests put stress on students, but also teachers. Teachers are forced to teach a certain way with irrelevant lessons, and have an unnecessary amount of pressure put on them.
Teachers don’t get to teach how they want, it’s up to the state. Teachers are forced to teach students lessons that they need to memorize, and not for application. This is all for these tests, and teachers don’t get to teach how they see fit.
According to ScholarWorks at UTRGV, “teachers are already beginning to tire of the pressure, the skewed priorities, and the disrespectful treatment they are forced to implement a curriculum largely determined by test manufacturers or state legislatures” (Khon 2000).
While some might say these tests are a way to determine what students’ know, these tests are not showing that, but what they can memorize.
Some have a different point of view on standardized testing, like Aaron Churchill in Bless the Tests, “We need hard, objective information on school and student performance, and the best available evidence comes from standardized tests.”
Aaron Churchill is stating these tests are good, but are they really? From research done at Stanford University, data has shown that the gender of a person can affect how well you do on a certain format of test. So, is it really the best?
The way a test is just formatted can change the results, so adding this on top of anxiety and other factors just sets students up for failure. According to the George Lucas Educational Foundation Edutopia, “a 2018 study by Stanford University’s Sean Reardon, which found that test format alone accounts for 25 percent of the gender difference in performance in both reading and math.”
Standardized tests cause anxiety on students, put stress and pressure on teachers, and don’t show what students actually know. Clearly, standardized tests are more detrimental than beneficial.
Sources
https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/standardized-testing-still-failing-students
https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/bless-tests-three-reasons-standardized-testing
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/move-end-standardized-testing-high-schools-draws-both-praise-concern-n1282657
https://www.edutopia.org/article/what-does-research-say-about-testing/https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjuyODRmeeCAxX0lYkEHW2UD-QQFnoECAgQAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fkidshealth.org%2Fen%2Fteens%2Ftest-anxiety.html%23%3A~%3Atext%3DTest%2520anxiety%2520is%2520that%2520nervous%2Cas%2520well%2520they%27d%2520like.&usg=AOvVaw0eCPyA3UBCTQu8iLG-16mL&opi=89978449