Standardized Testing

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the issue of standardized testing, focusing specifically on "The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System" exams, in the United States, which are given from the elementary levels through to high school levels and are supposed to test a student comprehensively, across all learning areas from math to science to reading to writing. The writer looks at the problems and fairness of standardized tests such as this one and questions whether intelligence should really be tested in a democracy.

From the Paper:

"It is one of the great contradictions in American society: We preach equality and then try to find as many ways as possible of demonstrating inequality. Essential to the heart of any democracy is a belief in the essential equality of all citizens, before the law and in the ballot booth at least. And it is also a fundamental tenet of Christianity (in this mainly Christian country) that we are all equal in the eyes of God.And yet, we all also know that this is not true, that we are not all equal. Some of us are smarter than our neighbors, and some more virtuous and some more mentally stable. And many of those people who consider themselves to be among the smarter, better, saner portion yearn to be able to prove this fact, possibly to themselves and no doubt in many cases to the world at large."

More papers on Standardized Testing:

• Essay # 140817 : "State Standardized Testing Programs: Part III"
• Analytical Essay # 140814 : "State Standardized Testing Programs"
• Essay # 37117 : "Standardized Testing and Elementary Students"
• Essay # 32268 : "Standardized Testing: Useless and Outdated"

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