Standardized Testing

Paper Summary:

This paper reviews and discusses standardized testing, a method that began in the United States in 1926 with the development of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). According to the paper, the origins of such testing began far prior to this development. As Charles Darwin proposed that characteristics such as intelligence were hereditary in 1855, scientists began searching for a way to test those intelligence levels within families.

From the Paper:

"Still further, standardized testing provides virtually no feedback about individual students, and the way in which those students learn. Some critics note that the point of testing is to determine strengths and weaknesses of knowledge and ability. Since standardized testing is taken under time constraint, without interaction, and without basic tools such as dictionaries, such testing does not provide adequate conditions under which true knowledge can be measured (Medina and Neill, 1990). If given an opportunity to explain answers, some children may have used a different logic path to ascertain answers and thus, can be correct even though their answers may be scored as incorrect. Since tests such as the ACT and SAT do not provide in-depth analyses on each student' answers to each question, instructors cannot use the scores on such tests to determine strengths in knowledge. Rather than testing ability, these forms of assessment actually only assess a student's comfort level in test taking.
Perhaps the most concerning aspects of standardized testing are the use of such tests as "tracking" devices, and the biases of such tests in favor of the white middle class male. For many schools, standardized test scores are used to place students in specific "learning tracks", which are generally maintained throughout the educational career of the student. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Fancher, R.E. (1985). The intelligent men: makers of the IQ controversy. New York: W.W. Norton.
• Kohn, A. (2000). The case against standardized testing. Portsmouth, NH, Heinemann.
• Medina, N. & Neill, M. (1990). Fallout from the testing explosion: How 100 million standardized exams undermine equity and excellence in America's public schools. Cambridge, MA: FairTest Center.
• National Commission on Testing and Public Policy. (1990). From gatekeepers to gateway: Transforming testing in America. Chestnut Hill, MA: Boston College.

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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