Standardized testing, the bane of many high school students’ existence. The pressure to do well on standardized tests can often put students over the edge, causing mental breakdowns and feelings of negativity. Many students in the U.S. are so focused on succeeding on the tests that they often lose other important parts of their lives: their social lives, their grades and their extracurricular activities. So, the question is: are standardized tests worth all of the pressure and negativity they cause students?
When standardized tests were first introduced in the United States in the early 1900s, it was with the intent to assess the intelligence level of each individual person. By World War I, standardized testing was common practice in the military, and “Army Mental Tests” were used to assign servicemen jobs. They weren’t introduced in schools until 1916, when the College Board developed comprehensive exams for six individual subjects. Up until then, schools and colleges used their own methods of testing students for intelligence evaluations and entrance exams.
Since 1900, the purpose of standardized tests hasn’t really changed much. They are still used as a method to test the intelligence of students, and there are many purposes for this use. Schools often need to know how their students score on standardized tests to understand how effective their teaching methods are and to judge the quality of education provided at their school. The most common use for standardized tests, though, is as college entrance exams. The SAT and ACT both are used to measure students intelligence, an evaluation which will then play a part in deciding the college they attend.
While many colleges and universities are becoming “test optional,” standardized tests are still used to assess students’ intelligence levels and worthiness. Students are still encouraged to study for and do well on the tests, and the assumption is that if you want to go to college, then you have to take one of the exams. This purpose of standardized testing is one of the cons.
If you base the intelligence of each student on how well they do on a generalized standardized test, the measurement of their intelligence isn’t very accurate. How intelligent someone is can’t be based on their general knowledge of things they were taught over several years.
On the other hand, using standardized testing as a way to measure the general knowledge of population is a pro of standardized testing. When standardized testing is used as a way for a school or government to see the efficacy of the way certain material was taught in order to improve their methods of teaching, it is helpful to the students, rather than detrimental. This way, schools and governments see how well or how poorly the students know the information that was supposed to be taught, and can either improve or maintain the information taught and the methods by which it was taught.
Overall, standardized testing isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it is just used in the wrong way. If standardized testing was used as a way to evaluate the efficacy of certain teaching methods in a school by said school or government, then they wouldn’t be as detrimental to students. However, because they are mainly used as a way for schools to pit students against one another for admission to their school or other competitive means, the cons heavily outweigh the pros.
