Standardized Testing: The Positives and Negatives of this Approach

  

Standardized Testing: The Positives and Negatives of this Approach

Author: Santosh Kumar Biswa, Sr. Teacher, Damphu CS, Tsirang, Bhutan

 

Abstract

Sometimes, mandatory standardized testing is conducted for student growth however, standardized testing is often argued by different individuals at their own perception level as a negative form of assessment. Quite typically, many raise the point that it creates problems based on how they are created and conducted. But it has a greater influence on the educational process. To make someone accountable for the growth of the students, such tests are often used or mandatorily used in schools or colleges as it is seen as a means of allowing students to achieve quality education. But there are no proven findings based on such testing. This write-up discusses standardized testing and its pros and cons.

Standardized Testing

It is a kind of assessment method that tries to test the principle of consistency, in which the test demands all the students to answer the same questions in a predetermined manner. It is basically a large-scale assessment test that tests the major understanding of substantial groups of student's skills and knowledge based on their educational level and their age group. By doing so, such a test enables any college, university, or institute to know whether the particular test-taker students are ready for admission. Moreover, standardized tests are conducted to have a general understanding of how far the students have acquired skills and knowledge from the subject that they learned or some other general knowledge. During the test, all students who take the test are given the same question, and the evaluation is also done in the same manner with uniform rubrics and designs at various levels. It is not a high-stakes test that is time-bound but is any kind of written, oral, or practical test with simple or complex questions (Wikipedia, 2021). The test appears in the form of general skills testing that usually has the topic based on character, personality, creativity, ethics, etc. The test can appear in the form of multiple-choice questions, fill-in-the-blanks, true and false, essay writing, or sometimes a combination of all (Frank, 2021). The test is also called an aptitude test for students sometimes.

According to Boyd (2021), he stated that such a test allows any school to arrive at comparisons among schools in the area of student achievement to let them remain informed as it ensures accountability for any teachers and also informs them about the instructions. Moreover, such test also ensures accountability for the school and the teachers. Some examples of standardized tests are ACT (American College Testing), AP (Advanced Placement) exams, PERT (Postsecondary Education Readiness Test), PSAT (Preliminary Scholastic Assessment Test), and SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test).

The Positives and Negatives of the Standardized Testing

It is known that standardized tests can permit reliable comparison of the result and the final outcomes across all students whoever has taken the test that contains the same test. However, criticism about it is heard from every corner. In other words, although it is advantageous in many ways, it also has its dark side that limits the students in various areas. Some advantages and disadvantages of Standardized testing are as follows:

The Positives of the Standardized Testing

The process of having the same grading system through the same test has made us have the general understanding that this test is fairer than any other test because students’ work is evaluated using the same rubrics for the same questions. Secondly, such tests can offer a forum to have an objective measurement of education whereby areas for improvement can be easily distinguished through the meaningful data collected from the marginalized group of students (ProCon.Org, 2020). Moreover, it is proven to have improved the student's achievement because students can identify their ability to comprehend and can identify subject materials (Gaille, 2017). In addition, apart from its reliability in the measurement of achievement, it also allows all students to have equal content because it looks at students through equal eyes without any variation. On the other hand, as the goal of such a test is to cover all the core subject materials, it creates a forum for a teacher to prioritize their students correlating subjects easily. Most importantly, the district education division can easily identify their quality teachers based on how they prepare the test and drill students through guiding them to the curriculum. Finally, it will help teachers to pinpoint the problem and improvement areas through the data collected and create a forum for them to reflect on their curriculum (Nixon, n.d.).

The Positives and Negatives of the Standardized Testing

Having stated all the advantages of standardized testing, it also has a darker side. Firstly, students getting test scores can have an impact on some students in they may lose their confidence. Instead of reflecting on the learning process and the assessment data, students may conclude determine their success through the test scores they get. On the other hand, the scenario of “teach to test” may be created whereby students will be limited to the exposure to the intent of the curriculum, which will lead to compromising the quality of the test. The teacher may stop having variation in teaching strategies that has an adverse effect on the students. Thirdly, the standard of the student may not improve because the score alone cannot provide students with a clear picture of their learning progress. At the same time, the teacher cannot distinguish the student’s ability simply through the score they get (Nixon, n.d.). Moreover, the items in the standardized test aren’t parallel to that of classroom skills and behavior that are integral during the learning process (Hurst, 2021). Most importantly, Hurst (2021) added that such test scores are influenced by various non-academic factors and do not evaluate deeply the higher-level thinking that is integral for quality learning. Finally, the risk of making students lose their original and creative thoughts over the content can be compromised due to standardized tests because they never allow the rethinking process to the students (Aftergood, 2019).

My Final Thoughts on Standardized Testing and Whether it is Currently in Practice within my Classroom and or Milieu.

My thoughts on Standardized Testing are very clear it is very important in any school as it would enable the school and the teachers to determine students’ level of knowledge and skills. It will help us to exactly know whether the particular student is ready for the level they are going to enter and the subject they are going to take. Moreover, through such a test, we can undergo the standard check of the student so that students can be categorized accordingly for the equal and vibrant distribution of students for the section allotment.

In my milieu, we have a system of aptitude tests for all the newcomer students and the students who are ready to enter the next level to collect the data and find out the performance level of the students not only in their content areas but also in the others aspects related to creativity, skills general knowledge in comparison with other students of the same level and the classes they are going to attend. Based on the data collected and the findings, students are placed or segregated and given a section for uniform distribution of students according to their achievement, skills, knowledge, and creativity status, and the teachers are made aware of which class section has what type of students. It enables the teacher to have a clear picture of the type of students they are going to teach the following year.

Even in my classroom teaching, standardized testing is conducted to find and segregate the student type and their academic level so that the grouping is done well for any forms of activities in the classroom based on the performance level of the students, and the mentoring and mentee system is carried out well. Each group will be with high-performing and low-performing students, whereby high-performing students are appointed as mentors.

Conclusion

To conclude, we have seen the positives and negatives of standardized testing. Although it has merits, it also has demerits under certain conditions. Despite all those things, standardized testing should be viewed as a supplementary process to enable both the school and the parents to know about the student’s learning progress, not as a process to judge the student alone. Thus, it should have more room for the students because it allows students to reach a certain achievement level through such testing methods.

 

Reference

Aftergood, L. (2019). Why standardized tests are harmful to students as they enter the real world. Retrieved 28 December, 2021 from https://lionstale.org/6824/opinion/why-standardized-tests-are-bad/

Boyd, S. (2021). Reasons and Purposes for Standardized Testing. Retrieved 28 December, 2021 from https://study.com/academy/lesson/reasons-and-purposes-for-standardized-testing.html

Frank, S. (2021). Types of Standardized Tests. Retrieved 28 December, 2021 from https://www.studyist.org/blog/types-of-standardized-tests

Gaille, L. (2017). 12 Advantages and Disadvantages of Standardized Testing. Retrieved 28 December, 2021 from https://vittana.org/12-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-standardized-testing

Hurst, M. (2021). Standardized Tests in Education: Advantages and Disadvantages. Retrieved 28 December, 2021 from https://study.com/academy/lesson/standardized-tests-in-education-advantages-and-disadvantages.html

Nixon, B. (n.d.). The Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing. Retrieved 28 December, 2021 from https://www.whitbyschool.org/passionforlearning/the-pros-and-cons-of-standardized-testing

ProCon.Org. (2020). Do Standardized Tests Improve Education in America? Retrieved 28 December, 2021 from https://standardizedtests.procon.org/

Wikipedia. (2021). Standardized test. Retrieved 28 December, 2021 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standardized_test