What Are The Pros And Cons Of Being Standardized

“I succeeded in learning to read and write. In accomplishing this, I was compelled to resort to various stratagems”. As a slave education was restricted to Frederick Douglass but he found a way to overcome this obstacle and become a very well educated man. “Books to me, were powerful and transformational”. Books impacted Charles Blow by opening his eyes to show how books can educate people. Standardized tests have restricted people from experiencing real learning. Standardized tests are inaccurate, demanding, and unnecessary to put students along with teachers through, and in the end the only thing standardized tests do is draw away from meaningful and lasting education.
There are many problems with standardized testing, most of which
“The fixation on testing is putting undue stress on educators as well as students, and, in many instances, punishing schools and teachers” (Myers 12). Standardized tests have led to teachers having to teach to the test so that their students can understand how the questions are structured and how to better answer them. Having to teach to the test puts great pressure on teachers to make sure their students know all the material and how to best answer the questions that are given to them on standardized tests. There is also extreme pressure on the students to do well. “Falling short even by one point of what the state has established as a passing score could mean flunking a grade or attending summer school” (Scholars 1). This can lead to some students becoming extremely nervous and anxious. As a result of their anxiety students may struggle taking the test even if they know all of the information backwards and forwards. This can also result in the test scores being inaccurate because some students do not perform well under pressure. Students are also pressured while taking a standardized test. Many or most standardized tests have one or more sections that are timed. This can possibly result in students cracking under the pressure and missing the score that they wanted or needed by the smallest of
“Assessment should be customized to the student, not standardized to the system” (Nielsen 30). An option that would be fairly easy to enact as part of a replacement for standardized tests would be to have personal success plans for every student. This would be as simple as a student wanting to master a certain aspect of a subject in school like math, english, science, or social studies. It could also include more diverse objectives as well. These objectives could be achieved by having students take elective classes. For example in music class students could have the choice of a certain instrument they want to try and learn to play. If they enjoy playing that instrument they could get more advanced and better playing that instrument. There are other choices for tracking progress that students have made in school. Grading could be more focused on school work throughout the entire year. That way any teacher could see if one of their students are struggling on a given day or if the student does not comprehend certain parts of the material. A good choice for an alternative to standardized tests would be to grade more heavily on the homework that students are assigned. Students would be more apt to do their homework if it was more impactful to their grade. This could also lead to teachers assigning less homework and