What Are Standardized Tests Measure Student Performance?

Standardized tests are used in various settings on a global scale. While they measure an individual's knowledge of a particular subject, it can be argued that their results are at times misleading. When it comes to education this is evident amongst the mass amount of students that take these tests through the year. Standardized tests are not the best way to measure a schools academic performance because they can not determine a teachers effectiveness due to the varying needs and abilities of students.

Standardized tests are not the best measure of a students knowledge. Learning is a process and shouldn't be measured by constant standardized tests that compare students. While competition is healthy, the way it's being done in regards to standardized testing is unfair. Every student learns and tests differently. Some students are able to perform well on test while others struggle to put answers down, even though they may know the test material. Test taking is stressful and the amount of standardized
Most teachers now teach to the test in an effort to receive merit pay, based on whether or not students have high test scores. Students esteems are affected in a negative way. The Obama Administration used the term "Nation at Risk" rather than stating the fact that more testing does not produce higher test scores. Yong Zhao’s Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon? Why China Has the Best (and Worst) Education System in the World, Zhoa tells us that "China has the best education system because it can produce the highest test scores. But, he says, it has the worst education system in the world because those test scores are purchased by sacrificing creativity, divergent thinking, originality, and individualism." Students deserve to be independent, critical thinkers and not merely robots that can pick the correct answers on a