This article discusses the negative aspects of standardized testing and the limitations that they place on teachers as well as students. Standardized testing causes teachers to lose valuable instruction time while they focus on institutional tasks. Teachers are expected to teach students the regular curriculum as well as prepare them to take standardized tests. Due to the addition of these tasks, there are important areas of education that are no longer included in school such as art, music, foreign languages and even social studies on the elementary level.
Perhaps the teachers who are the most affected by standardized testing are the ELA teachers. Standardized tests are generally multiple choice, which causes ELA teachers to focus less on writing and more on the literary skills which are measure on standardized tests. ELA teachers are limited to the types of writing assignments they can assign due to time restraints placed on them by standardized testing. ELA teachers simply don't have the time to teach the writing process and the purposes for writing.
Students are affected because they have been told time and time again how important these tests are. Students who do not do well on these tests lose interest in learning and doubt their own abilities. These tests limit what students learn and can have a negative effect when the results don't match the student's actual abilities. When students are placed categories, it can even lead to failure to graduate.
I agree with the article in that too much emphasis is placed on standardized tests. One end of the year test should not determine a teacher's ability to teach, nor should it determine if a student is proficient. Many circumstances can affect the outcome of standardized tests, therefore to say that because a student didn't do well on that test that they are not learning what they should be is wrong. What if the student is sick the day of testing? What if the student is a poor test taker, but an otherwise excellent student? What if the student is only struggling in reading, but because of this they do poorly on the rest of the test? Also, it is stressed to us that each student is an individual and that they all learn differently. How is judging every single student with the same test treating them as an individual?
Since I have only been a substitute teacher, I have no personal experience with teaching what is on standardized tests. I have taken many tests, and have always been an excellent test taker. I was always an excellent student through elementary, middle and high school, which my test scores reflected. One of my friends and classmates was also an excellent student throughout school, however she had panic attacks when she took standardized tests. That caused her to not do as well as she could have, so her test scores did not match her ability. While she knew that the panic attacks were the problem, her test scores always affected her attitude about learning. She didn't feel like she should try so hard to make good grades when schools were judging her by her test scores.
I believe that standardized testing is necessary to be sure that students are in fact improving each year, but I don't feel that we should place so much emphasis on them. I also think that teachers should not have to take time out of their curriculum in order to teach what is on them, which causes students to lose valuable learning time. Teachers should be trusted to be teaching students what they are supposed to, not forced to spoon-feed information from a test. In summary, I believe that while we need standardized testing it should not be the determining factor of whether teachers are doing their jobs effectively or if students are learning.
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