The Issue Found In Standardized Testing

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Chris Mewborn

Research Paper Rough Draft

Imagine having to take a test as a third grader and that test impacting the rest of your career at that school. Sadly this is not something that we have to imagine. In public schools across the country standardized achievement test are impacting the futures of millions of students. The test that students are forced to take are unfair and biased. They are not a true measurement of a child’s knowledge. Therefore, why is the government using them as one? Under The No Child Left Behind Act, schools are forced to give these tests to students. The tests have not proven they work and next year they will decide the future of schools, teachers, and students. The creators of No Child Left Behind had good intentions but fell short of the mark. Standardized test were suppose to resurrect education in America, however the test and No Child Left Behind itself has had very little effect if any and even in some ways hurt schools, students, and teachers.

One of the problems found with the standardize test is that they are extremely biased towards minorities. The main area that is biased is in the way the tests are written. According to Donna Ford (2002), these test are written for white Americans to be able to understand. They are not changed in any way for minorities even if they are not completely confident with the English language. This would be like someone going to Spain and having to take a test in Spanish. That person might be able to understand and answer some questions but overall they would struggle with the test. Another issue that the material on the test is built around stuff that happens mostly in the United States. This means that someone who is not familiar with the American way may struggle on the test just because they do not know as much about the American way as much as people who live here do. While test makers are doing their best the get rid of this bias the test will never be completely bias free. A big issue with having bias testing is that these test decide which students end up in gifted classes. Of the gifted class in public schools in the United States white American students make up "76%" of the class. African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans make up the other "24%". (Ford, 2002). While there are many factors and reasons that these ethnic groups could perform lower on the test the test being biased is one of the biggest reasons.

Another big issue with standardized testing is the standards set by NCLB. These standards put a lot of pressure on teacher to have their class excel in specific subjects. This means teachers are forced to teach to the test instead of being able to teach as they wish. Before the No Child Left Behind Act teachers were in control of what they taught and the pace at which they taught. No teachers are basically being told what to teach and what not to teach. (Bracey, 2008). This is not the way schools are supposed to be run. The teachers should be in control of what they teach, not a test. However because of the emphasis that these test put on certain subjects teachers cannot teach what they want. They are being forced to focus all of their attention on subjects such as reading and math. (Fawn, 2001). Dee, 2010 said that this means that non-tested subjects such as social studies, music, and art are not getting the attention they once did. Since the money schools receive is based upon test scores schools are taking money away from these non-test subjects and putting it into the subjects that appear on the test. Shifting money away from non-test subjects means that those students who want a career in music or art are not going to be getting the resources they once did. This is extremely unfair to the students who want to take a different kind of career path. These standardized tests are controlling what subjects get the most attention and which subjects get thrown to the side. This is not the way the education is suppose to be and their need to be changes made. Every subject should receive the same amount of emphasis and attention as the other. No subject should be considered more important than another because in essence every single subject is important.

The next issue found in standardized testing is that the tests are not changed for those with learning disabilities. There are tons of students across the United States that has learning disabilities. No matter what disability the student has the test is not modified at all. The only accommodation made is that that individual may have additional time for the test. Anyone who has a learning disability or knows someone who has one knows that can make even the simplest things very complicated. Now try to imagine having one of these disabilities and being forced to take a standardized test with absolutely no help. This may sound like a nightmare but in reality it happens to tons of students and it happens every year. The saddest part about this is that these students test scores affect the schools overall performance. This is both unfair to the student and the school. Anyone who has a learning disability should not be forced to take these high stake test, especially without and assistance. By not giving the students any help there is almost no way the student can finish the test let alone pass the test. These test are setting up students with learning disabilities to fail. The No Child Left Behind Act either needs to be repealed or modified to accommodate students with learning disabilities.

Due to the high standards set by No Child Left Behind by the year 2014 nearly "80%" of schools in the United States will be labeled as failing. The creators of this law want every single student to be proficient. This means that if just one student is not proficient that the school will be labeled as failing. (Fawn, 2001). While the goal to have every student proficient is well intended it is also unrealistic at this point in time. Schools are no were even close to be considered passing by NCLB’s standards. According to Fawn (2001), reading proficiency for fourth graders is "34%". This means the score needs to almost double for fourth graders to be passing in reading. The number is only a little higher in math. The two subjects that have the most emphasis put on them are not even close to passing. So what exactly happens when a school is labeled as failing? According to Randolph (2012), a school that fails to meet the AYP for four or more years is put under corrective action. Being put under corrective action simply means that big changes need to come to the school. The state board will be in control of making sure these changes come. So by next year "80%" of public schools will be put under corrective action. This means unless these schools almost double their test scores there will be big changes coming in the future. There are other bigger issues that come with being labeled as failing which I will get to later in paper. In essence the No Child Left Behind Act set unattainable goals for schools and beginning next year these schools will start to feel the affects of these goals. Even though a school might have made huge leaps in test scores they will still be punished and that just seems unfair.

A rather scary part of these standardized tests is the amount of errors found on the test and in the grading process. According to Rhoades (2003), the amount of errors found in the grading process has risen dramatically since 1998. Tests that have the kind of impact that these standardized tests have should be graded flawlessly. While that my sound unrealistic it is something that test graders need to strive for. The tests are just to high stake to have errors on them and in the grading process. A study found that well over 1.5 million students have been affected by errors in the testing process. On top of that number a little over 4000 schools have also been affected. (Rhoades, 2003). This date is both frightening and infuriating. The amount of students affected should be zero. No ones future should be put at risk because of these errors. The errors can range from wrong formulas to misspelled items to lost tests. The list of errors found on the test is long and disappointing. A test given to entire states should be one hundred percent flawless. The test having flaws would not be that big of a deal if not for the extreme weight they carried. These test are powerful and decide the futures for many young students. If a third graders test is mis-graded and it shows that they failed that student may be asked to be helped back or not be allowed to go into tougher classes. A test that can decide the futures of students needs to have absolutely no errors. The test just mean too much to schools, students, and teachers.

The next issue found with standardized test is that the tests try to do their assessment with only 40 to 50 questions. (Popham, 1999). The tests are designed to have all material taught that year on them. If that were the case the test would have to be well over one hundred questions. Instead the tests only have 40 to 50 questions. By having this small amount of questions there will be certain concepts and practices left out. According to Popham (1999), the tests contain too few items to allow for meaningful comparisons of students’ strengths and weaknesses. Popham is one hundred percent accurate. It is almost impossible to provide a full assessment of a student with only forty or fifty questions. Realistically the number of questions needs to be more around one hundred questions. A smaller issue with only having a small amount of questions is that teachers may miss the mark with their teaching. What I mean is that a study found that "65%" of what is on these tests is not suitably addressed in textbooks. (Popham, 1999). This means that teacher could do a great job of teaching something to their students and come test time that specific material might not even be on the test. This is why the test needs to either be lengthened or removed from schools. By only have forty or fifty questions teachers are forced to guess on what concepts will be on the test. The makers of the test are not allowed to reveal what type of questions will be on the test so teachers are forced to use their judgment to decide what work on in class. Popham (1999) said, "The proportion of topics presented on a standardized test that received more than cursory treatment in each textbook was never higher than 50%." No one besides the test makers themselves knows why certain concepts and questions are put on or left off of the test but chances are the material on the test was not something that had a lot of emphasis on it during the year. The tests just do not work with issues like the ones I’ve listed here. We cannot have a test that has material not readily covered in school be able to decide the futures of our schools, teachers, and more importantly the students. According to Popham (1999), "standardized achievement tests should not be used to determine the effectiveness of a state, a district, a school, a teacher, or student. There’s almost certain to be a significant mismatch between what’s taught and what’s tested." I agree fully with this statement. The test cannot and should not be used to measure the effectiveness of schools. They test lack too much to be able to justify the kind of power they have. Another startling issue found with the questions on these tests is that the questions that students get correct are usually removed from the tests the following year. Popham (1999) said, "Test items answered correctly by eighty percent or more of the test takers, therefore, usually don’t make it past the final cut when a standardized achievement test is first developed, and such items will most likely be jettisoned when the test is revised. Thus, the better the job that teachers do in teaching important knowledge and/or skills, the less likely it is that there will be items on a standardized achievement test measuring such knowledge and/or skills." This quote right here should be reason enough to question why we still use standardized tests to measure what students know and the educational quality that they are given.

The final issue I found with standardized testing is that schools are not receiving the necessary funding from the government that they were promised when No Child Left Behind was signed into existence. Dee (2010) said, "School-district expenditure increased significantly in response to NCLB, and these increases were not matched by federal revenue." Later in Dee’s article we learn that that average school districts expenses increased $600 per pupil. The money increase was spread between direct student instruction and educational support services. This increase to can lead to hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars extra that schools need to account for. Now this would not be such a big issue except for the fact that the government did not give the schools any additional funds to cover these costs. Schools simply cannot afford these large increases without the help of the government. An even more unsettling issue is that lawmakers have cut funding for programs related to the No Child Left Behind Act. Randolph (2012). So not only has Congress refused to give schools the funds to provide necessary services demanded by the act they are also cutting down the budget for education. With all of these budget cuts happening it has been and will continue to be a struggle for schools to provide the resources that No Child Left Behind requires them to. The Government should be responsible and provide the funds they promised to schools. Right now only the schools are being punished and it is unfair. Schools didn’t oppose NCLB when it was introduced because they thought that the funds they received would be increased to help cover they new expense. Sadly though the funding is being cut and schools are going to be in trouble as expenses associated with No Child Left Behind continue to rise.