Standardized tests have negative impact on classroom teaching

Every high school senior fears it. Younger students cringe at the thought of it. What is this frightful fixation that makes students run and hide? The ACT and SAT standardized tests given to students before entering college.

These tests are supposed to verify that a student has learned what is needed to succeed in college and to place the individual into classes that are appropriate. Other standardized tests are also given, such as the MAP test. Many people believe these tests are ineffective and do not prove achievement. Standardized tests should be de-emphasized as a measure of student achievement.

Many supporters of tests think that giving everyone the same test will ensure that students are taught needed information. But teachers need to be able to teach in their own way.

To believe that a student from the East Coast will be taught exactly the same as one from the West Coast is foolish. So how can giving them the same test and expecting them to know the same material be effective?

Others argue that standardized tests can show a variety of information that every high school student should be familiar with. The test questions seem to be hit or miss. Either a student know the exact answer or does not but has no way of figuring out the answer. How fair is making some students guess at answers when their futures are on the line?

While it may seem that giving every student the same test would be fairer, it actually harms many students, including "students from low-income and minority-group backgrounds," according to the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, along with those who are "bad test-takers."

Students who do not test well on these tests are often placed in lower programs "based heavily on rote drill and test practice."

Students scoring higher on tests are given more opportunities to learn and make decisions and observations on their own.

By giving one test to everyone, we have made testing less fair, because some students who score low but work hard are no longer rewarded for their work.

Not only are these tests ineffective for grading student achievement, but they also generate unnecessary expense. Standardized tests are give to students to determine the amount of money a school will receive. Schools that are already struggling to meet requirements are put at a disadvantage.

Betty Jeanne Rueters-Ward of the Synapse Web site states, "Lower-scoring schools often don't receive the funding they need to improve (in fact, some schools that score poorly receive less funding)." Schools scoring lower need more money, not less, if improvements are to be made to students' learning environment.

Money is always an issue. But in schools, learning should be at the top of the agenda. By making tests such as the MAP test mandatory and the ACT a requirement for college, teachers feel forced to inform their students what the test will consist of. But some teachers go too far, and compromises are made students' learning.

When teachers move away from the important topics students need to learn and toward the minute facts students will be tested on, learning is transformed into memorization.

Teachers are stressed to ensure that their students perform adequately. Schools may be penalized if sufficient scores are not met, and many resort to alternative means of testing.

According to Elaine R. Jones and Janell Byrd-Chichester of the Progressive Media Project, "Recent testing scandals show that some educators feel so pressured that they cheat on the tests to make their schools look better."

Instructors are deceiving the exams, but even worse deceiving the people who believe their children are being well-educated.

So while some may believe standardized testing can help today's youths, a closer look shows only harm is done. This measure of analysis is simply unfair to some students, and too costly for many schools. And it compromises the reason we go to school, which is learning.

If we continue to rate achievement on the basis of a single test, we are promoting laziness, because students' hard classroom work goes unrewarded and forces teachers to educate students with multiple-choice questions.

The real question has only two choices: We can continue to force children to take these exams, or we can measure achievement by hard work and real thinking.

Kristin L. Hetherington is a 2005 graduate of Jackson High School.