Standardized tests are a yearly occurrence in almost all schools, and are a way of testing one’s knowledge against that of other students of the same age.

Now that students and parents have become increasingly obsessed with test scores in the past years, standardized testing adds pressure and stress to students’ lives. These tests are also one of the most controversial issues in education today.

So whose idea was standardized testing? Well, the concept of a standardized test has developed over a long period of time. In ancient Greece during the fifth and fourth centuries BCE, two of the most prominent philosophers and teachers, Socrates and his most loyal follower, Plato, started the idea of testing their students by having a class-wide discussion on a particular topic. Answers were not marked as wrong or right since students were often asked for their opinion and were assessed on how well they could contribute to the conversation.

In 1900, the College Entrance Examination Board (commonly referred to as the College Board) was founded, and its early tests consisted of essay questions instead of multiple choice and were graded individually by professors. But other educators began to test students in ways different from the essay writing that was the most common form of testing at the time.

In 1914, the University of Kansas’s Frederick J. Kelly designed the first multiple-choice test and in 1926, the multiple-choice Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) was proposed as an exam that was much easier to grade. But the SAT was not the College Board’s test of choice until December of 1941, when they decided that a faster way of grading the applicants was necessary.

In 1957, when the Soviet Union beat the United States into space with their satellite called Sputnik, schools in the U. S. felt pressured to increase math and science programs to produce students that would be the top students in the world. After test scores started to decline heavily in the 1970s, and a national report entitled, “A Nation at Risk” declared the standards were too low, the country experienced a great swell in testing which has lasted over the past 30 years. During this period many politicians supported increases in testing. Those who disagreed felt there should be more focus on what the government funds in schools, like better-trained teachers and a requirement for smaller classes. But the opposing viewpoint prevailed. In 2002, President Bush passed the No Child Left Behind Act, requiring annual standardized tests in all public schools, to help government evaluate the students’ skills.

There are some obvious pros to standardized testing, from the viewpoint of the College Board and the government. For one there is a huge amount of practicality to standardized testing. In terms of colleges, it would be quite difficult to make and grade an entrance test that was personalized to every student. And in terms of comparing students to those in other states or countries, grades are simply not enough since an A in one English course could indicate something completely different than an A at another school. Another pro is that standardized tests, which are the same for everyone have a great amount of objectivity about them, and there is almost no way for a grade to be biased. And the final benefit is that the standardized tests hold all students accountable for the same level of knowledge, up to the high standard and expectations.

On the other hand, coming from a different culture or background may be a disadvantage on these tests. There are questions that have cultural biases without the test makers even realizing it. Even very simple questions; for example, after being asked to read a paragraph about a little girl who lost her tooth, a student is asked to answer the question: What should Sally do next? The question is followed by four possible answers, one of them being the correct answer: put her tooth under her pillow. This seems like a very simple question, but the tradition of placing teeth under a child’s pillow is solely an American tradition. So to a child with a Korean background, for example, this might not be the easy question the test makers intended it to be, since the student might have grown up with the Korean tradition of tossing your tooth up onto the roof of your house. At the beginning of the test there is a sheet where you are asked to write your name, grade, school, etc. but the test also asks for your ethnicity. In 2006 the College Entrance Examination Board calculated the averages on the SAT within each ethnic group, and showed there could be some culturally biased questions.

So are these tests really a fair judgment of a student’s ability? Different people have opposing opinions as to whether they are or not, but some of the debate revolves around what we as a country consider “smart.” What is intelligence? This is a question with many different answers but there are mainly two sides. Is intelligence reflected in a person who can quickly tell you what South American country has the largest land area or what the symbol Rg stands for on the periodic table of elements? Or is intelligence demonstrated by a person who understands and can eloquently articulate his opinion on President Obama’s latest policy or who has interesting new ideas on how to improve how environmentally friendly your school is? Standardized tests are mainly just an assessment of a student’s ability to retain facts, which may not be the best way to test a student’s actual intelligence.

Some of the debate revolves around what we as a country consider “smart.” What is intelligence?

Standardized testing also adds pressure and stress to a student’s life. The majority of students find the tests very nerve-racking. The tests don’t take into account the fact that a student may have an “off” day or let his nerves get in the way of doing his best. Whoever is grading the tests (which is typically a computer) or seeing the test scores does not know the student. Which would mean he or she has no idea if the student really understands the concepts versus merely memorizing, or if the student puts the knowledge to use in his daily life.

Personally I think the Ancient Greeks had it right all along. Although I understand the practicality of having a standardized test, I don’t think that they are fair assessment of a student’s capabilities. Life is not made up of right or wrong answers, but instead problems with many different solutions and I think students should be taught to understand that at an early age. A new way to test students in mass quantities has not yet been proposed, but I’m sure someone could come up with a new way if the government and the College Board requested one. I think that students should be taught that it’s okay to answer questions differently from the person sitting next to you. On a standardized test students are asked to choose the “best” answer to every question, but what makes this bubble the best. That’s the best answer, but according to whom?

In the end what standardized tests give us is a number and nothing more. A number that may or may not be a fair representation of how a person understands all they have been taught. For years these scores have dictated high school courses, college acceptances, and the self-esteem of students around the nation. Students’ futures can lie in those very digits. Yet a mere number cannot evaluate a person’s creativity, understanding, ethics, and many other traits that we respect in others.

Sources:

Mathews, Jay. “Just Whose Idea Was All This Testing?” Washington Post, November 14, 2006.

The College Board, www.collegeboard.com