Welcome back readers! Last week we talked about the pros of standardized testing. This week we are going to address the cons of standardized testing. Like I addressed in my post last week, there are plenty of pros when talking about standardized testing. However, there are plenty of cons too. To start, I am going to name a few cons that I came across while searching through the internet.
1. Standardized testing can creat major stress: Students can feel pressure when it comes to taking certain standardized tests. The test scores can affect a student’s confidence. This can then lead to students developing a negative attitude about their abilities and will result in them disliking school.
2. Teachers may end up “teaching to the test” rather than giving students a deeper understanding of the subject: This can also create a classroom atmosphere that lacks creativity and can limit a student’s learning potential due to boredom.
3. Standardized tests evaluate student’s performance without considering external factors: Standardized tests do not consider factors such as test anxiety, home life, or the simple fact that some students are extremely bright but do not test well.
4. Standardized tests only consider a single test performance upon evaluation: It does not consider how much a student has grown over the course of the year. This can be a disservice to teachers who have helped their students grow, and students who put their best effort to get better during the year and performed poorly on one test.
5. Standardized tests create a limiting scope of learning and success: These types of tests only measure specific areas like reading, wiring, and math. They don’t provide a full picture of soft skills needed to learn.
As you can see, standardized tests can be destructive to students. How is it that something that was created to “help” students, actually causes students more pain in the long run? Come back next week to read more on standardized tests and how they can hurt students more than help them.
Until next time,
K
Katelyn Holley's Standardized Testing Blog 