Standardized Testing: Helpful or Hindrance?

Aaron Carlisle
Paul Anderson
12/11/15
Exploratory Research Paper

Introduction:
Hook: Have you ever been asked to do something that you were not great at? And
if you failed at the task, did you feel unintelligent? This is what standardized testing
does to some students and is the reason I want to learn if it is the best form of
testing available.
The issue I am writing about is standard academic testing and its effects on
students.
Explaining the issue: The negative effects of standardized testing may have lifelong
consequences for students. When standardized testing leaves a student less
confident in his problem-solving abilities, his academic growth may be impeded. If
a testing method could be devised to assess a students problem-solving abilities in
a more comprehensive manner, then confidence might be improved with testing.
Only certain skills are tested with standardized fill-in-the-blank and multiplechoice type testing. Only certain skills of students are being tested with this
method, and students may be labeled unintelligent when they do not excel in this
methodology. When in reality, these same students may possess problem-solving
skills that are exceptional but not testable by traditional means.
This issue is relevant because there has been an increase in media coverage
scrutinizing standardized testing. The nation has become aware of this problem and

this has lead to an extensive debate regarding the No Child Left Behind policy and
its implications for American education.
I was interested in this topic because while attending a psychology class I stumbled
upon an article that outlined multiple studies that demonstrated the inefficiencies of
standardized testing.
My research question is: Are standardized tests effective? And if they are not, what
could we replace them with that would make for a better assessment?
Thesis: Over the course of this paper, I hope to explore the topic of standardized
testing in depth and discover what its potential alternatives are.
Background:
When problem emerged: 1965 is when this issue first became widespread. 1965 is
the year that the Elementary and Secondary Education Act took effect. This act
required standardized testing in elementary and secondary schools, and was
followed by the next large standardized test law No Child Left Behind in 2001.
Extent of the problem: This issue is now very widespread. 49 out of 50 states
continue to use standardized testing methods. Nebraska is currently the only state
to adopt non-standardized testing.

Unfortunately, this means the majority of our

nation may only be assessing the ability of our student body to memorize and
answer questions.
Source 1
I started with this source because I wanted to understand how standardized
tests affect students.

I acquired this source through Google scholar by typing in standardized test

and received many thousands of results; I found this article to be the most
pertinent to my ERP. I read the little blurb before I clicked on the link and read
that this paper mentioned, Both traditional innovative forms of assessment
failed to consider the cumulative impact of repeated testing
A. Author: Scott G. Paris; Theresa A Lawton; Julianne C Turner; Jodie L. Roth
B. Genre: Academic journal
C. Title: A developmental Perspective on Standardized Achievement Testing
D. Publication: Jstor, June-July, 1991
E. Authors purpose: to research and report findings about standardized
testing
F. Authors intended audience: Teachers, Students, Parents, Administrators,
test makers, and politicians who could affect the educational system.
g. Summary of argument/content: The authors argued that school tests are
being used, applied and created incorrectly. They also argue that
standardized testing is not a valid way of testing how ready kids are for the
real world.
h. Strong response (what you agreed/disagreed with): I agreed with their
stance on standardized testing because it is often testing memorization
rather than application of information. In this era memorization is decreasing
in usefulness with everything you could ever need at your fingertips with
access to the Internet in most devices.

I. What you learned from the article: I learned about the many more
applications that standardized tests can have, I started the paper with a more
2-d perspective of the test, but now I realize that they are not just for
students and teachers to evaluate progress but can also be politically
motivated
J. Its value for your topic/issue/problem: This article was valuable for my
topic because it gave me an initial understanding of what standardized
testing is really used for as well as its pros and cons.
K. Whats missing from the article that you want/need to find out/consider
(this leads you to your next source): One thing that this article is missing is a
more in depth description of the psychological impact of testing on students.
Source 2
I chose this article next because my interest was peaked on the psychological
aspect of standardized testing.
That In mind I typed into Ebsco the keywords, psychological and standardized
testing
I chose this article because while looking at all the multitudes of articles this
ones title intrigued me the most.
A. Author: Saga Briggs
B. Genre: informative article
C. Title:

ThePerilsofStandardizedTesting:6WaysItHarmsLearning

D. Publication: OpenColleges

E. Authors purpose: The author wishes to inform the audience on the

harmful nature of Standardized tests
F. Authors intended audience: Teachers, Parents, and administrators
g. Summary of argument/content: The author argues that standardized tests
are used incorrectly and are placing much stress on kids shoulders, when the
tests should be used to inform rather than to grade.
h. Strong response (what you agreed/disagreed with): I very much agree with
the authors stance on how standardized testing should be used to improve
education rather than rank kids.
i. what you learned from the article: I learned that test scores drive education
much more than I realized, and is used for much of the funding of schools.
J. Its value for your topic/issue/problem: This article is valuable for my topic
because it helps to solidify the information gained from previous articles.
K. Whats missing from the article that you want/need to find out/consider
(this leads you to your next source): One thing that is missing from this article
is more peoples perspective, I would like to learn if more people have this
same viewpoint. That viewpoint being that the system of standardized tests
is broken and needs to be fixed.
Source 3

I conducted a Google scholar search using the key words testing and learning and
this brought up many articles, and from these I chose one produced by ASU. I chose this
article specifically because its emphasis on affect to students of multiple tests.

A. Author: Audrey L. Amrein, David C. Berliner

B. Genre: academic article
C. Title: High-Stakes Testing, Uncertainty and Student Learning
D.Publication:ASUEPAA

E. Authors purpose: analyze the data of eighteen states to see if their high-stakes

testing programs were affecting student learning, the intended outcome of high-stakes
testing policies promoted throughout the nation
F. Authors intended audience: academic peers and academic officials
g. Summary of argument/content: high-stakes testing policies [do not] result in

transfer to the broader domains of knowledge and skill for which high-stakes test scores
must be indicators they suggest it is a failed policy, one that may be a waste of money,
and even have negative effects on the life chances of America's poor and minority
students
h. Strong response (what you agreed/disagreed with): I agreed with the
papers stance on high stakes testing, I have felt quite pressured to memorize
things so that I can do well on tests even though I tend not to learn that way
if I can help it.
i. What you learned from the article: I learned that high stakes test are not a
viable test to administer when trying to test for non singular subjects such as
broad domain knowledge

J. Its value for your topic/issue/problem: This article is valuable to my paper

because it supports the previous article saying that standard testing is not
the best type of assessment.
K. Whats missing from the article that you want/need to find out/consider
(this leads you to your next source): This article is missing the pros of
standardized testing, I would like to learn what reasons people have for
backing standardized testing.
Source 4

I conducted a Google scholar search using the key words testing Defending and
support and this brought up many, many articles. From these I chose one produced by
the journal of educational measurement. I chose this article specifically because its
opposite viewpoint relative to my previous articles, so that I could more understand why
some people wish to keep standardized testing.

A. Author: Howard Wainer

B. Genre: academic journal
C. Title: Defending standardized testing
D. Publication: journal of educational measurement
E. Authors purpose: to educate the audience on what difficulties would be
encountered if standardized testing were replaced
F. Authors intended audience: educational professionals and government
officials that are pushing for educational reform.

g. Summary of argument/content: The author talks about standardized

testing in this article and what would really have to happen in order to
replace this method of testing with another way to gauge students abilities.
h. Strong response (what you agreed/disagreed with): I strongly agree with
how the author adopted a rational approach to this, I have read many articles
that say why standardized testing is bad and what would be better, but this
was the first article that I came across that really
i. What you learned from the article: I learned from this article that even if a
much better alternative to standardized testing exists, it may be a long time
before anything can be done about changing the current test format because
much time and money is required to change a nationwide testing format. And
unfortunately even if the resources were available testing would have to be a
more pressing issue for the proper amount of money to be allocated to
changing testing to an alternative assessment.
J. Its value for your topic/issue/problem: This article is valuable to me
because it allowed me to experience the issue from a perspective that I was
not familiar with, and challenged how I thought about the issue
K. Whats missing from the article that you want/need to find out/consider
(this leads you to your next source): Now that I understood what it meant
that there would have to be something to replace the standardized tests I
wanted to know what alternatives there were to be able to transition too,
which lead me to my next article.
Source 5

I conducted a Google scholar search using the key words Alternative assessment and
research and this brought up only a few relative articles. Lucky for me I found one very
relative to my thesis so I chose the one produced by Questin. I chose this article
specifically because its information available to me, it had much research into what
alternatives there are to standardized testing.
A. Author: Worthen Blaine R.
B. Genre: Academic journal article
C. Title: CriticalIssuesThatWillDeterminetheFutureofAlternativeAssessment

CriticalIssuesThatWillDeterminetheFutureofAlternativeAssessment
D. Publication: questin, Feb 1993
E. Authors purpose: educate on the state of research for alternative testing
F. Authors intended audience: educational professionals, and government
officials capable of speaking on behalf of educational reform.
g. Summary of argument/content: This was a research paper that tells of the
multitude of alternative to standardized testing. And identifies some major issues

that educators must resolve if alternative assessment is to reach its full potential in our
schools.
h. Strong response (what you agreed/disagreed with): This paper was quite
un-biased and was unable to be sided with, but the paper gave a multitude of
examples with their respective pros and cons.

i. What you learned from the article: I have learned from this article that one
of the major hurdles in alternative testing is the money required to
implement the system.
J. Its value for your topic/issue/problem: This article is valuable to my paper
because it is quite research heavy and non-biased it gives a good break for
the reader.
K. Whats missing from the article that you want/need to find out/consider
(this leads you to your next source): one thing thats missing from the paper
is a more in depth exploration of each type of topic for alternative
assessments. And this is a direction I would like to go in the future if given the
chance to continue my English portfolio with another ERP.
Conclusion:
At the beginning of this intellectual journey I was interested in standardized testing.
I thought back to my psychology class and remembered learning about the
inefficiencies of standardized testing and the traditional student grading system. I
had no knowledge of how the tests were actually insufficient but I wanted to know. I
chose articles that were relevant to the topic, read and annotated them and
explored multiple scholarly websites to try to learn why these tests were not the
best test for what they were intended for.
I now know what variety of tests exist that could take the place of standardized
testing. And I know how hard it would be to implement the large-scale change that
would be required to replace it with any of the alternatives. I also know that there
are many things that could replace standardized testing but still the same problem
occurs with standardized testing: they all are not perfect.

This is a large problem due to the fact that only certain skills of students are being
tested, and students that are amazing in untested categories, may go unnoticed.
This could impede a students ability to grow academically due to the lack of
positive feedback. When in reality, the appropriate encouragement could unleash a
students true potential and they could go on to achieve amazing things.
If I were given the chance to continue this paper I would love to delve more deeply
into alternative academic testing and study how realistic the ideas are for
implementation.
Works Cited:
Scott G. Paris; Theresa A Lawton; Julianne C Turner; Jodie L. Roth
A developmental Perspective on Standardized Achievement Testing
Jstor
June-July, 1991
Web scholarly journal
12/1/15
Source 3

Amrein, Audrey L., and David C. Berliner. "High-Stakes Testing & Student Learning."
Education Policy Analysis Archives Epaa (2002): 18. Print.

Footnotes: references, insert footnote, make sure it is in MLA 7 th edition.