Are Our Standardized Tests Up to Standard?

(Picture of a test scantron with questions 1-3 bubbled)

 I think it's safe to assume that any American who went through the public school system has an opinion about standardized testing. We're all too familiar with sitting in a silent room for hours while your school's soccer coach paces between rows of desks to check if you're cheating. Before diving into the effectiveness of our nation's standard of test taking, we first need to define what this test is. A standardized test is "any type of examination administered and scored in a 'standard' manner." Some examples of standardized tests in America would be the ACT or SAT. Each state also has its own standardized tests for various subjects depending on grade level. Not only do standardized tests measure a student's level of knowledge about a certain subject, but they also hold teachers and administrators accountable for teaching the material to their students. Now that we understand what standardized tests are, we need to ask a very important question about them. Are these tests really measuring our students' knowledge accurately and is it fair to gauge a teacher's value based off of these scores?

According to an article from Penn State, standardized test scores are usually linked to very important stages in students' lives like getting into college or graduating high school. Standardized tests are viewed as an effective, fair way to test students because every student is taking the same test. What this viewpoint doesn't consider is how these tests are biased against certain communities. Lower-income students are at a disadvantage compared to their more fortunate peers as they cannot afford many of the prep materials and tutoring sessions that help them to succeed on tests like the ACT or SAT. Standardized tests also pressure teachers to "teach to the test" in order to ensure test scores will be high. Teachers are often blamed for low test scores without taking into account disadvantaged students or students with test anxiety. While I typically tested well in these kinds of exams, I came from a middle-class, white family who could afford to buy me ACT prep books. I believe that testing is needed in order to assess a student's retention of information, but I think these tests need to include open-ended or essay questions that are graded by humans and not a computer. These kinds of questions, in my opinion, do a better job at showing a student's knowledge of a subject than solely multiple choice questions. This is a very complex issue, but there are solutions that will benefit many students, rather than just a few.

Virtual Learning: Helpful or Hinderance?

 In the past three years, everyone's lives have been majorly disrupted and thrown out of balance. Schools were closing. Working from home became commonplace. Online shopping and contactless delivery boomed. Basically, every aspect of everyday living moved online. At the time, this was the most logical solution to social distancing. Can't come into the office? Hop on a Zoom call. Need to visit your doctor? Contact their Telehealth line. But what effect did going completely virtual have on our younger generations? How did online classes affect their ability to successfully learn and retain vital information in regard to students' future careers or even their ability to recognize the alphabet? While some schools reopened, others opted to stay online for the 2020-2021 school year, and we are now learning of the consequences of that action. 

Drawing of a young man 
attending class and working on a laptop

Schools all across the nation are scrambling to close the gap between where students are testing and national benchmark requirements. According to an article from The New York Times, students who attended in-person schooling during the 2020-2021 school year experienced a loss of "20 percent worth of a typical school year's math learning" while students who attended virtual schooling lost, on average, "the equivalent of 50 percent of a typical school year's math learning." While all students are feeling the effects of COVID online learning, this event had a disproportionate effect on students of low socioeconomic status as well as negatively affecting black and Latino students. In my experince working in a school, these students want to learn and are more resillent than most people give them credit for. Kids are capable of coming back and reaching those benchmark requirements. I have already been able to see them overcoming their set backs and obstacles from COVID. Personally, I undestand why it was necessary for schools to go online, and I believe that schools did the best thing for their students that they could do, given the circumstances. It is possible to close this gap of achievement as long as schools are willing to work with their students and put time as well as resources into those students. I think that students can come back from the effects of COVID and be stronger than ever.