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.