Standardized Testing

Essay by rehab__High School, 11th grade February 2006

download word file, 2 pages 2.0

Standardized testing is nothing new to me. As a student in Kentucky, I have taken many of these types of tests throughout my twelve years in school. One reason for this is the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA), which holds Kentucky schools accountable for the education of its students. A major component of this is CATS, or the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System. For as far back as I can remember, every spring I have taken a series of tests, that up until a few years ago, I thought were useless. Now however, I realize that standardized testing not only provides an effective way to determine student strengths and weaknesses, but it also prepares students for the future by providing them with the critical thinking skills necessary to succeed in the "real world". As a prospective teacher, I plan to use standardized testing as a way to evaluate student performance.

Standardized testing in the classroom shows teachers which concepts students understand and which need to be reviewed. In addition to this, it can also serve as a way to measure the efficiency of teaching methods and techniques. For example, if a teacher decides that instead having students draw diagrams of the constellations to learn them, they will view them firsthand at night with telescopes, then students do poorly on that portion of the test, the teacher would need to reconsider that particular teaching method. Likewise, if the students' scores increase significantly, the teacher may want to continue this method. Testing also helps students develop critical thinking skills that will be necessary both for future standardized tests, such as the ACT or SAT, and when they begin their career.

However, although I plan to use standardized testing in my classroom, I do not feel it should be the only method used...