Standardized Tests: What Are They Good For?
Standardized tests: what are they good for? Absolutely nothing (did you sing the song in your head?). But wasting money, time, and sanity. I get why our country implemented strict standardized testing. The United States has fallen behind in both reading and math with much of the first world counties and we wanted a way to improve our standing. Of course they would come up with testing as a way to hold our students, teachers, and schools accountable. There is a long history of testing in the United States, but it really took hold with the passing of “No Child Left Behind” in 2002. This policy “mandated annual testing in reading and math (and later science) in grades 3-8 and again in grade 10,” (Encyclopedia Britannica). This law had an outrageous requirement “that 100% of U.S. students be “proficient” on state reading and math tests by 2014,” (Encyclopedia Britannica). Even if I wasn’t in education and knew little about testing, an...