Rationalamerican: Ten Reasons

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Ten Reasons

Last edited May 2005, Last reviewed September 2007

For those pressed for time, here are ten reasons why norm-referenced standardized tests are a bad idea, whether part of a federal law or otherwise.

#1. The frenzy over test scores quickly pushes aside genuine forms of developmental assessment such as portfolios and individualized student evaluations by teachers. Tests scores are easy to understand and simple to administer, even if they are inaccurate. Legitimate forms of assessment are difficult to administer and sometimes require hard thought. Yet, which gives a true and clear picture of individual development? Norm referenced standardized tests rank students but they do not rate them.

#2. Students can easily be pigeonholed based on one or two high-stakes tests once the standardized testing machine gets into high gear in a district. Never mind that a student may feel under the weather, or a little tired on test day. Never mind that a student may simply not be a great test-taker due to the effects of self-induced pressure or fear. One day, on one test, the direction of a student's school career can be settled. It is difficult to make a wrong turn right.

#3. Norm-based standardized testing by nature brings a focus on collective scores, rather than on individual needs. As a result, schools focus on the mass of humanity in their buildings and tend to ignore the specific growth and development of each child. Parents are often left to argue that their son or daughter is not the student that the numbers indicate. Yet, the school has the collective numbers to show that it is your son or daughter that is not getting with the program. It will be your word against a number, since the true forms of developmental assessments will just be a distant memory.

#4. Standardized testing poisons the student-teacher relationship, especially in lower grades. Younger students find it difficult to understand why the teacher, acting as a test proctor, cannot offer them help when they need it. Due to a requirement to stick to the script, teachers can only say "just do the best you can", without further explanation. Older students are frustrated too, especially when test questions conflict with what was previously learned in their classroom. Teachers as proctors are put in an unnatural and indefensible spot.

#5. Teachers feel the pressure too. In an attempt to spare their own students the fear and frustration of test-taking, or in an attempt to defend their own competence to an administration judging them on the basis of test scores, teachers will find subtle or not-so-subtle means to prepare students for the tests. The classrooms become test-prep centers. That is not genuine learning.

#6. Standardized test scores, measured in percentiles, are typically sent home to parents, published in newsletters and newspapers, and discussed by administrators at meetings. The effect is a horse-race of test scores; an education that belongs on the sports-page of the newspaper. Competitive parents unaware of the danger frequently add to the momentum by comparing their Frankie with Johnnie across the street. Gone are the individual humans behind the numbers.

#7. Standardized testing, implemented to the degree it is in some districts, actually takes away from precious class time. The actual tests can easily kill a day or even a few days each just filling out bubbles. The momentum of the classroom can be lost before and after the actual tests while teachers are forced to prepare their "test centers" and while students play out their irritability and frustration after the tests. What is worse, teachers may become test-prep consultants and spend weeks out of the year trying to coach their students on the finer points of filling in bubbles. Do we have all that time to spare?

#8. High-stakes testing makes many students stressed, to the point that they are irritable, crying, or even sick to their stomach. When a student realizes he is in trouble on a test, or when poor test scores come back from the school, the result for a student can be shaken confidence, a bruised ego, and a mounting level of fear and uncertainty. Those feelings interfere with learning.

#9. Standardized test scores are frequently an inaccurate or at least an incomplete snapshot of your child. Younger children tend to start guessing when the test gets long. Older students can become frustrated and fill in bubbles randomly, just out of spite. Fear, uncertainty and doubt take their toll on test takers who feel the pressure. Some students won't get enough sleep before test day, or eat too little for breakfast. The tests themselves are limited in scope, and they are designed to be too difficult for exactly half of the test takers. Some students will receive more or better test-preparation than others. Yet, none of that will matter when the numbers come back: there is your child's number in black and white.

#10. Administrators inevitably will begin to evaluate teachers based on the test scores in their classroom. It is far easier to compare numbers on a spreadsheet than to repeatedly visit each classroom and evaluate individual teachers for style, for knowledge, and for inspiration. In a few years, the result is a staff of Stepford teachers who robotically implement the assigned curriculum, robotically prep and proctor the students for the tests, and tragically lose the passion that brought them to teaching in the first place.

To cite this article:

Painter, John. Ten Reasons. (May, 2005). Retrieved month x, 2xxx, from

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