Standardized Test In Today’s Atmosphere
With the goal of finding a way to measure students’ academic achievement and performance, the idea of standardized tests originated in the late 1800s, later morphing into the assessments we are familiar with today. Nowadays (and in the 1920s when they became widely used across the US), standardized tests are used as a means to level the playing field and give all students across the country an equal chance of getting into different colleges and universities. Though in doing that, it also gave educators nationwide a method to see how their students perform academically in comparison to other students across the country.
“It's a standard formal assessment that everyone would take so that everyone would have an equal chance to get into these universities. That was the intent, thought It's kind of grown to be a way to measure everyone. It put everyone on a standard playing field, allowing you to compare students in Illinois to students in California to students in wherever,” said Adam Tenbarge, Principal Intern here at Riley.
While these tests create a national benchmark not only for teachers to push their students towards, it also provides students with a score to strive towards. Now, this benchmark is also being used by some schools as a requirement for senior graduation, ours being one of them.
“In 2015, they [the state], kind of made a push away from standardized tests, which is why this year seniors were the last class that had ISTEP as a measure that they could use towards graduation. Starting next year, no classes will have that [ISTEP] so it's just going to be the SAT that will be their measurable,” Tenbarge explained.
The scores from these tests can also provide a good reflection on a student as well: “I always tell them ‘they’re not a full measure of you as a person but it is something that's attached to your name. So as much as you can do the best you can because if you do well that's something you can use,” Tenbarge added.
These tests may provide teachers and administrators with a great deal of information and usefulness. However, some students don’t feel as though they get anything good out of them.
“I don't think that they're useful in any way possible. A test doesn't show your overall intelligence, but how you perform in a classroom setting does,” argued Madison Ring, sophomore and class of ‘24 here at Riley. Luckily, the sentiment shown by Ring towards whether standardized tests measure your overall intelligence is starting to be demonstrated a bit more by education execs.
“A reason why they're starting to kind of pull back on it [standardized tests] is that they understand that it's not a full measure of a student's aptitude and worth; a student can be involved in a multitude of activities and, you know, have a wide skill set, but just not be a great test taker. That would hurt them,” Tenbarge continued.
"These tests can also often create stress for students. “Every time I have to take one, I feel so much stress and anxiety,” Ring said.
Now, what exactly do these “big whig” tests measure that makes them so important?
One of the most prevalent things that standardized tests, such as the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) and the ACT (American College Test), measure are critical thinking skills.
“Critical thinking ability is the big one that colleges want to see in a timed setting; how do you work solving these high functioning problems with the clock ticking in the background. That's what they want to see.” Tenbarge said.
Overall, standardized tests can elicit a mixed bag of reactions, feelings, and results, and with the continuous ebb and flow of and cyclical nature of education, tests of this nature are sure to stay, though may wax and wane in popularity and frequency of use.
