Arguments Against Standardized Testing

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Pages: 6

As many students are planning for college, one of their biggest stresses is standardized testing. Should we make students completely stressed about information that is not true about them or even needed? The answer should be clear. Standardized testing is a test taken by students all over the country. This testing has been used for decades to track the same things. These tests are filled with all sorts of questions that are used to determine students' success and graduation rates. This led people to question if standardized testing really should track a student's abilities. Even though some colleges may use testing information to help admissions, standardized testing should be taken away because it does not teach kids important information, …show more content…
According to Matthew Stone, an author included in Education Week, “Forty-two percent of high school students in 2021 reported feeling so sad or hopeless for at least two consecutive weeks.Depression and anxiety among young people, by some measures doubled” (Stone, 2023, p.1). These statistics should be a huge part of what the future looks like for standardized testing. As many of these students struggle with their mental health, it becomes hard for them to have to deal with additional stress from these tests. When so many students are struggling, it is hard for any student to find confidence in themselves. To further prove this claim, Alissa Holland, an instructional coach part of the MCIEA, claims “Standardized tests create test anxiety and some kids even have test phobia because they have just this one chance at getting it right,” (NEA, 2024, p.1). Knowing that so many students struggle with mental health and others have a fear of failure when it comes to testing, adds to the fact that standardized testing has become such a huge stress for no reason. Since so many kids are struggling with fear of not being good enough it is making people think why are we putting these kids through so much stress when like said before it may not even be accurate. Many students struggle with mental health themselves, but testing with a high stress rate makes it