Critical Thinking Paper: The Effects of Standardized Testing On American Public SchoolsM. Mae GilliganGreen GroupMarch 29, 2015

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This spring, flowers will bloom, birds will chirp, and students across the United States will sharpen their number two pencils. As standardized testing season looms large once again, its time question how effective it all is. According to the White House website, one of the goals of the Race to the Top program is to developbetter assessments. But it has been three years since the beginning of the program, and are the assessments better? Students and parents have given unsatisfactory reports, and errors in the system are rampant. In the United States of America, the standardized testing implemented in schools under the No Child Left Behind law of 2002, as well as under the Race to the Top policy of 2012, has not fulfilled its intended goals of increasing awareness of student ability or evaluating teachers, and has even had a detrimental effect on the education system, propagating cheating, lack of creative thinking, and loss of valuable instruction time; The United States Government needs to revise and limit its testing legislation in order to minimize testing and maximize usefulness.Standardized testing has a long history of determining competence. It was used in ancient China in order to apply for a government position, testing applicants on their knowledge of Confucian philosophy, according to Time Magazine. This form of testing then became popular in America during the Industrial revolution, when many children, formerly farm laborers, returned to school en masse. In order to effectively resume education, these children needed to be tested quickly to determine levels of knowledge. However, testing was inefficient until the invention of the automatic test scanner in 1936. This invention made it quick and easy to grade many tests at the same time, and standardized testing became very popular. In 1965, the Early and Secondary Education Act was passed in order to ensure that the needs of students with low incomes and disabilities were being met. In 2002, the Bush administration passed No Child Left Behind, which for the first time required testing on grades 3 through 8 in math and English (Fletcher). Ten years later, Race to the Top began. This program aimed to add to No Child Left Behind, supporting better assents, helping low performing schools, and supporting teachers. It has been in action for three years, but reforms are ongoing. On February 27, 2015, the House of Representatives suspended floor debate on a bill which would have significantly overhauled No Child Left Behind, another example of the government failing to effectively change the standardized testing system. Though they have recently overhauled the testing system in an effort to make it more effective, with the implementation of Race to the top, the reality is that these solutions are only worsening the problem. The Washington Post writes that the bill, proposed by Republicans, would have Strip[ped] the federal government of much of its authority to oversee how states and local school districts spend federal dollars designated to help educate poor and disabled students. It would have returned power to the states, something that may have been effective, as states know their own schools and districts better than the federal government. It would have reversed the requirement that states meet federal testing standards, something that may have relived pressure on states to do well and allowed them to focus on the education. However, the bill did not pass, and negative effects of standardized testing run rampant. The effects of standardized testing are seen on students and teachers all over America, forcing them into undue stress which can lead to cheating, as well as cheating students out of the education that they are rightfully due. The public education director of FairTest, the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, Robert Schaffer, says of cheating on the tests that it 'is one more example of the ways politicians' fixation on high-stakes testing is damaging education quality and equity.'' (Rich). Cheating scandals have become common as students, teachers, and administrators attempt to make themselves look better, or achieve the state standards. In 2013, 35 Atlanta educators were indicted for cheating standardized test scores, including the district superintendent. (Rich). Teaching to the test has also become a problem. The standardized testing program means that, in many states, students test scores become part of teacher evaluation. Teachers who are under pressure to do well, such as in Atlanta, may only teach material that they know will be on the test, instead of a well-rounded curriculum, or they may be told to teach like that by a district that is under pressure. This type of teaching limits creative thinking in the classroom, with students being forced to think in a standardized way. Most standardized tests are designed to have students come up with the same answers. (Busteed). This forces them to think in a similar manner, instead of in a creative fashion that may belie an innovator. If students are posed a problem and told to find a solution, they can approach it from ways that make sense to them and will lead to a variety of ideas, while if they are given a problem and series of answers and told to choose the correct one, they will be taught to think in an identical fashion to their peers. The goal of education is to teach students to solve problems in whatever manner works for them, and this is severely limited by standardized testing. In order to remedy the problem, the United States must first evaluate its system currently, to determine what issues are causing it not to serve its original purpose. The stated goals of Race to the Top, according to the White House website, are Development of rigorous standards and better assessments, Adoption of better data systems to provide schools, teachers, and parents with information about student progress, Support for teachers and school leaders to become more effective [and] Increased emphasis and resources for the rigorous interventions needed to turn around the lowest-performing schools. Several of these issues are ingrained in the program itself. How can teachers and school leaders become more effective if instruction time is being donated to assessments? These better data systems are assessments. And one of the biggest issues of all is determining exactly what schools are lowest performing. Once the original goals of the legislation have been clarified, the US government needs to ensure that the system by which they are judging teachers and schools is effective and not detrimental. The New York time writes that the provision of the No Child Left Behind law which determined which schools were failing and in need of improvement created serious problems. This provision failed to completely differentiate schools that were failing overall and schools that had come short of the standard in one particular category, like special needs children. This meant that in many states over half the schools were listed as failing, or in need of improvement, even though they may have been overall very good schools. In 2007, Congress was supposed to reauthorize No Child Left Behind. Reauthorization would have required analysis by lawyers, which reevaluation would have led less of an emphasis on standardized testing, and more on college admission rates and curriculum strength. Instead, Congress did nothing, and the fears of schools of being labeled failing led to incredible amounts of practice testing, taking away class time. This is but one of the detrimental effects of the school evaluation system. After a thorough evaluation, the United States needs to severely limit its standardized testing in schools in order to give teachers the instruction time that they need. By reducing reliance on standardized testing to evaluate schools and teachers, instruction time can be gained, and teachers will not rush to complete their curriculums. The lessening of reliance on standardized testing will also relive pressure on students, teachers and schools, reducing cheating of all forms. If the standardized testing program is not dramatically reassessed, the repercussion that are being seen now, such as cheating, lack of creative thinking, and loss of valuable instruction time will only worsen. Unchecked, the errors in testing policies will continue to cause problems for everyone in education, from student to the states in which they live. In 2002, at the beginning of No Child Left Behind, several alternative schools in New York noted that they could not prepare for standardized testing while also organizing important research projects that they were doing (Hatecollis), and this is but one example of testing cutting into instruction time. Testing also forces students to think in the same manner, causing a creativity crisis that can only increase as more and more children participate in an education system that focuses on testing (Busteed). And cheating, of course, will still be an issue. Standardized testing is, in education, the new public enemy number one, not achieving its goals in the first place, and, in the process, creating more problems. Tests are not effective at determining future success; only 6% of superintendents would strongly agree that tests such as the SAT and SCT are the best predictors of college success (Busteed). Standardized testing has, in the process, diminished creativity in learning, forcing students into a standardized manner of thinking. And the pressure to do well and exceed expectations has led many students and educators to cheat on tests, or to falsify scores. In order to remedy the situation, nationwide standardized testing should be severely limited, and education officials should shift their focus from high test scores to fostering creative thinking in order to help their students make meaningful contributions to the world.

List of Works Cited Busteed, Brandon. "GPA, SAT, ACT...RIP." College Admissions: n. pag. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. .

"Don't Give Up the Gains in Education." The New York Times [New York City] 22 Feb. 2015: n. pag. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 15 Mar. 2015 .

Fletcher, Dan. "A Breif History of Standardized Testing." Time Magasine 11 Dec. 2009: n. pag. Print..

Hatocollis, Anemona. "Boycotts and a bill protest mandatory state tests.(in New York)." The New York Times [New York City] 6 Mar. 2002: n. pag. Global Issues in Context. Web. 15 Mar. 2015. .

The Independant. Global Issues in Context. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. .

Layton, Lyndsey. "No Child Left Behind debate in the House suspended." The Washington Post [Washington, D.C.] 27 Feb. 2015: n. pag. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 15 Mar. 2015. .

"Race to the Top." the White House. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2015. .

Rich, Motoko. "Latest Cheating Scandal Reignites Debate Over Tests' Role." The New York Times [New York City] 3 Apr. 2013: n. pag. Global Issues in Context. Web. 11 Mar. 2015. .

Solocheck, Jeffrey S. "CREDIBILITY ISSUE NAGGING SCHOOL TEST; Glitches and a cyberattack have parents and educators wondering if the results can be trusted." Tampa Bay Times [St. Petersberg, Fa] 11 Mar. 2015: n. pag. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 15 Mar. 2015..

Annotated Bibliography

Brown, Emma. "Some parents across the country are revolting against standardized testing." The Washintgon Post: n. pag. Global Issues in Context. Web. 9 Mar. 2015. This source provided a look into the minds of the public who are opposed to tests such as PARCC. It provided helpful quotes from both parents and people in positions of academic power. It helps show the popular viewpoint in opposition of the tests, but may be slightly biased towards those who oppose the tests.

Busteed, Brandon. "GPA, SAT, ACT...RIP." College Admissions: n. pag. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. . This source provided another facet to my work by talking about standardized tests such as the SAT instead of just the kind of test that aims to tests teachers, and opened my eyes to another direction which I could add to my paper. It also cites some credible-looking sources which I can pursue.

"Don't Give Up the Gains in Education." The New York Times [New York City] 22 Feb. 2015: n. pag. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 15 Mar. 2015 . This source shows a bias in favor of standardized testing, which will help me learn to refute arguments in favor. Despite the bias, it has some useful information regarding the effects of No Child Left Behind, as well as the effects of it's subsequent reevaluations.

Fletcher, Dan. "A Breif History of Standardized Testing." Time Magasine 11 Dec. 2009: n. pag. Print. This source provided a brief overview of standardized testing, something that will be useful in explaining the origins of my topic. It gave helpful background knowledge which also helped me to better understand my topic.

Hatocollis, Anemona. "Boycotts and a bill protest mandatory state tests.(in New York)." The New York Times [New York City] 6 Mar. 2002: n. pag. Global Issues in Context. Web. 15 Mar. 2015. . This source is fairly old: from 2002. However, it shows how the reactions to standardized testing have both changed and remained the same. This comparison will be helpful in showing how testing itself needs to change.

The Independant. Global Issues in Context. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. . This article shows the negative effect testing has on teachers.The standardized tests designed to evaluate them put them under undue pressure, and this pressure and the need to succeed drives them to either teach only material on the test or commit fraud. This source will be helpful in creating parallels between students and teachers in order to help both of them understand my work. Layton, Lyndsey. "No Child Left Behind debate in the House suspended." The Washington Post [Washington, D.C.] 27 Feb. 2015: n. pag. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 15 Mar. 2015. . This source provides a recent update on the government attempt to once again change their standardized testing system. It is written in a very journalistic style which will not be affected by biases, and will provide quotes from both sides of the debate.

"Race to the Top." the White House. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2015. .This source was helpful in showing the stated goals of the Race to the Top Policy. As it is the White House website, these goals have not been paraphrased, and are completely official. It will be a useful, scholarly source for in text citations.

Rich, Motoko. "Latest Cheating Scandal Reignites Debate Over Tests' Role." The New York Times [New York City] 3 Apr. 2013: n. pag. Global Issues in Context. Web. 11 Mar. 2015. . This source provides evidence of the effects of standardized testing on students. It has helpful quotes from education professionals explaining how standardized testing is having a negative effect on their students, and will provide a new perspective to readers. Cheaters are wrongdoers, yes, but they are also victims of a corrupt system.

Solocheck, Jeffrey S. "CREDIBILITY ISSUE NAGGING SCHOOL TEST; Glitches and a cyberattack have parents and educators wondering if the results can be trusted." Tampa Bay Times [St. Petersberg, Fa] 11 Mar. 2015: n. pag. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 15 Mar. 2015.. This source does have a fairly small focal point, focusing on a small town in Florida. However, it makes some very good points about the usefulness of standardized testing, and how it is going wrong.