Revoke Standardized Testing

In ninth grade I was forced to take the FCAT with mono. This wasn't very convenient, but the make up tests were the following year and I didn't want to wait that long for my results. After coughing my way through the exam and going to the bathroom after each tedious section to clear out my snot, I completely failed the test. All the studying for the material went to waste since I could barely keep my eyes open. Therefore, my results for the 2009 FCAT turned out to be an invalid interpretation of my intellectual capacity. However, there was no way for the Florida Department of Education to know this, because I was nothing more than a score.

Standardized testing should be revoked. In this speech I will inform you on the fallacies of standardized testing, and then argue that revoking these tests will promote creativity.

Before arguing why I think standardized testing should be revoked, I will elaborate on the faults behind it. Standardized tests do not only include the FCAT, but also the nationwide SAT that supposedly evaluates a student’s aptness to succeed in college. The SAT cannot accurately predict such success, so why is it given? In his article on standardized testing, Theodore A. O’neill points out what he perceives to be the reason behind it, “The simple bad reason is that standardized standardized-test results make the task of selection easier_” All school boards are aware that test scores are manipulable. It is much easier to control what stands for quality, to train for scores, and to select for scores, than to really educate or consider a candidate as a whole. College admissions officers could take the time for each student to reflect on their thoughts, reading, lives, dreams, and whatever else they feel is significant to who they are, but this would take too much time and skill. Colleges are swamped with applications and the staffs are usually too small to thoroughly read and evaluate each one. For high school teachers, the skill is there, but the time is usually not.

Aside from the apathy of genuinely evaluating students, standardized tests are always convergent tests, which means that the student is provided the opportunity to employ the process of elimination and converge on the correct answer. With all this objectivity, there is no room for creativity, or divergence. The SAT tests are the most objective way to test a student’s comprehension of academic subjects, they expect a student to give back what they know, but don’t give a chance for a student to demonstrate how they can manipulate what they have already learned into something entirely new. I read a book called Outliers written by Malcolm Gladwell. In a section of this book, the minds of two high school students are compared with a divergence test, in which this particular one required them to write down as many different uses for a brick and a blanket. Thomas Poole, the first student from a British school, responded with dramatic, unconventional, and even humorous ways to use these objects. The other student, Florence, considered a prodigy with one of the highest IQ’s in his school, retorted with the most practical and conventional uses for the objects. While Poole conjured more than 25 uses, Florence could only come up with six. After reading these results, I was convinced that standardized testing is a failure at assessing a student’s true intellectual potential.

Now that we are aware of the flaws of standardized testing, I will offer a possible solution: revoking standardized testing. If these tests are revoked, schools will provide genuine knowledge and promote creative expansion. According to a standardized testing article published in 2009, “They have taken away the power of classroom teachers to make informed decisions about instruction and learning that leads to critical thinking, higher level learning, and decision-making.” If these tests are revoked teachers will no longer be preoccupied with coaching students to pass these government mandated tests, but rather taking the time to employ a divergent method of teaching, where students could grow as individuals and not statistics.

Public education is a key that can open the door to opportunity. It is a cornerstone of our nation, and by revoking these tests, it will be applauded like it was in the early 20th century for its success in educating students of all backgrounds. The article states researchers have consistently found that an approach based on extrinsic rewards and consequences actually reduces children's intrinsic motivation to learn. If we revoke these tests, students will again be motivated to learn thought provoking material.

Now that we see the possible solution to end all standardized testing, we could put it into action. Students are handicapped by standardized tests that are biased and uncritical to the mind. Revoking these tests will help students and revitalize the public education system as a whole. Standardized testing should be revoked. Lets come together as an educational community and petition to get rid of these tests. We could do without being lab rats and become well-rounded, capable citizens. "Standardized tests are now used to hold up children and schools for comparison; the scores are used to discriminate rather than diagnose, punish rather than reward."