Standardized Testing in Elementary Schools

Do the benefits outweigh the costs?

The reason behind standardized testing in elementary schools is simple. It allows data to be gathered about the performance of individual schools, the idea being that schools whose performances are below the average performance are doing something wrong and need to improve. Standardized tests also allow us to see how an individual child is performing with respect to their peers, again keeping in mind that students who fall below average may need extra assistance. In theory, this is a good strategy, but in reality there are a lot of contributing factors that make it questionable that high stakes testing should be used in elementary schools.

When I was in elementary school I had to take Canadian Achievement Tests (or CAT tests, as we called them) a number of times. We were instructed to do our best but reassured that our grades would not be affected. It was also made clear to us that there was no way and no need to study for CAT tests and that they would simply test our general knowledge level. They were almost a non-event, our parents may have been given more notice about when the tests were occurring but as students we were only told about them from our teachers about a week or so in advance. Given these conditions and the fact that I have never been one to suffer from test anxiety, I think my results on these tests would have been a relatively accurate reflection of my academic performance at that point in time. I wouldn’t classify these tests as high stakes, though. From what I remember, they were used to compare our school and our own performance to average performances across the country, but there were really no consequences to having poor results or we were certainly not made aware of such consequences.

More recently, especially in the US, the results of standardized tests carry a lot of weight, and have moved into the high stakes domain of testing. Results from standardized tests are sometimes used to determine the amount of government funding given to particular schools. Students’ performances are often taken as a reflection of the ability of the teacher so teachers want their students to do well to ensure their job security. These factors result in a lot of pressure being put on kids to do well on standardized tests by teachers and school staff. This can have a huge impact on student scores in that they may not reflect the true abilities of the students if they are too anxious about performing well on the test. Having so much external pressure put on them to succeed can be detrimental to the students, causing test anxiety at such a young age that could potentially be magnified in the high school and university years.

It would be one thing if we could say it is all worth it for the kids, that they are learning more and increasing their academic ability in their preparations for standardized tests, but this doesn’t necessarily seem to be the case. The high stakes of standardized testing can lead to a narrowing of the curriculum to fit the subject matter included on the test. While topics like math, science, reading and writing are extremely important, focusing heavily on these things can mean less exposure to activities that are just as important for a child’s learning and development like art, music, and physical activity. It’s also questionable that kids are really learning that much about the topics covered on the test as opposed to just learning how to take the test itself, which doesn’t necessarily further their understanding of the material.

While I understand the importance of having some kind of standardized way to compare individual and school performances I think that there is too much importance put on the results of standardized tests. If there weren’t as many consequences associated with test results then they would be a better reflection of the academic abilities of students and would work even better as a comparison tool.