Is Standardized Testing Necessary
The issue of the efficacy of standardized testing as a means of determining future academic success is prevalent across the United States. The importance of such tests, specifically the SAT and ACT, are cemented in the minds of students as many renowned universities in the past have required the submission of these tests to be considered for admission. Thus, for a long time, colleges have used these tests to quantify performance by measuring student scores against a nationwide standard. However, this system has changed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only have the majority of universities in the US made it optional to submit these tests, but some, such as the University of California and Cal State systems, have abolished this requirement entirely.
Even with the resulting consequence of a lack of a way to “gauge college readiness”, as the US News puts it, these recent events may lead to the progression of a more refined college admissions system. The reason why admissions relying less on the SAT and ACT is beneficial is because these tests are fraught with underlying factors such as the socioeconomic status of the students and the types of questions that compose these tests, that cause the distribution of these scores to be skewed.
According to Forbes, “the average combined SAT and ACT test score grows with increasing family income.” In other words, there exists a direct correlation between students who come from more affluent backgrounds and higher scores on these exams. The primary reason for this is because families with higher income have more accessibility to tutoring services that cater specifically to increasing SAT and ACT scores. The long established significance placed on these tests created a market for tutoring services such as Elite Academy whose mission is to “boost your SAT scores and setting yourself up for college admissions success!”, for an exorbitant amount of money, “upwards of $3,000” (Dawn). Shockingly, people are willing to pay this price because students are constantly subjected to a highly competitive academic environment as colleges become increasingly selective each year. For tests that pride themselves on being “fair and unbiased” they do not do a good job of being objective in light of these factors. This is not just a concern that affects America but other countries such as India, Korea, and Japan, all of which instill in students a very competitive academic culture. They have an extremely high stakes testing culture as it weighs very heavily on your future. Because of this, there are cram schools similar to Elite Academy in these countries that charge an exorbitant amount of money that cater towards increasing the scores on these tests. For example in Japan, according to Yuriko Nagano of New York Times, the average cost of cram schools is “about 40,000 yen, or nearly $400, a month.” This causes financial burden and high stress on students.
Not only does there exist an implicit bias towards students from wealthier families, but the SAT fails in its mission to “measure the aptitude, or natural ability, of high school students’’ according to PBS. The SAT is not a measure of intelligence, it instead measures how well you take the SAT. If you ask yourself how one studies for the SAT, you will find that it is through repetition, constantly taking practice tests over and over for a long period of time, that allows for improvement. As an added bonus, preparatory schools often teach students to memorize the ‘tricks’ of the SAT test questions. Take the Elite SAT Prep class, for example. When I enrolled in one of their SAT boot camps, I was given a large binder full of shortcuts to help me with each type of question likely to be on the SAT, whether it be reading comprehension or algebra. Thus, the majority of class time was spent analyzing the SAT format and the type of questions that are asked. If the SAT truly tested natural aptitude, the scores would remain fairly constant among students. The same biases hold true in standardized tests across the world.
As previously mentioned, India is a country that has an extremely high stakes testing culture. India’s standardized test, called national boards, are more than just determining whether or not you are a competitive candidate to colleges, but it is also a matter of family pride. According to Manavi Kapur of Quartz India, “these tests can determine whether one’s parents will be calling the neighbors to boast about their child’s success, or turning their phones off and avoiding social contact.” Such being the case, there is a large amount of pressure associated with these tests. Similar to the SAT, the majority of questions asked on the national boards are knowledge based and they do not adequately assess a students’ capacity for application of new ideas. Such questions that are asked include “information regarding the weight of the pituitary gland” or those relating to the exports of India (Kapur). Many people in India agree that there is a need for change in standardized testing whether it be on the questions being asked or the mental health of students due to the pressure of performing well on these tests. So what is stopping this change, if so many people want the national boards to be reformed? Well, similar to the US, there is a market for tutoring services aimed at increasing scores. According to a study conducted by Mint Newspaper, “the private coaching center industry was estimated to be Rs49,500 crore ($7 billion) annually and grew in double digits over the past five or six years.” Because there is such profit to be made from this industry, the government is reluctant to change the structure of these tests. This trend demonstrated in India, is the same if not worse in countries such as Korea. The same goes for mental health.
South Korea is notorious for having high suicide rates among students due to being in a high pressure academic environment. According to Yonhap of The Korea Herald, “suicide was the №1 cause of death among teens and young people in South Korea in 2016.” To add to injury, because of different cultural values, there are not many resources available to help these students. As a South Korean, mental health issues and other associating problems are not openly discussed and this comes into play here, with the limited resources for assistance available in Korea. Dr. Kim Hyong-soo, a psychologist and professor at Chosun University, phrases it quite nicely as he says that “talking openly about emotional problems is still taboo.” As a South Korean, I find this to be very true in both my own household and in frequent trips to South Korea. It is a very unfortunate circumstance that it is seen this way and to purposely not discuss it seems to be counterproductive as emotional problems are a common denominator among everybody. The resulting accumulation of mental health issues, high prioritization of these tests, combined with a high pressure environment, leads to a worldwide issue among students with an educational system that is very flawed.
So what can we do? There has to be a better way to help students not just in America but those in India, Korea, and Japan, who are blighted by financial burden and at risk for a decline in mental health. Let us examine the educational system used in Finland, whose students perform exceptionally well on a global scale, ranking third in the Education Ranking by Countries in 2021. Finland’s education system relies very little on standardized testing not only in the process of learning but for admittance into university. Although Finland has a standardized test, that could be akin to the SAT, it has some significant distinctions. It is known as the matriculation exam and according to Kevin Dickison, a reporter from We Forum, “the scores aren’t used to assess the student’s but the school, lessening the pressure on the participants. Such being the case, instead of standardized testing encouraging a negative and competitive environment, the educational model is designed to develop schools while cultivating students’ growth. By lessening the priority on standardized testing, it completely eliminates the socioeconomic background as a factor, promoting a more equal education system.
Although it may be difficult to fully integrate the Finnish educational model into each respective country, I still strongly believe that standardized testing having less weight would be truly beneficial to students everywhere. I also understand that the Finnish model of not relying on standardized testing only works through the combined efforts of other policies in place such as teacher selectivity and other social values such as a strong support for student needs. This is an issue that people around the world should be more aware of and by reforming the educational systems of countries such as the US, India, and Korea, many students do not have to be tied down by issues relating to socioeconomic status or mental health, and are free to flourish in a nurturing learning environment.
Works Cited:
Alandre, Aldo. “We All Sat down for Nothing: Why the SAT Is Useless for College Admissions.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 10 Aug. 2020, https://highschool.latimes.com/port-of-la-high-school/we-all-sat-down-for-nothing-why-the-sat-is-useless-for-college-admissions/.
Kapur, Manavi. “India’s Culture of High-Stakes Testing Needs to Be Dismantled.” Quartz, Quartz, 2014, https://qz.com/india/1728666/indias-high-stakes-testing-culture-needs-to-be-dismantled/.
Morgan, Hani. “Review of Research: The Education System in Finland: A Success Story Other Countries Can Emulate.” Taylor & Francis, 2014, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00094056.2014.983013.
Nagano, Yuriko. “A New Ratio for the Japanese Cram School.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 10 Aug. 2014, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/11/world/asia/a-new-ratio-for-the-japanese-cram-school.html.
