Standardized Testing In Public Schools

Standardized testing are words that students do not want to hear. Standardized testing is deeply rooted in the history of the United States. Standardized tests are tools used to measure students’ knowledge and progress. Almost every person that has had an education in the United States has taken a standardized test. Today, standardized testing is a widespread issue in the United States’ public school curriculum. Education has always been an important part of America’s history. Laws about education go back to 1642, when the Massachusetts General Court passed a law that made it a duty to teach children “the principles of religion and…laws of the country,” so that they may “understand” them (Maranto 1). From George Washington’s “first address to Congress,” he noticed that the common “knowledge” of the citizens was spread across a broad spectrum. This was implemented towards the first national education system, which would be a university system. Since that point, there have been many tries at a reformation in the educational system leading to the first standardized test, which was created by Horace Mann in 1845, for the public schools in Boston (Maranto 1). The support for standardized testing increased among many, including the National Education Association. This led to an increase in “achievement testing,” from 100 in 1918, to 1,300 in 1932 (Maranto 2). Now in the twenty-first century, the educational reform continues in efforts of raising the national standards. In 2002, President George W. Bush established the No Child Left Behind as a law (Maranto 2). This law made it necessary that by 2014, students will have reached a level of expertise in the areas of reading and mathematics. Although it was a national law, states were to decide how they could accomplish their students reaching that level. States were also required to implement National Assessment of Educational Progress, which showed that many state standards were “too low” for the national standards (Rothman 59). The No Child Left Behind Act was based and built upon the Improving America’s School Act of 1994. NCLB extended and lengthened the standards previously implemented, beginning with standardized testing in the areas of reading and math, which was now required to occur once a year from third grade to eighth grade, and once in high school. The NCLB standards also mandated states to apply science standards, which would be tested at least three times (Taylor 1, 3). One of the important elements of the No Child Left Behind Act was its accountability system. This system was implemented in order to check that the goal of NCLB was being reached (Taylor 1). Schools’ progress toward the NCLB’s goal was called “adequate yearly progress [AYP].” States were required to evaluate their AYP derived from all the students’ performance in public schools. The No Child Left Behind Act gave schools a “timeframe,” until the 2014-2015 school year to reach the act’s goal of all students reaching the “proficient standards” (Taylor 3). However, this goal was not reached, and by the 2008-09 school year it did not seem to get close to the goal. In 2008-09, about thirty-three percent of the schools under the NCLB did not reach “adequate yearly progress.” The highest percentage of schools not reaching “adequate yearly progress,” was in the state of Florida, with seventy-seven percent of the schools not reaching AYP (Dietz and Policy Center 1). With the states able to set their own standards in achieving the national standards, there was much diffusion. …show more content…
The Obama administration drafted the Common Core State Standards, released on June 2, 2010, which would provide a simpler set of standards providing better focus. The Common Core standards are not only “leaner” but are also set “higher”. These standards want students to gain the ability of reading and comprehending more difficult texts every school year. It also pushes for more elaboration on writing, so that students may be able to analyze “evidence” and reason from it. The standards in math are also raised, where students must be able to apply the math that they know “to solve problems.” The results of these standards are to be measured by more critical thinking standardized tests (Rothman 58-60). Unlike the No Child Left Behind Act, Common Core State Standards (CCSS)