Scrutinizing the Standards: A Literature Review of the Advantages and Disadvantages of Standardized Testing
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Abstract
For schoolchildren in the twenty-first century, the weeks of standardized testing each year mean more than just hours of tedium and boredom; for some, they mean the difference between moving to the next grade with their peers or being held back, or whether they get placed in a gifted or ESL class. Those at the front of the room are not free from the scrutiny either as the assessment of teachers’ job performance has become more reliant on the testing results of their students, and schools are even shut down when students are consistently poor performers. As the pressure surrounding these tests has risen, so has the research exploring whether this is a beneficial change for education. Jennings and Lauen (2016), Kaufman et al. (2015), Toldson and McGee (2014), Laurito et al. (2019), and Jacob and Rothstein (2016) all explore this same topic from different perspectives with their research. In the literature, though the perspectives of the articles differ, similarities emerge regarding the issue of achievement gaps in testing, the dangers of tests being so high stakes for students and educators, and the importance of informing professionals in academia regarding how to best interpret test scores.
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References
Jacob, B., & Rothstein, J. (2016). The measurement of student ability in modern assessment systems. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 30(3), 85–107. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43855702
Jennings, Jennifer L. & Lauen, Douglas L. (2016). Accountability, inequality, and achievement: The effects of the no child left behind act on multiple measures of student learning. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 2(5), 220–241. https://doi.org/10.7758/rsf.2016.2.5.11
Kaufman, J., Hamilton, L., Stecher, B., Naftel, S., Robbins, M., Garber, C., Ogletree, C., Faxon-Mills, S., & Opfer, D. (2015). What are teachersʹ and school leadersʹ major concerns about new K–12 state tests?: Findings from the American Teacher and American School Leader Panels. In What Are Teachers’ and School Leaders’ Major Concerns About New K–12 State Tests?: Findings from the American Teacher and American School Leader Panels, 1–8. RAND Corporation. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7249/j.ctt19w72c7.1
Laurito, A., Lacoe, J., Schwartz, A. E., Sharkey, P., & Ellen, I. G. (2019). School climate and the impact of neighborhood crime on test scores. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 5(2), 141–166. https://doi.org/10.7758/rsf.2019.5.2.08
Toldson, Ivory A. & McGee, Tyne. (2014). What the ACT and SAT mean for Black students’ higher education prospects (Editor’s Commentary). The Journal of Negro Education, 83(1), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.7709/jnegroeducation.83.1.0001