Every year, students spend weeks studying for standardized tests, like  the AIR test, the ACT, and the SAT. But how well do these tests actually measure students?

Although standardized tests are extremely important, students spend too much time studying for these exams than they do on other subjects. Recent polls by the Northwest Evaluation Association show that 70% of teachers and 55% of administrators who participated in the poll thought that students spend too much time preparing for standardized tests and not enough time on their schoolwork. On top of that, the poll finds that 54% of teachers and 89% of administrators believe that “the real focus of testing should be frequently tracking students performance and providing daily or weekly feedback in the classroom”. If students spend so much time preparing for standardized tests, it does not really evaluate the student’s performance in school as a whole. Think of it like this: a student normally gets average scores in school, but after weeks of preparation for standardized testing, the students scores above average. However, if the state wanted to know how well the student actually does in school, they should track the student’s progress frequently throughout the year to be able to see their overall performance.

Standardized tests do not value a student’s creativity, only their academic ability, and this seriously limits many student’s opportunities to get into a good college. As Thomas Armstrong states, “A student who writes a more creative answer in the margins of a test, does not realize that human being won’t even see this creative response; that machines grade these tests, and a creative response that does not follow the format is an incorrect response”. Many students have a strong artistic ability, even if their academic skills are not extremely advanced. However, what standardized tests leave out are questions that incorporate creative thinking, and allow students who have artistic ability to do better on standardized tests. In the real world, there are many jobs that use creative thinking (e.g. architect, clothing designer, interior designer), and although core subjects are equally important in these jobs, artistic ability is what they revolve around. For standardized tests to be more accurate, they must use at least some form of “creative” response, instead of “extended” response.

Many opposing viewpoints argue that standardized tests provide a more accurate source of data since every student will take the same test. While this is true, every student is different, and if states want to get accurate results from each student, tests should be taken based off of school grades. As mentioned before, even if standardized tests provide states with more data, they still don’t properly assess the student’s overall academic achievement. In the end, what matters more: getting accurate data, or making sure that every student gets properly tested and learns from their results?

In conclusion, although standardized tests should not be completely scrapped, they should be altered so that they are taken more frequently and so that they incorporate some creative thinking into the questions. This would make the testing much more accurate and fair for all students.