Essay Sample on Standardized Testing for 3-8 Grades

Studying for standardized tests often creates an uncertain and unwelcoming mood to numerous teenagers, but countless may not know that standardized tests are beneficial in a multitude of ways; closing your learning gap(s), improving learning, or improving scores. Students take standardized tests all around the world, testing the students' comprehension of a certain subject (math, English, history, science, etc.) which later prove to be an incentive for the students’ learning. These diagnostics provide school teachers, administrators, and students with information about the school’s learning environment, the school’s learning establishments, the students' progress/gaps, and a great deal of other aspects in school.

Standardized testing gives information about the student’s progress and gaps which helps the student improve and progress in their studies. Standardized tests nearly all of the time “offer students across the country a unified measure of their knowledge” (procon.org). Originally, if all the components of the problem were all eliminated, or adapted for different populations of students, standardized tests offer the best objective measure of what students have learned through the year(s) (procon.org). Standardized tests give students the opportunity/chance to strive for better results or stay on top of their game; without standardized tests a mass of students would not be able to improve or obtain help to improve. For example, I (Khang Tran)  took state tests ( a type of standardized tests ) for several years and I showed growth in them year by year starting from a 3A in English to a 4-5 in recent years; this shows how astoundingly fast you can improve (based on analytical data). So the best way to progress is to keep taking standardized tests and learn to work/deal with them; adapt the test to different kinds of students, even people with disabilities, or diseases.

Another argument is that standardized tests help decide which classes students should be in (honors, AP). In middle school and beyond, schools have classes for different kinds of students such as “honors” for students who understand the subject quite well, or “AP” for students who are ahead of the game (“AP” is more difficult). For example, my friend, Blake, is an “honors” student, but if there weren’t any honors classes then he’ll become bored in class and won’t put in his best effort. Moreover, consider a person who struggles with English and Math, but is in an honors class, the person would either become tired or confused since the student is acquiring information at a faster rate than normally. Accordingly, in the case of you improving and learning from your mistakes, almost nothing can help you improve more than standardized tests. So a two to three hours of testing seems like a minuscule amount of time compared to the lifelong effects.

Conversely, numerous critics complain that standardized tests are too stressful and aren’t fair for the students. While standardized tests do in some situations cause stress, we must consider the fact that the bulk of tests, quizzes, or examinations may cause students to feel pressured and worried. From research about test anxiety, it states that “a little stress is to your advantage” informing the reader that stress is a “signal that helps you prepare for something important that's about to happen.” (Kathryn Hoffses, PhD). Almost all testing environments are strict and provide the students with the space they need to complete the standardized tests. For example, students take the state tests (a standardized test, end of the year progress check) in a quiet manner with no disturbance/distractions during the test, causing the students to have a chance to try their best. Nevertheless, a majority of students know standardized tests will decide the mass of the aspects of their future college/university, education and jobs (occasionally). A fine amount of exceptional colleges/universities accept high standardized test scores and jobs look for your academic achievements and improvements over the past years in school. Consequently, students who graduate from more popular colleges/universities will have a higher chance of receiving a high paying job ( less need for hands-on low wage jobs). From research about top 10 school’s student early careers, the average start career salary of the top 10 colleges ($72,160) is 47% higher than the top ten colleges in the CUNY (New York) school system ($48,960) (“Graduates of Elite Universities Get Paid More. Do They Perform Better?”).  Keeping standardized tests helps guarantee the globe to produce successful and intelligent students. Standardized tests will pave the path for generations after us, learning and improving through them.

With the claims stated in the argument, we can conclude that standardized tests are important for the well-being and improvement of students. Without standardized tests students wouldn’t know what to fix and improve, and teachers would not be able to help evaluate the situation. The next time someone says that standardized tests are unless, you can prove them wrong.