Are standardized tests effective? This is a common question asked by many parents, teachers, as well as students in the test-taking world. Standardized tests take a lot of time, money, and tools but what is the real purpose for these standardized tests. Most schools that are involved in standardized testing make their teachers teach to the test. 'Teach to the test' is a common term for any method of education that is really focused on preparing the students for a standardized test. Is this method of teaching really effective? Wouldn't teaching to the test cause the teachers to miss out on important information that isn't on the test? Do the students like this method of teaching? Do the teachers like teaching to the test or do they feel like it is ineffective? These are all questions that should be answered for concerned students, teachers, as well as parents. .
Teaching to the test disables the teachers to actually teach the information of the era or subject. Many of the teachers who are participating in standardized testing spend endlessly hours preparing the students in order to ensure the students are becoming better test takers but the question that is being asked is if the students are actually becoming better learners in the process as well. Most teachers don't generally comprehend why a state standardized test gives a deceptive assessment of a school staff's viability. They ought to.Many believe high test scores depicts a school that is striving and low test scores depicts a school that is failing. Professor Popham, an emeritus professor of The University of California at Los Angeles, states that " in either case, because educational quality is being measured by the wrong yardstick, those evaluations are apt to be in error"(Educational Leadership ). The main thing at which standardized tests are effective is rating a school or state against another. When we see how pointless such correlations are, the means by which they are less about success than about triumph, we may arrive at the conclusion that they are a bit much.
