Standardized Testing  Tags: ugl_subject_guide standardized_testing entrance_examinations ugl  

Standardized testing
Educational accountability
Educational tests and measurements
Entrance examinations
Educational standards
Achievement tests + validity

 

Standardized tests have always been a source of controversy. Advocates say that they are an effective tool for measuring the performance of both teachers and students, and they in turn make schools accountable for the quality of education they provide. But critics claim that they detract from real teaching and promote a mechanical sort of education that emphasizes memorization instead of critical and creative thinking. These tests, they say, also create an unnatural competitive atmosphere that starts as early as the third grade. Further, some claim that there are built-in racial and gender biases that make the tests unfair from the start.

All these issues became the source of major debate when the No Child Left Behind Act was passed in 2001. The Act, at the time, was widely supported by both law-makers and the public, but has since garnered much criticism for many of the reasons noted above. namely that teaching to maintain accountability waters down the curriculum and detracts from other important education-related issues.