Standardized Testing Creates a Toxic Environment in Schools
Photo by Cora Kuhlenbeck.
Standardized Testing Creates a Toxic Learning and Teaching Environment in Schools
We depend on standardized testing for students’ class placement, raises for teachers, and many awards. But, why should we when all it is causing is a toxic environment in schools and more pressure on students and teachers alike?
Emphasizing standardized tests as the main indicator of academic talent only puts more stress on students. A paper from the Harvard school of education states “Segool, Carlson, Goforth, von der Embse, and Barterian (2013) found that elementary school students experienced greater test anxiety on a high-stakes assessment… than on classroom tests and hypothesized that one contributing factor may be the emphasis placed on it by educators (Segool et 5 al., 2013).” This increased stress level for a state-mandated test is expected because it seemingly means more.
Consequences, both for students and for schools, push students to feel the need to perform. “While some tests do have direct consequences for students, such as grade retention, students often still perceive the tests as high-stakes and stressful because they understand that standardized testing has consequences for their schools, teachers, and administrators… A survey conducted by the Northwest Evaluation Association (2014) reports that 55 percent of students surveyed believe one reason they take state-mandated tests is to evaluate their schools.” The stress on students is a combination of things: stress about what it could mean for them and their teachers, driving them to work themselves impossibly harder every year they advance in school.
At times, students try to cheat the system to ensure high performance. In an article from the New York Daily Times, Ben Chapman and Rachel Monahan explain one instance of cheating in the famous Stuyvesant High School, a school known for its academic rigor. Their opening line was, “In a stunning new cheating scandal, a student has been forced out of the city's top public school — Stuyvesant High — over allegations he used a cell phone to give test answers to more than 50 other students.” Instances like these are becoming more frequent because of the stress students are feeling to perform on these tests.
In addition, teachers are feeling more pressure for their students to perform well. “Elementary school students in El Paso, Texas, were asked to describe their fears related to the state-mandated test…‘Your teacher will feel bad because you didn’t try. She gets paid for teaching you. She wants her boss to see what a good teacher she is, but if you don’t try, her boss won’t know what a good teacher she is’,” noted one student according to the Harvard School of Education. This is indicative of the incentivization policies that many schools have that give more money to teachers that have a class of students performing very well on tests than teachers who don’t. This doesn’t take things into account things that are out of the teacher’s control, such as poverty, children with learning disabilities, and low parental involvement. So, teachers can be punished for factors they can’t influence when standardized test scores come into account to dictate pay raises. This motivates teachers to ensure high test scores, driving some to cheat. For example, in Alabama, 11 teachers were convicted of multiple crimes in the midst of a standardized test cheating scandal. The indictment of the teachers said, “The refusal of Beverly Hall and her top administrators to accept anything other than satisfying targets created an environment where achieving the desired end result was more important than the students’ education.” This refers to the increasingly high importance placed on standardized test scores, which has proved to be a detriment to teachers and students in classrooms across the country.
Countless similar incidents have occurred and continue to do so, and I believe the important question to ask is why. Why do students and teachers alike feel the need to cheat on standardized tests? Why is there so much weight on these standardized tests? Why don’t we look for another way to analyze student achievement and teacher effectiveness? Why can’t we look for another solution?
Because in my mind, this cannot be the only answer that is feasible. The answer in which no one wins cannot possibly be the only one in existence.
