Stacks of books, pages of notes and sightings of study groups increase throughout the school as students frantically prepared for the storm to come. As the end of the semester approaches, many middle and high schoolers are faced with the yearly stressor of semester finals, papers and tests. The problem only gets worse second semester when students are faced with AP tests in early May followed with final assessments in their other classes early to mid-June. As a student, it is only fair to question if these standardized tests reflect the hard work and learning done in the classroom over the year. These tests are used by many colleges and universities when recruiting and accepting students, basing their choices on the scores from the tests. These people then go on to the workforce, where the “better” the education received by the applicant, the higher the percentage for one to get the job. But if the tests poorly demonstrate the skills needed to thrive in the work world and society, why take it?

To begin with, what are the different tests that are required to be taken, and which ones are optional? According to the State of Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, the SBAC or Smarter Balanced tests for English, Math and Science are required to be taken during the sophomore and junior year of high school. Additional tests that can be taken are AP, ACT or SAT. A higher grade in each of these tests raises the possibility of the student to enter the university of their choice. In AP classes provided by the school, students are taught in parallel to the released past AP tests. It is the same for the other tests and their corresponding classes. So, despite some of them being optional, the tests ultimately shape how the classes function.

One may question the origin of the idea of standardized testing. According to Dan Fletcher, a writer for TIME, the “earliest record of standardized testing comes from China.”. Back then, the people who hoped for government job in China were required to fill out an exam that tested their knowledge on Confucian philosophy and poetry. Before long, the idea of testing diffused to the Western world. Before the Industrial Revolution, which occurred in the 1800s, the Western hemisphere tested using essays. These essays took a lot of time for both the tester and the grader. However, due to the Industrial Revolution that took kids out of work and into schools, the examiner had to come up with a new way to test students en masse numbers. This is when they came up with the standardized tests used today.

In order to further understand the problem, the skills that are needed in society today must be presented in relation to those tested through the standardized tests.

The Envision Experience, which is a worldwide experiential education organization that provides students with opportunities to explore potential future careers as well as learn important skills needed in today’s society, refers to Hanover Research, which is a market researcher in Arlington, Virginia, who “analyzed six major educational frameworks designed to improve the development of 21st century skills”. Some of the recognized development skills were collaboration/teamwork, creativity/imagination, critical thinking and problem solving. Higher tests scores increase the possibility of the student to enter a college or university. By attending these schools, the students again have a greater chance of being employed, as they are trusted as the “smart” people that the company needs.

However, if the students that are able to score high and get jobs do not have the skills that are needed in the work field, how should employers determine who to hire? Though it may sound counter-intuitive, but questions arise about whether or not tests reflect the skills

that are truly needed in the real world. A scholarly journal of experiential education written by Stephen Scogin, Christopher Kruger, Regan Jekkals and Chelsea Steinfeldt at Hope College in Michigan, interviewed over 400 employers in the United States, who identified similar skills as those presented in result of analysis done by Hanover Research. However, the employers were told to reflect these skills on the upcoming generation, they “rated their own recently hired employees as highly deficient in many of these areas.” As concluded by the researchers at Hope College and many other experiments and research results, the pressure of teaching students in preparation for the standardized tests leads to lack of teaching important life skills that would be used by the students in their future. In addition, those who learn the skills needed for the tests usually lack the important life skills for them to succeed in the work field.

Even students and teachers disagree with the impact standardized testing has on the educational system. When asked her opinion on standardized test, sophomore Bryanna Hurd sees that the importance of recognizing a student’s strong points and weaknesses lack in the testing. “If you aren’t good in certain subjects, even though you try really hard in class, what’s the point in taking the test other than to prove even more that you don’t understand the subject,” said Hurd. Not only does the test lack to reflect a student’s hard work, it also makes the student realize their deficits in certain abilities that just aren’t their “thing.”

In addition, the time period in which the tests are taken set up students for more stress and a greater probability of failure. Tahoma math teacher Ms. VanHoomissen states that standardized tests “fail to measure individual growth in a subject-often they are given in May when the students haven’t made it through the entire curriculum yet AND are measuring two years’ worth of content”. The time that the students are given to prepare for the test isn’t enough for teachers to teach what is needed. This causes them to feel rushed during the year, but stressed and unprepared when testing season comes.

In a survey done on 30 students attending Tahoma High School, all Sophomores and Juniors with grades B’s and above, many agreed that the tests do not reflect their effort and work ethic at school. When asked to rate their opinion on how

well the test reflect themselves at school on a scale from one to five, all ten students rated it a three or below. When asked one thing to change about the curriculum, over ten wished for “No more Springboard.”

Springboard is a book provided by the College Board to be used by English teachers to guide their teaching. However, it does not provide room for freedom and flexibility for the teacher to teach and students to learn. This leads to several complaints of whether the Springboard book is actually helping the students express themselves in a class that worked with voice, expression and language.

A case study done by Megan Map and Kristin Kennedy of Bryant University surveyed 20 teachers, both female and male, ranging from 0 to 39 years of teaching at their current school. Every single teacher agreed that standardized testing added more to their job as a teacher, while over 75% of them believed that the time spent and the use of the standardized tests interfered with the students learning. Many teachers complained about the specific “format” of each test. “More testing means less time for instruction. We spend a lot of time preparing for a specific TYPE of test (Smarter Balanced), and need to prepare students for the format, including the computerized tools they’ll be allowed to use. I believe this is wasted time,” one teacher wrote in a survey response. Ms. VanHoomissen added on to this statement “It influences the style of questioning. For example, matching, or select all that apply.” Teachers must find a way to teach the students in order to lead them to succeed when they take the test, thus the style of questioning is important for the students to know. Hence, not only do the standardized tests fail to teach and reflect the necessary skills for the student to succeed in the future, but it also takes away from the student’s ability to learn in class.

Overall, standardized tests provide a ridiculous amount of stress only to fail the student in their future. Admission committees for colleges and recruiters for jobs must realize that test scores do not determine the individual’s ability to succeed in society. Though not much can be done to eliminate standardized tests, as they are needed to create motivation and a base for the education program, it must be acknowledged that test scores do not mean everything.