Standardized testing is a part of school systems around the country. Some students do well on them, but it causes anxiety and stress for others who are not good test takers, and it does not properly display their abilities.
A standardized test is "any type of test in which all test takers must address the same questions or subset of questions from a shared pool," according toEducation Advanced. Commonly known standardized tests include the EOGs in elementary school, the ACT or SAT when applying to college, the MCAT for medical school and the LSAT for law school.
If all the test questions are the same, but all students are not the same, how can these tests show an individual's true competency and future success?
To start,Merriam-Websterdefines intelligence in two ways. Intelligence is defined as "the ability to learn, understand or to deal with new or trying situations." Another definition is "the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one's environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria."
When thinking about how tests are administered, students' different learning styles must be accounted for. Standardized testingassumes everyone learns the same way. As students grow older, they learn what works best for them and how they learn. This does not translate to how standardized tests are created, given that there is only one way to take them.
In addition to having different learning styles, students also have different strengths regarding education or intelligence. As stated by psychologist Howard Gardner, there areeight typesof human intelligence – each representing different ways of how a person best processes information. There are no versions of standardized tests to allow students to use their different strengths.
When applying to colleges and universities, many are now going to where sending test scores from the ACT and SAT is optional. According to the Common Application, where many students submit their college applications, "only 5%of about 850 member schools are requesting scores in 2021-2022, compared to 55% in 2019." That equates to roughly 42 schools out of 850. This is a small percentage when looking at the number of schools that use the Common Application to help students apply to their schools.
If many schools do not require test scores to be sent with an application, what does that say about standardized testing? To many students, this is a large relief if they are not skilled at test taking. For others, this is also helpful as they can take the tests to boost their application due to other factors that may cause rejection. By allowing students to choose, they can focus more on their strengths and how they learn instead of trying to take a test that works against them.
