Standardized Testing: Overview

Introduction

A standardized test is one that is given to evaluate the performance of students relative to all other students with the same characteristics; for example, all fourth-grade students or all students taking AP English in high school. In the United States, standardized testing is one of the primary methods used to measure the performance of educational institutions (and often teachers) and to make decisions about the distribution of funding. Many American colleges and universities look at standardized test scores on the SAT and other exams as part of their admissions process.

Standardized tests have been used in American schools since the 1930s to help identify students with special needs. Since that time, a series of legislative measures, including the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) and the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015, has placed increasing importance on the results of standardized tests. In response to those measures, public schools have administered standardized tests as a prerequisite for receiving federal funding.

Proponents argue that standardized testing is the most efficient method of assessing the performance of students and institutions and of maintaining the quality of education. Some critics argue that standardized tests are culturally and socially biased and that educators do not understand the variables that contribute to test scores. In addition, it has been suggested that standardized testing is an ineffective use of federal funding.

Though many agree that the testing system is flawed, some believe that the existing model can be reformed, while others believe that it is impossible to create a test to accurately measure aptitude across a diverse student population. Significant debate also occurs over whether or not standardized test scores should play a role in college admissions.

Understanding the Discussion

Absolute/Standard-Based Testing: A testing system that measures performance as a percentage of correct answers against a pre-determined standard. Grades are given as an absolute percentage of a 100 percent score.

Intelligence: The capacity for reasoning, learning, problem-solving, and mental functioning, such as memory and attention ability.

Norm-Based/Relative Test: A type of test that grades performance against all others taking the same examination. The grade is given as a curve, representing the test taker’s standing within the test group.

Standardized Test: A type of test given and graded in a uniform manner in an effort to create a universal standard against which the performance of individual students may be measured.

History

Tests were used in ancient China, Greece, and Rome to determine fitness for public and government service. Many early testing systems attempted to evaluate reading and writing abilities as well as qualitative characteristics such as creativity. Attempts to codify testing procedures eventually made it necessary to reduce the scope of disciplines being tested.

Modern standardized tests are based on the research of seventeenth-century European psychologists and educators who were looking for a way to quantitatively measure intelligence, with the goal of identifying persons with learning difficulties. European researchers created the concepts of norm-based and standard-based tests, both of which are reflected in modern testing procedures. Psychologist Francis Galton developed one of the earliest definitions of intelligence. American psychologist Edward Thorndike drew on Galton’s research and studies of animal behavior to create a variety of educational tests. In the early years of the twentieth century, American schools began to use Thorndike’s tests to measure handwriting and reading ability.

During this period, most schools did not use multiple-choice testing but relied on essay writing and short-answer tests instead. Educators at the University of Kansas created one of the first multiple-choice tests in 1914; this style later became the standard model for university exams.

In 1904, French psychologist Alfred Binet created an intelligence test based on critical thinking and evaluation. Binet’s test was revised in 1916 by Stanford University psychologist Lewis Terman, and became the basis for most modern intelligence and aptitude tests.

In 1926, a group of educators used the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test as a model for the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), later simply known as the SAT. In part, the SAT was intended to help reduce the expense and time required to grade essay and short-answer exams. Many educators objected to the SAT on the basis that it was not an effective measure of students’ comprehension. The SAT and similar exams relied heavily on multiple-choice questions. Additionally, many argued that the societal influence of racism and White supremacy at the time of this test’s origins meant that the system of standardized testing that it spawned had been, and would remain, inherently racially biased and inequitable. Researchers have noted that aptitude tests like the SAT had first been used, during a time of increased immigration, to enable racial segregation based on intelligence and preserve a system based on White supremacy. Over the years, they asserted, adoption of and reliance upon these tests, which were unable to account for cultural, ethnic or social differences, as a system of assessment perpetuated the educational disadvantages people of color continued to face, including in quality and available resources.

During the 1930s, intelligence and aptitude tests were adopted throughout US and Canadian school systems. During this time, test results were only available to teachers and school administrators as a teaching aid, and were not used to determine a student’s potential for advancement or as a factor in determining school funding. In the 1950s, US schools began using standardized tests to determine educational advancement.

During the 1960s, the federal government emphasized improving performance in US schools, fueled by the perception that the US was falling behind other countries in certain areas of education. Educators and psychologists were encouraged to expand testing to measure all aspects of the standard curriculum. In 1964, Congress proposed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which included provisions to fund standardized testing in public schools.

Testing was expanded to the elementary grades in the 1970s, and by 1980 the majority of states authorized standardized testing for students prior to kindergarten. Some educators objected to the latter trend based on the fact that young children are more difficult to evaluate due to variations in their social and physical development. In 1988, Congress established the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), a federal agency created to oversee the testing process. Reporting to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the Board was given the following responsibilities:

• setting appropriate student achievement levels;
• selecting subject areas to be assessed;
• setting appropriate student achievement levels;
• developing assessment objectives and test specifications;
• developing a process for the review of the assessment;
• designing the assessment methodology;
• developing guidelines for reporting and disseminating NAEP results;
• developing standards and procedures for interstate, regional and national comparisons;
• determining the appropriateness of all assessment items and ensuring the assessment items are free from bias and are secular, neutral, and non-ideological;
• taking actions to improve the form, content, use, and reporting of results of the National Assessment; and
• planning and executing the initial public release of NAEP reports.

Some critics argued that the NAGB did not help reform the testing system or conduct sufficient research into alternative testing measures.

In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed the Improving America’s Schools Act into law. The legislation reauthorized the 1964 Education Act, and included new provisions intended to encourage schools to focus on improving test results. The Act was again reauthorized in 2000.

The modern era of standardized testing is linked to the No Child Left Behind policy developed under President George W. Bush and implemented in 2002. Whereas previous legislation supported and funded assessment tests, NCLB made standardized testing a requirement in certain grades. In addition, all states were required to include district test results in their funding requests.

NCLB was criticized by educational organizations who believed that the program represented a misallocation of federal funding. Critics argued that federal funding could be better used to improve pay rates and benefits for teachers, especially since tenure and reappointment are often based on test scores. In addition, some criticized NCLB for making standardized testing a legal requirement without engaging in a suitable public debate. Under the Obama Administration, NCLB waivers were issued to districts that felt the program was not working for their schools. These waivers exempted school districts from some or all of the federal requirements under NCLB, including standardized testing.

Although testing remained the universal standard into the 2010s, the practice had begun losing favor with many Americans. A 2015 Gallup poll found that 64 percent of people polled thought that public school education put too much stress on standardized testing. Those polled also had the overwhelming opinion that effective education meant that students were engaged in the material and found some hope or usefulness in their education.

Congress’s actions in 2015 reflected the general negative opinions on standardized testing and the No Child Left Behind Act. On December 10, 2015, President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which received bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate. The bill replaced No Child Left Behind and, while it required yearly testing in math and reading after Grade 3 and for schools to report demographic statistics, it returned the authority over methods of testing and evaluating teachers to the states.

Standardized Testing Today

Proponents of testing have continued to argue that the government has a responsibility to ensure that educational funding is given to schools with the greatest need, and that the government must rely on some testing procedure to ensure that federal funding is being effectively used. In addition, some proponents have argued that without information from standardized testing, educators would have a harder time identifying students with special needs or which areas to focus support and resources toward.

Several independent research studies have indicated that the process of studying for tests helps students to develop long-term recall, even concerning material that is not included in the actual test. However, some studies have indicated that short-answer and essay tests are more effective in helping students to recall information than the largely multiple-choice testing models typically used. In addition, some critics believe that standardized testing teaches students to learn in a way conducive to multiple-choice exams (that there is always one right answer) while encouraging teachers to “teach to the test” rather than supporting students’ critical-thinking skills. High-stakes federal achievement requirements have also led to several large-scale cheating scandals, including a 2011 revelation that hundreds of Atlanta public school teachers altered standardized tests to falsely report student performance improvements. Finally, while standardized tests offer information about a population, they do not provide data that addresses the achievement of specific individuals.

In 2017, assessment reform campaigns saw some success across the country. Idaho and Rhode Island eliminated mandatory exit exams for graduating high schoolers. Maryland capped the amount of time schools were allowed to spend on standardized testing, leading to the decision to administer standardized tests to representative samples of kindergarteners rather than all kindergarteners. New Mexico, West Virginia, and Hawaii also cut down on standardized testing, as did a number of individual districts in various states.

Following the spread of the global COVID-19 pandemic beginning in early 2020, daily school operations were significantly disrupted as measures were put in place in an effort to get the increasingly transmissible virus under some extent of control. Amid high case counts and deaths, including in the United States, many schools ceased in-person instruction and transitioned to full-time online learning. To help combat the extra difficulties associated with such unprecedented, abrupt, and expansive schooling adaptations faced by teachers, students, parents, and administrations, the Department of Education (DOE) granted schools nationwide the ability to request a one-year waiver of the ESSA’s standardized testing requirements. As the pandemic and its societal effects continued alongside initial reports of related, widespread education losses, lawmakers in several states called for the DOE to grant this waiver for the 2020–1 school year as well, but this blanket policy was not followed again. Instead, the department issued guidance stipulating that while standardized testing would resume, schools had the opportunity to request requirement modifications in areas such as accountability, test length, and the number of tests given. While some approved of this decision and others were critical, it was universally noted that the complications of the pandemic had brought issues in education such as standardized testing to the fore once more.

The pandemic also accelerated a shift, already underway at some universities, away from standardized tests such as the SAT being used as a key factor in college admissions in the US. Due to pandemic-related disruptions, a number of schools, including the University of California system as well as Harvard University, Brown University, Yale University, and some other elite US universities, either dropped or paused their requirement of standardized test scores. By late 2022, according to the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest), over 1,800 US colleges and universities, or 80 percent of institutions granting bachelor's degrees in the US, no longer required students to submit standardized test scores in order to be considered for admission; some of these schools, including those in the University of California system, had gone as far as adopting a test-blind admissions policy, meaning standardized test scores would not be considered even if they were submitted as part of a student's application.

Other developments also led to speculation that some universities would continue to rely less on test scores in their admissions decisions. Perhaps most notably, in June 2023, the Supreme Court issued decisions in two related cases (Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina (UNC)) and struck down race-based affirmative action policies in college admissions as unconstitutional. Some observers predicted that colleges and universities, no longer able to explicitly consider race as a factor in admissions, would rely less on standardized test scores as part of an effort to maintain a diverse student body and address racial inequities in college admissions. While some groups viewed this shift away from standardized testing in positive terms and felt it made higher education admissions more equitable and accessible, as well as more accommodating to students affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, others criticized this move and felt it perpetuated other forms of inequity. As the 2020s wore on, some education officials cautioned that dropping test requirements may have harmed low-income students who had been able to distinguish themselves through the strength of their standardized test scores.

Despite many colleges and universities dropping or suspending standardized test requirements during the early 2020s, by 2024 this trend showed signs of slowing down. By April 2024 a number of prominent universities, including Dartmouth College, Harvard University, and Yale University, had reversed their earlier decisions and announced plans to once again require applicants to submitted standardized test scores. While many universities retained test-optional or test-blind admissions policies at that time, proponents of standardized testing pointed to new research which indicated that test-optional admissions policies may have hurt low-income students. In January 2024 economists affiliated with Opportunity Insights, a research group based at Harvard, published a study that showed how test scores could serve as a helpful tool for identifying lower-income students and students from underrepresented populations, particularly those who attended high schools with fewer resources, who had high academic potential and would be more likely to succeed in college. Studies such as these, as well as decisions by certain universities to reinstate standardized test requirements, further complicated discussions around the usefulness and fairness of using test scores as a factor in college admissions.

These essays and any opinions, information or representations contained therein are the creation of the particular author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of EBSCO Information Services.

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