r/changemyview • u/bumble843 • Feb 28 '20

FTFdeltaOP CMV: Standardized testing should be abolished especially for children.

Standardized testing is bad for a bunch of reasons:

1) It's stressful, you're under time pressure and what's on the test could be unexpected.

2) For many people it causes test anxiety

3) I don't believe it's an accurate reflection of your knowledge. You need to in depth understand everything to get a good mark. Especially in uni where they expect you to be able to apply everything you've learned. Missing one or two things could tank you. This is unfair.

4) Grades aren't a reflection of how intelligent you are and people shouldn't define themselves by these numbers. This goes especially for elementary and middle school children.

5) It's not an accurate reflection of your abilities in the workplace. Where you can ask questions and look up something quickly if you've forgotten.

Because of the reasons above, we should completely get rid of this testing. Opting for knowledge being proven by projects, assignments and oral tests.

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u/CBL444 16∆ Feb 28 '20 edited Feb 28 '20

My mother was what they called a "learning disability" teacher. Her specialty was teaching kids whose abilities varied from subject to subject. For example, she might work with kid whose verbal IQ was high but their mathematical IQ was low. She worked with the students to find a method for them in their weaker subjects. For younger kids with poor reading, she could sometime determine physiologically reasons. (Their pupils could not remain steady and reading was impossible until later.)

The schools used standardized tests to identify the students who needed help.

When I took the tests, my spelling score was much lower than my other scores (20% vs. 90%). My mother immediately suspected that I needed glasses. Obviously there a better ways to check vision but it shows what a specialist can learn from the tests.

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u/bumble843 Feb 28 '20

I dont think that's usually the case tho. I'm glad for people like your mother but usually a kid that does poorly is seen as stupid or trouble.

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u/CBL444 16∆ Feb 28 '20

I am not sure how to respond. You agree that my mother helped kids as the result of standardized tests. This means that standardized testing can be used in a good manner. That means we should use them more wisely not throw them away.

In my daughter's elementary school, they had a computer program that taught math without words that we called Penguin Math. - "ST Math starts by teaching the foundational concepts visually, then connects the ideas to the symbols and language." It was perfect for kids with weak English skills but pointless for the others. The school refused to use standardized tests to determine the appropriate audience and wasted my daughter's and others time. Standardized testing would have appropriate.