Standardized testing has come under attack by academicians, parents, teachers, and some politicians. However, for the majority of Americans the subject of standardized testing
remains an esoteric and vague subject, little understood and better left to the professionals . . . but, absolutely necessary. By contrast, the professionals do not agree on either the necessity or the value of standardized testing.
The issue of standardized testing is almost inseparable from the discussion of standards, at least in the United States.
When Americans refer to "standards", we intend to identify
exactly what it is that we expect students to learn in school:
How many languages should they learn and at what level of
fluency? Which math concepts should they master and at which
grade levels? We aspire to high standards and to even higher
student test scores. We are extremely distraught when reports
indicate that today's students are less competent than the
students of a generation ago, or, even worse, have test scores
lower than our international neighbors.
"Standards" has become a politically loaded word. It has been suggested that we replace it with the word "essentials: "essentials...would define a common academic core which all students would be required to master" (Cunningham, 1999, p. 1). Cunningham (1999) continues, "we already know what excellence is just look at certain private and public schools that are successful in preparing a large proportion of their students for college or careers," but, he argues, "what we don't have in America, is equality; many schools are poor, others are
The standards movement is an attempt to enforce equality" (p. 2).
The first standardized test would seem to be the SAT, which was introduced in 1925 "as an experimental alternative to the written entrance examinations known as the College Boards." By 1940, "when wartime travel restrictions made it impossible to assemb...