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Standardized Testing

The following paper is a literature review of standardized testing in general, of standardized testing of reading in particular, and of the Harcourt Brace Achievement test specifically. To date, limited research exists on the advantages and disadvantages of this achievement measurement tool. A conclusion will point out the need for future research concentrating on the efficacy of this test in determining student performance and comparing it with other well-established and highly utilized measurement tools used in schools today.

Standardized testing has been popular in the United States for a few decades. Despite its popularity the efficacy of standardized testing remains a controversial debate from parents to teachers, to school district officials and political figures both state- wide and federally. Standardized tests originated to answer "the need of teachers and principals for a way to ascertain how their students were doing, and if they were doing as well as they could" (Baresic & Gilman, 2001).

In the 1980s, political concerns and the problems identified in A Nation at Risk (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983) generated uneasiness that even academically talented students were failing to reach their fullest potential. These fears were also fueled by international comparisons of mathematics and science achievement that showed that U.S. high school students were lagging behind those in most other industrialized nations (Stedman, 1997). Thus, political attention was focused not only on the barriers to the academic success of economically disadvantaged students, but on creating more effective schools for all students.

One popular approach was to increase external scrutiny of students' academic progress and, in some cases, to hold actors (such as students or schools) accountable for low levels of achievement. Albeit controversial, these assessment and accountability practices provide comparable measures of

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Standardized Testing. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 04:07, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1706791.html