Standardized Tests: The Good, the Bad, and the Complicated

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Standardized Tests: The Good, the Bad, and the Complicated

Educational Psychology · Chapter 8: Assessment, Testing, and Making Sense of ResultsSection 8.9 · lesson 78 of 1009 min · free with a free account

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In this lesson

The good, the bad, and why the argument is really about use.

  • Trace standardized testing from the Army Alpha to today
  • State the legitimate benefits of standardized data
  • Name the serious criticisms and who they fall on
  • Use standardized data responsibly in a school

Transcript

Everything said in the video, section by section (1,132 words). Read along, or search it.

Assessment, Testing, and Making Sense of Results

Standardized Tests

Almost nobody in educational measurement argues that we should never test. That is not what the argument about standardized testing is about. The argument is about what a score should be allowed to decide. This section works through both sides of that properly. We start with the history, which begins outside education entirely. Then the stated purposes of standardized testing. Then the strongest case for it, which is genuinely strong. Then four serious limitations, which are also genuine. And finally four rules for using score data responsibly. Watch for one recurring point throughout the section. The same score can be good evidence or a harmful verdict. What changes is not the number. It is what gets hung on it.

Origins

From Army Recruits to College Admissions

Large-scale standardized testing in the United States has military origins. It stretches back to the Army Alpha and Beta tests. Those were developed during the First World War. Their purpose was to classify military recruits. In education, the College Board's SAT arrived in nineteen twenty-six. It was originally the Scholastic Aptitude Test. Later it became the Scholastic Assessment Test. The Iowa Tests of Basic Skills launched in nineteen thirty-five. Notice where the technology actually came from. The first mass application was military classification. Education borrowed the instrument, rather than inventing it.

Expansion

Three Forces That Made Testing Universal

The mid-twentieth century saw an explosion in standardized testing. Three quite different pressures drove that expansion. First, expanding access to higher education. More applicants meant more sorting, and sorting needs a common measure. Second, Cold War anxiety about academic achievement. Specifically, achievement relative to Soviet rivals. Third, and this one gets forgotten, the civil rights movement. It demanded objective measures of educational equity. That third force is worth pausing on. Standardized testing was also demanded by advocates for equity. As a way to make inequality visible, and undeniable. It is not purely a tool of the status quo, whatever else it is.

Purposes

What Standardized Testing Is Supposed to Do

The stated purposes of standardized testing are multiple. Providing comparable data across schools and districts. Identifying students who need additional support. Informing curriculum alignment. Tracking achievement trends over time. And supporting college admissions and scholarship decisions. Standardized tests can serve all of those purposes effectively. But three conditions have to hold at once. The test must be well designed. It must have been thoroughly validated. And it must be interpreted appropriately. Failure of any one of the three undoes the other two.

The Real Argument

Not Whether, But How

So where does the controversy actually come from? Not from the existence of standardized testing itself. It comes from three specific things. The uses to which test scores are put. The weight assigned to them in consequential decisions. And the inequities embedded in their design and administration. That distinction should change how you argue about this. Should we test at all is not a live question in the field. Almost nobody in measurement is asking it. The live question is narrower and much harder. What should this particular score be allowed to decide?

The Case For

The Only Comparable Data There Is

Take the case in favor seriously first, because it is serious. Proponents argue that standardized testing provides the only comparable data. Reliable, comparable data across diverse educational contexts. Consider what you cannot know without it. Whether students in a rural district achieve at the same level as students in an affluent suburban district. Or whether a new curriculum is producing measurable gains at all. Those questions have no answer without a common instrument. And standardized data have done something else historically. They have documented and addressed systemic inequities. Disaggregated scores revealed achievement gaps by race, income and language. Those revelations fueled important policy interventions.

The Case Against

Four Serious Limitations

Now the criticisms, and there are four serious ones. First, these tests measure only a narrow slice of what matters. They typically measure declarative knowledge and procedural skills. They struggle to assess creativity, and collaboration. And critical thinking in complex contexts. And social-emotional competencies, which matter for life success. Second, cultural and linguistic bias is embedded in test items. That disadvantages students from non-dominant backgrounds. Third, test anxiety disproportionately affects some students. Particularly those from high-stress environments. And fourth, teaching to the test narrows the curriculum. That undermines the breadth of education students actually receive.

Six Instruments

Purpose, Stakes, and the Concern Attached

Six standardized instruments, with the concern attached to each. The SAT and ACT serve college admissions and scholarships. High stakes, with concerns about predictive validity and about bias. State standards tests serve accountability and proficiency reporting. High stakes, and the concern is teaching to the test. The Iowa Assessments measure achievement against norms. Medium stakes, with a narrow skill scope. NAEP monitors national trends, at low stakes. It reports no individual scores, so it cannot inform individual plans. That limitation is also what makes it trustworthy for trends. AP exams carry high stakes, with concerns about access inequities. And PISA and TIMSS compare internationally, at the policy level. Their concern is cultural translation across very different systems.

Key Idea

Quality of Test, and Quality of Use

This is the idea to carry out of the section. A standardized test is only as valuable as two things. Its validity evidence, and the appropriateness of its use. Take scores from a well-validated test, used appropriately. That is, used as one data point among many. Those scores can support excellent educational decisions. Now take exactly the same scores, and use them differently. As the sole basis for teacher evaluation, or grade retention. Or as the sole basis for closing a school. That is a misuse of measurement, harming students and educators alike. Nothing about the numbers changed between those two paragraphs. Only what was hung on them changed.

Classroom Example

Reading Past the Average

Here is a school leader using score data the right way. A middle school principal reviews standardized reading scores. They are for the incoming seventh grade class. The average sits at the fifty-second percentile. That is close to the national average, and easy to file away as fine. But she looks past the average, and finds something else. Twenty-eight percent of students scored below the twenty-fifth percentile. And they disproportionately came from families qualifying for free or reduced lunch. Now watch what she does not do with that finding. She does not treat it as a reason to expect lower performance. She uses it to target additional reading support resources. Literacy coaches, and intervention groups, before the school year begins.

Responsible Use

Four Rules for Handling Score Data

So how should standardized data be used responsibly? Four rules cover most situations. Use standardized data as a starting point, never an endpoint. Triangulate with classroom data and teacher observations. And with actual student work. Disaggregate by subgroup, to identify equity concerns. And never use a single test score for a major decision. A major decision about a student's academic career, that is. The reason for that care is the authority these scores carry. That authority can either serve students or harm them. Misuse leads to tracking, and to stigma. And to self-fulfilling prophecies, which are the hardest to undo.

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FAQ

Questions students ask us

About Standardized Tests: The Good, the Bad, and the Complicated

Where did standardized testing come from?
Large-scale standardized testing in the United States began with the Army Alpha and Beta tests, developed during World War I to classify military recruits. Education then borrowed the approach: the College Board's SAT arrived in 1926 and the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills in 1935. Testing expanded rapidly in the mid-twentieth century, driven by wider college access, Cold War worries and civil rights demands for equity data.
What are the benefits of standardized testing?
The main benefit of standardized testing is reliable, comparable data across very different schools and districts. It can show whether a rural district achieves at the same level as an affluent suburb, or whether a new curriculum produces measurable gains. Disaggregated scores have also revealed achievement gaps by race, income and language, which fueled important policy interventions.
What are the main criticisms of standardized tests?
The main criticisms are that standardized tests measure a narrow slice of learning, carry cultural and linguistic bias, trigger test anxiety, and encourage teaching to the test. They mostly capture declarative knowledge and procedural skills, not creativity, collaboration or social-emotional skills. Bias and anxiety weigh most on students from non-dominant backgrounds and high-stress environments, and heavy test prep narrows the curriculum.
How should schools use standardized test scores responsibly?
Schools should treat standardized scores as a starting point, not an endpoint. Good practice triangulates scores with classroom data, teacher observations and student work, disaggregates results by subgroup to spot equity concerns, and avoids basing a major decision about a student on a single score. Used as one data point among many, scores can guide support; used alone, they can lead to tracking and stigma.

About the Educational Psychology course

How many college credits is Educational Psychology?
Educational Psychology (Psychology 120) carries a NCCRS credit recommendation for 3 semester credits. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.
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