Standardize testing in elementary students

Marley Eve McBride

Standardize testing seems to keep starting earlier in grades; now students in kindergarten must take standardize testing. Does frequent and early testing really provide useful information? One thing we know is the effect it has on students before, during, and after standardize testing. The reason we standardize test is to see progress and measure students on their performance, and to compare different schools. The state believes giving the same test to everyone in the same grade is equal or fair, but it is not. Just like every student in that grade does not wear the same size shoes, every student learns, test, and performs differently. Standardize testing cause so much stress on students to do well because if they do not it defines them for the next year or many years. Not doing well on those test can keep a student from being able to be in the gifted classes because of their scores. Standardize testing should not be used to measured students’ progress when there are other options. With standardize testing in Elementary students, we must ask what effects it may have on elementary students and whether there a better ways we can measure our students without standardize testing.

• Marley McBride graduated in May 2023 with a BS in Interdisciplinary Studies. Her area of focus was Studies in Early Childhood with Special Needs.