Established, yet rarely reformed, are the formal standardized tests of the 21st century education system. They are a canvas, painted with the deceiving nature of a promised skill for those who practice, but a beacon of failure for those who do not. Standardized testing is utilized as a method to provide schools and officials with an objective measure of the performance of promising students. Although disguised to be serious, standardized tests find their roots in judgment, truly held as a way to hold a public school accountable for its supposed ‘failure” of effective teaching/instructing students. Once a symbol of intellect, but now shedding its true colors of hypocrisy.
A contraption formulated for those with benefits; standardized tests have a standing history of mere bias, with individuals who are white and male, also the known creators of these tests, score higher than most others. This bias is shut down with the word of “practice” thrown around, but education has been restricted and still continues to be. White males have always had an advantage to their access to education, guaranteeing them better scores over those who are not.
Standardized Testing: Its History and Harm
First an insight on one’s preparation for college, but eventually transformed into scrutiny upon social status and power. Standardized tests originally faced its beginning with Aflred Binet, a French psychologist who used them as a measure of intelligence. In 1890, they were proposed as a national college entrance exam by the president of Harvard College and have continued to be used along that path.
Continuing along the path of academic achievement, standardized tests are still held in high regard. Many use it as a testament to their intelligence, others hold it as a symbol of “unfairness” or “bias”. A 2015 survey conducted on more than 1500 NEA members who taught different grades and subjects, 70% of these individuals did not hold the upstanding belief that standardized state assessments for their students are developmentally beneficial for them. Weeks prior to such critical exams, students will face health/physiological harm. Their sleep schedules, eating habits, and mood swings all come face-to-face with subsequent killers, ones that demolish their minds over such worry for an exam held on an unnecessarily high pedestal.
SimplySkilled: Steering Away From Inequity
As an organization with a motive to allow everyone their fundamental right to an education, inequity is what we work against. Workbooks are formulated for practice, growth, and a range of numerous skills for students with talents that span the world.
SimplySkilled workbooks face no limit; topics covered discuss basics such as English, Math, Science, and History, along with topics of the arts. Students who utilize these will not face the binding questions that standardized tests offer as an indication of “success”. SimplySkilled is a path down one’s personal success, it is not defined by a mere score based on bias. It is defined by their talent.