Common Myths About Standardized Testing

MYTH: Testing for accountability is popular only to trendy politicians and the businesses that create and administer them.

This is blatantly untrue, although it is a charge leveled by a vocal but tiny segment of our society that makes up the so-called "testing backlash." Extensive national public opinion research commissioned by ETS over the past year proves conclusively that an overwhelming majority of Americans demand that public schools receive increased federal funding and that they be held to strict standards of accountability. The public also believes that such accountability can be achieved, at least in part, through the appropriate use of fair assessments.

MYTH: American students are under a lot of pressure already and are even more stressed out at the prospect of increased testing and higher academic standards.

Not true. According to a recent Public Agenda poll, Reality Check 2002, most students say that they can handle the testing as well as higher hurdles for promotion and graduation. Very few seem apprehensive and most agree that they could work harder in school. When you raise standards, people generally rise to the occasion and embrace the challenge.

MYTH: The increased emphasis on mandatory examinations will lead to instructors "teaching to the test."

The recent Reality Check 2002 poll reports that while this is a real concern, only about one-quarter of teachers say they are actually doing it. The true aim is for teachers to teach the curriculum to which standards are tied. Agreed-upon goals of academic accomplishment and achievement in all subjects will be set by the states. Tests will help measure the schools' progress in meeting those goals.

Tests are best viewed not as barriers, but rather as opportunities to demonstrate what our children know and what they can do. Tests are not problems; they can supply us with information to help solve problems in our schools. That's why they are valuable tools. Because the need for education reform in our country definitely is not a myth.

From: Debunking Myths About Standardized Testing by Kurt M. Landgraf, President & CEO of Educational Testing Service