Andria Rhodes

AP English Language and Composition

AP English Language and Composition

Reading Time: 15 minutes
Suggested Writing Time: 40 minutes

Standardized tests almost determine one’s future. Everyone has to take standardized tests to
continue through their education. The most commonly known standardized tests are the SAT and
ACT. Those standardized tests are based on trying to determine the student’s intelligence. With
these tests, schools are looking at the scores the student receives to determine the success of the
student in the future. Many people are questioning if the standardized tests are needed if they are
an accurate representation of the student’s academic intelligence and success.

Carefully read the following six sources, including the introductory information for each source.
Then synthesize information from at least three of the sources and incorporate it into a coherent,
well-developed essay that defends, challenges, or qualifies the claim that argues a clear position
on standardized test scores accurately determining academic intelligence and success.

Make sure that your argument is central; use the sources to illustrate and support your reasoning.
Avoid merely summarizing the sources. Indicate clearly which sources you are drawing from,
whether throughout direct quotation, paraphrase, or summary. You may cite the sources as
Source A, Source B, etc., or by using the descriptions in parentheses.

Source A (Popham)
Source B (The Room 241 Team)
Source C (Heller)
Source D (Schaeffer)
Source E (Hudlow)
Source F (Template Lab)

The following passage is excerpted from an article about why standardized tests don't measure
educational quality.
 Source A
Popham, James W. “Why Standardized Tests Don't Measure Educational Quality.” ASCD,
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Mar. 1999, 12 April 2018,
www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar99/vol56/num06/Why-Standardized-
Tests-Don't-Measure-Educational-Quality.aspx.

It's also possible to identify students' relative strengths and weaknesses within a given subject
area if there are enough test items to do so. For instance, if a 45-item standardized test in
mathematics allocates 15 items to basic computation, 15 items to geometry, and 15 items to
algebra, it might be possible to get a rough idea of a student's relative strengths and weaknesses
in those three realms of mathematics. More often than not, however, these tests contain too few
items to allow meaningful within-subject comparisons of students' strengths and weaknesses…

Standardized achievement tests do a wonderful job of supplying the evidence needed to make
norm-referenced interpretations of students' knowledge and/or skills in relationship to those of
students nationally. The educational usefulness of those interpretations is considerable. Given the
size of the content domains to be represented and the limited number of items that the test
developers have at their disposal, standardized achievement tests are really quite remarkable.
They do what they are supposed to do. But standardized achievement tests should not be used to
evaluate the quality of education. That's not what they are supposed to do…

For several important reasons, standardized achievement tests should not be used to judge the
quality of education. The overarching reason that students' scores on these tests do not provide
an accurate index of educational effectiveness is that any inference about educational quality
made on the basis of students' standardized achievement test performances is apt to be invalid…

The following passage is excerpted from an article about standardized tests showing students’
abilities.

Arguments in favor of standardized testing:

• Measure of achievement for college readiness
For many students, standardized testing provides them with a valuable outlet to set themselves
apart from their high school. Tests like the SAT and the ACT give students the chance to show
 Source B
The Room 241 Team. “Do Standardized Tests Show an Accurate View of Students’ Abilities?”
Concordia University-Portland, Concordia University-Portland, 21 June 2012, 12 April 2018,
education.cu-portland.edu/blog/news/do-standardized-test-show-an-accurate-view-of-students-
abilities/.

that, even if their high school didn’t offer a large number of Advanced Placement courses or
extracurricular activities, they’re still bright and motivated students with a lot of potential. On the
other hand, students enrolled in highly competitive high schools get the chance to demonstrate
that they are intelligent and qualified, even if being surrounded by a pool of similarly talented
students prevents them from being in the top 10 percent of their class…

• Consistent assessment
In the classroom, every teacher grades differently, with different standards for evaluation. When
all admissions committees can see is the overall GPAs, nuances between teachers with lower and
higher expectations are lost. As such, standardized testing acts as somewhat of an equalizing
force, providing colleges with the only relatively objective data point with which to compare
prospective students…

Arguments against standardized testing practices:

• Teaching to the test
With so much riding on the results, teachers often feel compelled to teach to the tests. In some
schools, less time is being spent on the sciences, social studies, and the arts to prepare students to
take the tests in math, reading and writing.
Some observers have found that teaching informed by the test focuses the curriculum on
essential content and skills, eliminates activities that don’t produce learning gains, and motivates
teachers and students to exert more effort…

• Questions and answers

Standardized tests feature multiple-choice or open-ended questions; some tests combine both.
Because answers are scored by machine, multiple-choice tests generally have high reliability.
Open-ended questions ask students to write a short answer or an extended response.
Critics say multiple-choice tests are too simplistic, while advocates note that technology
improvements feature items that demand more critical thinking before choosing a response.
Open-ended questions allow students to display knowledge and apply critical thinking skills, but
most require human readers…
The following passage is excerpted from an article about standardized tests not being the best
indicator of success.

Even though the public supports testing and accountability, many worry that there is excessive
testing, burdening teachers and students. In addition to the high-stakes assessments, some
districts are administering benchmark assessments periodically to monitor the effect of
instruction before the state tests are administered in the spring…

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, “The SAT is not designed as an
indicator of student achievement, but rather as an aid for predicting how well students will do in
 Source D
C
Hambrick,
Heller, “Standardized
Don.David Z., and Christopher
Tests Not Chabris. “IQ Tests
Always Best Indicator
and of
theSuccess.”
SAT Measure
Penn Something
State University,
Real
PennConsequential.”
and State News, 23 Slate
Aug. Magazine,
2010, 12 April
14 Apr.
2018,
2014, 12 April 2018,
www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/04/
news.psu.edu/story/165456/2010/08/23/standardized-tests-not-always-best-indicator-success.
what_do_sat_and_iq_tests_measure_general_intelligence_predicts_school_and.html.

college.” On the contrary, FairTest.org, the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, notes that
the exam is “designed to predict first-year college grades -- it is not validated to predict grades
beyond the freshman year, graduation rates, pursuit of a graduate degree, or for placement or
advising purposes. However, according to research done by the tests' manufacturers, class rank
and/or high school grades are still both better predictors of college performance than the SAT
I.”…

“In a realistic situation, you would never be trapped alone in a room without resources,” she said.
“They may test whether or not you remember geometry from 10th grade, but they don’t have any
real bearing on someone’s success in business school.” …

The following passage is excerpted from a magazine about standardized test predicting success.

The SAT does predict success in college—not perfectly, but relatively well, especially given that
it takes just a few hours to administer. And, unlike a “complex portrait” of a student’s life, it can
be scored in an objective way. (In a recent New York Times op-ed, the University of New
Hampshire psychologist John D. Mayer aptly described the SAT’s validity as an “astonishing
achievement.”) In a study published in Psychological Science, University of Minnesota
researchers Paul Sackett, Nathan Kuncel, and their colleagues investigated the relationship
between SAT scores and college grades in a very large sample: nearly 150,000 students from 110
colleges and universities. SAT scores predicted first-year college GPA about as well as high
school grades did, and the best prediction was achieved by considering both factors…
 Source E
Hudlow, Andy. “Standardized Testing Is Not an Accurate Measure of Intelligence.” Knight
Errant, Benilde-St. Margaret's School, 14 Jan. 2014, 12 April 2018,
bsmknighterrant.org/2014/01/14/standardized-testing-is-not-an-accurate-measure-of-
intelligence/.

Furthermore, contrary to popular belief, it’s not just first-year college GPA that SAT scores
predict. In a four-year study that started with nearly 3,000 college students, a team of Michigan
State University researchers led by Neal Schmitt found that test score (SAT or ACT—whichever
the student took) correlated strongly with cumulative GPA at the end of the fourth year. If the
students were ranked on both their test scores and cumulative GPAs, those who had test scores in
the top half (above the 50th percentile, or median) would have had a roughly two-thirds chance
of having a cumulative GPA in the top half. By contrast, students with bottom-half SAT scores
would be only one-third likely to make it to the top half in GPA…

The following passage is excerpted from an article about standardized testing measuring
intelligence.

The first of many flaws with the ACT and SAT is that entire subjects of the high school
curriculum are simply brushed to the wayside. Social Studies, History, and for all intents and
purposes, Science, are ignored, while topics such as advanced mathematics and English are
elevated far above their real world relevance. Science, while technically included in the ACT, is
reduced to reading complicated graphs and interpreting their results––a tiny portion of what the
field of science really amounts to…

Along with disregarding major mandatory high school topics, the tests also brush aside the
multitude of electives that students could be strong in. Business, art, theology, engineering, and
music are all amongst the subjects that are not included in the ACT or SAT…
 Source F
Khan, Razib. “On SAT, ACT, IQ, and Other Psychometric Test Correlations.” Random Critical
Analysis, 18 June 2015, randomcriticalanalysis.wordpress.com/2015/06/18/on-sat-act-iq-and-
other-psychometric-test-correlations/.

Furthermore, the weakness of the ACT and SAT shines through with it’s unfamiliar format.
These tests are different from any other test any high school student has taken before. There are
no true or false, there are no short answers, there are no maps to label, there are multiple choice
questions, and that’s it…

The goal of standardized testing is not to find out how well you think through problems, or if you
can express your opinions, or create a presentation, the goal is to find out what you were able to
memorize…

The following chart is excerpted from an article about SAT and IQ correlations.